I just read a refreshing point of view on a subject I love, from one of my testing heroes, Janet Gregory.
Before proceeding, please take your time to read her point of view.
I use it
I have been using the Shift Left and even Shift Right terminology, as we say in Dublin, for donkeys years. I am not sure who I heard it from, I seem to vaguely recall a conversation with Gojko Adzic, or was it Dan North? I am getting more and more forgetful, whomever I pick I am very likely wrong, so forget about where i heard it from. and let’s move on.
I love it, it’s leaner!
I have to say I love Shift Left, it has helped me and my teams understand where we needed to take our attention to. In my mind it was never only about redistributing testing activities, but it brought great emphasis on prevention over detection, going towards a leaner testing, some people like to call #NoTesting.
I am all for prevention and I was always going to end up with the Shift Left party.
I understand
Now, reading what Janet says, I understand perfectly where she is coming from and there is no denying that the continuous infinity loops models describe the new reality much better than Shift + direction does.
Was it always like this?
Software development today is certainly non linear 100% agree.
Now correct me if I am wrong here, but waterfall is linear.
The water goes in one direction and there is no going back unless we are on some planet with different gravitational laws, which would be pretty cool to see now that i think about it!
The key is “what” are you shifting from?
My take is that, maybe, in the early days, testers suffering with a bad waterfall hungover, would have understood Shift Left with more ease than if presented with the new continuous models (that in fact, didn’t exist yet).
We are improving
Think about being a waterfall tester in the mid late 200x. You are in a room and I talk to you about how to think and use Shift left. Somebody else maybe Janet, talks to you of either of the (excellent) continuous models we have today. What do you reckon you are going to do next?
If I had to guess, I’d say you’d Shift left. It is easier to understand if all you know is waterfall.
There is a left, a right and a centre in waterfall and people get it when you ask them to go left.
It was the first step to move from waterfall to agile, at least for me.
I see the continuous models as the reflection of the growing maturity of modern testers.
We are ready
We are now ready, bring the new continuous models on and let’s leave the shifting to rally drivers.
The models are good now, because testers are ready to understand, embrace and apply them.
| Published on Java Code Geeks with permission by Augusto Evangelisti, partner at our JCG program. See the original article here: Are we shifting left or in a continuous loop? Opinions expressed by Java Code Geeks contributors are their own. |
