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Lecture

Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results

Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consulting Limited

Legend's Lecture
13:45 - 14.45 BST Friday 6th June 2025

Seen that text before? Usually it’s associated with financial advice or the caveats published on online trading apps. Can we say the same of the testing profession? Given our personal experience and performance, can we not say our future performance is guaranteed? It would be nice to think we could. As an industry, what has been our performance in the face of changing technologies, methodologies, complexity, agility and scale? Has it been exemplary, continuously improving. As good as it gets?

In this talk, Paul reflects on the changes testers have faced in the last thirty years and how testing has evolved. The future is uncertain (as it always is) but the challenges testers face are new to us all, but also foundational. Will AI replace us? Are our ambitions to improve quality now fake news? Has the politic of testing (never far from the surface) finally caught up with us?

This talk sets out the new challenges we face and the potential changes of aspiration, approach and attitude. What are our chances of success in the future?