IT is always changing ... In this talk I'll do some crystal ball gazing from two perspectives. At heart, I’m a tester. For two years I’ve also been a CEO. I’ll look at what factors are at work and what kinds of effects will they have on how we work and the roles of testers and software professionals.

Alongside musings about the future, I’ll talk about concrete activities on an individual and company level to best prepare ourselves for this nebulous future.

Target Audience: Everyone
Prerequisites: None
Level: Basic

Extended Abstract:
I’m not the first person to notice that the world is constantly changing and that everything is impermanent. Most especially after the last two years, we have really been forced to come to terms with how quickly and drastically things can change. As IT professionals, we are aware of the intrinsic changeability of projects, contexts and our business, but the events of the last couple of years have put this into sharper focus.

But let’s not get too generally philosophical about the whole world. Let’s look at what is in our more immediate context and perhaps even in our sphere of influence. If our future is anything, it’s nebulous (and I don’t just mean the cloud). How will external changes shape our teams and our work, and how can we shape ourselves proactively in order to be able to respond to changes, make changes or our own and even thrive?

In this talk I’d like to do some triangulated crystal ball gazing from two perspectives. At heart, I’m a tester. For two years I’ve also been a CEO. From my passion for testing and my experience of business and people in organisations, I’ll look at what factors are at work now, what known unknowns we have and what kinds of effects will they have on how we work and the roles of testers and software professionals.
Alongside musings about the future, I’ll talk about concrete activities on an individual and company level to best prepare ourselves for this nebulous future.