I’m Thankful for Software Testers
As the holiday season gets into swing, many of us will be traveling, shopping, eating and enjoying other seasonal pastimes that are, for better or worse, now aided by pretty sophisticated software.
That’s why I give thanks for my fellow quality assurance and testing pros. They work behind the scenes to improve and debug the apps that so many of us now rely on for holiday fun, convenience and safety.
For example, if you’re one of the 46 million people that the AAA says will take a 50-plus mile drive this Thanksgiving weekend, you might use a GPS navigation app to find your destination.
Or maybe you’re one of the nearly 25 million Americans expected to fly during the Thanksgiving travel period. Your plane’s in-flight entertainment app or a mobile tablet will allow you to watch a movie at 30,000 feet.
Buying the holiday meal? Point-of-sale software in most grocery stores lets you speed through the checkout. (Sorry to report, though, that the average price of a Thanksgiving dinner is up 37 cents from last year.)
As for online shopping, we’ll spend $2.6 billion on CyberMonday, say analysts, a task made safer and easier thanks to anti-virus programs and mobile shopping apps.
If you’re like me, you’ll also have your smartphone handy to check emails, make calls and text your friends. You might even be one of the 12,000 or so who call the Butterball Turkey Talk-line on Thanksgiving day.
It’s easy to take the quality and reliability of all of these amazing apps and devices for granted. But I’m thankful to all of those who make these innovations possible — and who keep them defect free.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Mike Cooper is Chief Quality Officer and VP of Quality Assurance and Testing for Healthcare IT Leaders. He previously led QAT teams and initiatives at HP Software, T-Mobile USA and Equifax.
