Foreword by Sam Guckenheimer

This book tells the story of two companies, Contoso and Fabrikam. Over my thirty years in the software industry, I’ve seen lots of companies that work like Contoso. Fortunately, over the last decade, I’ve also seen more and more like Fabrikam.

There never has been a better time for software. We can now produce a better flow of value for our customers, with less waste and more transparency than we ever could before. This revolution has been driven largely from the bottom, by small, agile, fast-moving development teams at places like Fabrikam. It’s a global revolution, visible in places as unlike one another as Silicon Valley, Estonia, China, Brazil, and India.

Those of us in mature economies need to keep pace. Our supply chains are morphing into supply ecosystems. Software is no longer about designing everything to build; it’s about finding parts to reuse and rapidly experimenting with innovation—the one thing you can’t reuse or outsource. Every time you pick up your smartphone, you experience the benefits of this cycle.

Software testing needs to keep pace too. In the days of Contoso, we thought about minimizing "scrap and rework." Now at Fabrikam, we think of rapid experimentation and a continuous cycle of build-measure-learn. Testers are no longer the guys who catch stuff over the wall, but are full members of a multidisciplinary, self-organizing team. While their role at Contoso was defensive—do no harm to the customer, at Fabrikam it is offensive—anticipate the customer’s behavior and wishes and be the first and best advocates.

Welcome to testing at Fabrikam. It’s a lot more hectic around here, but it's also a lot more fun and rewarding.

Sam Guckenheimer
Redmond, Washington
May, 2012

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