Article by Jason English, for Tricentis
Anyone involved in software delivery will tell you that automation – wherever possible – is an inherently good thing. But can a devotion to test automation for its own sake somehow throw our software lifecycle out of balance?
We’re all becoming acutely aware lately of the need for balance in assuring our own health, and the health of those we care about. We consume content from epidemiologists, nutritionists and personal trainers in search of this balance.
The performance of our body has a lot to do with achieving balance over the course of time. Controlling caloric intake is important for a diet, but you also need the right amounts of whole food fats and cholesterols for long-term success. Exercise is beneficial when training for a sport, but taking it to extremes without enough rest could actually weaken the body’s recovery ability and cause injuries in the field. You may need vitamin D and potassium to preventatively deal with an infection, but too much of these compounds could be dangerous.
That’s not even addressing our state of mind, which can either stabilize us, or produce the most destructive effects on our health, if suddenly subjected to undue mental stress.
Automation of builds, tests, deployments and observability are all beneficial for the health of our software – but only in moderation. We can replace most functional UI tests with automation for instance, but the need for some level of manual UAT and human verification will always remain.
If too much test automation is applied, at the least opportune times, for the wrong reasons, the software lifecycle – and with it, your business agility – will be pushed out of balance.
Read the entire article on Tricentis.com here.
