" Research and Development (R&D) efforts churn out latest and greatest technologies without much consideration for how these new technologies could be tested. Our ability to test software has not kept pace with our ability to develop current edge of software technologies. Increasingly complex software needs to be tested, with increasing lists of features and iterations, yet with fewer people and few new testing methods. Testing often becomes a bottleneck and the current manual testing methods cannot keep pace and are a proverbial drop in a "testing bucket" at best. Automated Software Testing (AST) is a key technique that addresses some of the challenges software testers face today.

While AST is an improvement over manual software testing efforts, software development is required to test developed software. Testers develop software to test software because currently no better alternative exists. The AST goal is to develop a mechanism that will allow the user to not only determine failure information or detect software troubles and defects, but additionally provide the user with a list of recommended actions to solve the failure. In a software failure situation, AST efforts then not only detects a defect but is then able to programmatically support trouble-shooting/ pinpointing the issue; code is setup to be able to "self-heal" or "self-repair" by allowing the user to programmatically select from a list of updated modules or list of actions that are recommended to fix the issue.

Conferences like these help spread the word for innovative ways to conduct testing. My best wishes for another successful conference. "

" I invite you to the 9th International Software Testing Conference brought to you by QAI in association with Edista Testing Institute (ETI). I'm delighted to be visiting India for the seventh time, and for the first time in almost three years.

From afar, I've been watching a new kind of leadership developing in the Indian testing world. A small but growing cadre of testers is focusing on testing skill through practice, critical thinking, and a multidiscipilnary approach to the advance of the craft.

The role of a software tester is to gather information, and to provide that information as quickly and as cogently as possible to those who program the software and manage its development. Testing is not merely checking validating, verifying, and confirming existing beliefs and known information.

Exploratory testing doesn't mean working without documents, maps, tools, or records. Rather than adhering to inflexible processes, great explorers and great leaders adapt to whatever their environments throw at them. They're able to do that because they demand and nurture skill, which comes through study, training, and relentless practice.

Congratulations to the conference organizers for providing a venue where we can talk about and do those things.

Wish all of you a great learning at the event."