Beyond Testing: Becoming Part of the Innovation Machine

Testing, once a marginalized function at Google, is now an integral part of Google's innovation machine. Patrick Copeland describes how this vital transformation took place. As he was analyzing how to be more efficient and better align his testing team with the needs of the company, Patrick realized they had to move beyond "just testing" and become a force for change. His approach was based on five powerful principles: (1) Building feature factories rather than products, (2) Embedding testing at the grass roots level, (3) Solving problems of scale with technology, (4) Automating at the right level of abstraction, (5) Only doing what the team can do well. Learn how Google test teams used these principles to shift from a "service group" composed predominantly of exploratory testers to an "engineering group" with technical skills. Their focus became "delivering innovation" rather than "testing product." Learn how Patrick led a cultural shift where product teams saw testing and continuous improvement, not as alien concepts driven by someone else, but as a tool for them to meet their own goals of delivering features quickly and with fewer problems. Discover how you can incorporate the lessons of Google to make your test team a vital force for change.