ICT Influencer of the Year

We, the authors of the ACT2LEAD book, Kari Kakkonen, and Marko Rytkönen, were given a joint recognition of ICT Influencer of the Year (Vuoden ICT-vaikuttaja) by Tivia ry.

Over the last few years, we've been talking together about the need for leadership for software testing and quality engineering as a larger concept. We published a book, ACT2LEAD, highlighting that software testing can't stay at the team level; rather, even the C-level needs to keep their eyes open about the need for software testing and quality, also at the organizational level. The books in Finnish and English, and the numerous talks about these concepts at companies, conferences, and universities both in Finland and abroad, were certainly the main reason why we got this award now.

The award was given at the Teknologia2025 trade fair in Messukeskus, Helsinki.

We are proud to represent our Tivia association FiSTB and ISTQB, where FiSTB belongs, our employers Gofore and Hidden Trail, and our own book companies Dragons Out Oy and Marko Rytkönen Oy.

So why test leadership - why do people think it is important?

All too often, the testers feel that they are not understood; they don’t get enough time for testing, there’s not enough budget, they are not trained, their reports are not understood, and they are not appreciated. At the same time, their employer may be facing customer complaints, showstopper defects in production, or overcharging by its subcontractors. There should be more and better testing, right? Testing can be one-sided and ineffective.

The situation is, of course, not always as black-and-white, but all too often some of these elements are at play. The reason for these challenges is often a lack of understanding of what software testing and testing leadership really are within the company's management. Testers and developers may be very proficient in testing, but they don’t receive sufficient support from the company to do their work well. Testing may be managed only at the team level. There’s a lack of an organizational-level vision of what good testing looks like.

The management needs to learn what testing is and use that knowledge to empower their organization to make software testing a serious team effort. There are several key factors you need to consider if you are leading software testing. You can’t delegate it all. This leadership comes from the company's board, the CEO, the CIO, department heads, testing heads, project managers, product owners, test managers, or anyone who needs high-quality software for their business. They need good quality testing, too. The key things are:

• You have to integrate software testing into the software development lifecycle. It needs to be thought through at every step, not just as a single phase. Your company-level strategy should guide towards this, leaving implementation choices to team autonomy.
• You have to understand the context of your business and the context of the software development and testing. Then you must tailor the testing to the context.
• You have to create visibility into the quality of testing practices, the test results, and how those results are used to improve the quality of the software. This transparency will help everyone in the organization.
• You have to include two different testing approaches: automated testing and human testing. Quick delivery and feedback cycles are only possible with automation. To find most of the defects, you need human creativity and skill to explore the software.
• You have to use testing to learn about the product, its quality, its users, and software development and testing. Learning what could be better should lead to making things better through continuous improvement or other means.
• You have to create a culture of quality, tolerance for failure and learning from failures, communication, sharing a common vision, and tasks that include software testing. The culture of enforcing actions enables high-quality software testing. You need to empower the team.
• You have to take product risks and customer value into account. Understanding different usage scenarios and analyzing them to identify potential risks enables you to adapt your software testing to customer value and risks. Mapping customer value and experience is crucial. You can test the risky and valuable areas more, better, and from multiple angles.
• You have to make your testing diverse: always test with multiple people, multiple test approaches, multiple test types, functional and non-functional testing, etc. Focusing on software testing from a single angle will leave gaps in your test coverage, thereby increasing risk. Diverse testing is the path to great quality. Diversity needs to be present in the company-level test strategy and in product-level test strategies and plans.