The Changing Role of Test

“Testday”
was Monday.  As with most test conferences, several talks were on “Moving
Quality Upstream.”  Any tester – or anyone interested in quality would probably
agree with the benefits of this concept.  I haven’t, however, seen many people
comment on what happens if quality actually does “move upstream.”  Many
development teams – and not just “agile” developers are beginning to write unit
tests. 

Engineering
organizations are beginning to fully understand the value of specifications and
testability.  What happens to the role of test when these things actually
happen widely and consistently?  What if accurate specifications are delivered
early, if code inspections and code reviews occur consistently, if developers
thoroughly unit test all of their code, and testability is built into the
product from day one? 

Some
would say that this makes the task of software testing easier – some would say
it makes it much more difficult (finding bugs is definitely no longer like
shooting fish in a barrel) – many others would say it makes the job more
interesting at the least. 

I would
imagine that test teams would (or could) focus more on metrics, analysis of
trends, and increasing efficiency.  Anyone have any other ideas or comments?