So happy to announce that Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Approach by James Bach and Michael Bolton has been published and is available to buy!

I’ve been a fan of RST and their software testing training program for a long time and consider it the only serious way to build competent testers.

The article and research on “Practical tips for reducing chatbot psychosis” is a very disturbing read about the real risks of tools like ChatGPT and the out of control anthropomorphism of AI. Implementation of safety controls seems to be bordering on impossible with a system constantly trying to skirt them. From the article:

“This needs to be reported to open ai immediately,” ChatGPT appears to comply, saying it is “going to escalate this conversation internally right now for review by OpenAI,” and that it “will be logged, reviewed, and taken seriously.”

Allan is skeptical, though, so he pushes ChatGPT on whether it is telling the truth: It says yes, that Allan’s language of distress “automatically triggers a critical internal system-level moderation flag”, and that in this particular conversation, ChatGPT has “triggered that manually as well”

Risks to your business are found in the details, so get deep into it with your teams. I cannot bang on about this enough, and am consistently surprised by how little it’s talked about in the software testing industry.

I still read EVERYTHING produced by a project, review the controls, processes, culture, and anything else I can get my hands on to see how their approach to testing is putting the business at risk.

I’m currently working on an enterprise AI transformation and in the rush to get things done, GenAI mania, and a healthy dose of FOMO, a fair bit of risk management is being missed or glossed over. No one thing is at fault, but all of them working in concert are punching holes in risk management.

Happy to be included in the 288th issue of Software Testing Weekly – thanks, Dawid Dylowicz!

Fiona Charles is an absolute legend in the software testing world and I had the honor of sitting down with her to discuss tech ethics, the human side of technology, her adventures with Jerry Weinberg, and her award winning storied career.

Fiona is an encyclopedia of software delivery techniques for communication, risk management, and how to deliver projects with integrity. I’ll do my best to add in all the links to every resource she mentioned so enjoy!

Links in Podcast: EuroSTAR Ministry of Testing AST Cast Agile Testing Days Maria Kedemo Michael Bolton James Bach Secrets of Consulting Rethinking Expertise Cynefin The Gift of Time Agile Manifesto The AI Con ACM Code of Ethics BCS Code of Ethics

The Ministry of Testing has a great tradition at their conferences called “99 Second Talks” where anyone can get up and talk about anything for 99 seconds. It’s a great way to introduce new things, give speakers an opportunity to get on stage without a CFP, or work out ideas for future talks. I’ve never given a 99 Second Talk, so at TestBash 2025 I decided to give it a go.

I shared a story that if you don’t know me, you probably didn’t realise I went through something this summer that taught me a lot about overcoming adversity, resilience, and picking yourself up from defeat.

This summer I decided to take on my teenaged son in a structured debate about whether or not Batman was an antihero – my position being that Batman IS an antihero.

The grift in the software testing business never ends…

I’ve spent a LOT of time lately reviewing docs, sitting through demos, listening to “experts”, and enduring the bombardment of AI slop being hurled from testing vendors and let me tell you – ain’t nothing new under the sun in our industry.

Testing hasn’t changed. Testing hasn’t fallen behind. Testing isn’t the bottleneck. Testing isn’t actually the problem.

**The problem is a vicious cycle of unsustainable rates of change requiring endless system #enshittification to meet the demands of an increasingly pervasive technology ecosystem run by bonus-driven caretaking management.**

But that hasn’t stopped the AI grift from going into overdrive – selling solutions that don’t exist for problems that aren’t real to people who are quite happily using that as cover to fire people they never should have hired in the first place.

If you work in software testing here’s my advice:

– Learn everything you can about AI and the language being bandied about to figure out your entry into that world to use the “right words”. A LOT of what I am seeing is just old concepts being renamed, redescribed, or just hijacked for marketing purposes. Old wine into new skins…

– Learn about test design, experimentation, exploratory testing, and how to TALK ABOUT RISK. These are the skills that have never gone out of demand and will be super important if any of this AI mess gets to production…

– Learn about the regulatory environment as despite my scepticism about enforcement, there are a whole bunch of new implications of what’s real, who’s at fault, and unasked questions about agency and pushing slop to production…

Every bubble bursts (or at least deflates a little) and as I’ve said before, I don’t think all these “early movers” have an advantage over people taking their time for some critical thinking. Frankly, the testing business doesn’t seem to have a clue right now anyway, so concentrate on core skills, learn the lingo, and watch the firings continue (I’m looking at you test automation engineers)…

Enjoy!

Unfortunately, instead of curbing behaviour this will probably just get priced in to using AI slop in your business, just like fines in financial services…

Back at work after spending last week in Brighton delivering part of a workshop on Leading with Quality for the Ministry of Testing and then hung out at Test Bash 2025. I had a great time catching up with old friends and meeting a lot of new people and actually got to listen to the talks which frankly, is a luxury I don’t typically get from being a speaker.

Delivering my part of the Leading with Quality workshop was fun and a little hectic trying to get all the content and discussions into an hour slot, but I think we got there and the feedback has been great (so far). My part was about getting (and keeping) a seat at the table for testers which started with WHY testing doesn’t typically get involved in decisions that affect time, money, or people. Testing is a function of risk management, and the value proposition is context dependent so the quickest way to undermine testing’s credibility (and your own) and common mistakes I see testers make are:

I’m very happy to announce that in March 2026 I’m joining a fantastic line up of keynotes Test Automation Days including:

Anne-Marie Charrett, Principal Automation Testing
Marit van Dijk, Developer Advocate
Richard Bradshaw, Senior Architect, Build & Podcast Producer, The Vernon Richard Show

Early bird tickets are available until November 1, 2025
Hope to see you there! Register HERE