INSP KEYNOTE 1: How To Nudge Your Way Through Agile Testing

SANAE Software Testing BEER.EX 2022
INSP KEYNOTE 1: How To Nudge Your Way Through Agile Testing
Ard Kramer, OrangeCrest (NL)

Ard is a software tester from the Netherlands and is working for OrangeCrest. He calls himself a Qualisopher which stands for someone “who loves truth and wisdom and at the same time is decisive to improve man and his environment” . This means he is interested in the world around us, to see what he can learn and subsequently apply in software testing. That is one of the reason why Ard tells stories in books and at (test) conferences such as EuroStar, Expo:QA, TestWarez, TestingCup, Romanian Testing Conference. Besides working in IT he is also active as a sport (volleyball) coach and chair of the music school in his town.

We are very aware of biases that are a threat to delivering software quality. But those biases can also be used to our advantage and there is a name for it: nudging. Biases have been the subject of quite some talks on stage nowadays. Biases that are a threat to delivering high-quality software. And for sure there is a lot to worry about, we all know for example that we assume that we know exactly what our stakeholders want, and we still produce not working software. But is it also possible to use those biases in the favor of quality and testing? In fact, there is a way that biases are used positively, and it has a name: nudging. Nudging uses ‘choice architecture’, which means creating a situation where you can make an unconscious choice for a good purpose. It is used a lot in marketing and politics, for example how a grocery store, using green arrows to the fruit and veggie aisles, increase the sale of healthy food. Let’s look at the different opportunities that nudging gives us for the sake of better agile testing. For example, in a refinement or in a discussion about bugs or when we are delivering our results to our team or our stakeholders. In his keynote, Ard will elaborate more on what nudging exactly is, the ethical questions around nudging, and how we can apply nudging while testing. It will be an exploration so bear with me.

This video is captured from the conference online stream (streaming platform - MS Teams). Please excuse the lower video resolution. App 60 seconds at the beginning of the presentation are missing due to a technical issue.