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Below is our recent interview with Ross Radford, Founder and president at Test from the Top:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
I launched Test from the Top to help leaders, managers of all kinds understand software testing. Testing is something every software leader must be aware of. Whether that’s quality assurance or security testing, we can’t ignore it. Small startup to huge global company, testing is equally important, if different in scale and concern. Test from the Top gives software managers the tools they need to speak the language of testing.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: We’ve been working on an educational course to get leaders proficient with software testing quickly. The content is focused on immediate, day-one value. As a demonstration, we’re offering a free guide of what NOT to do on the Test from the Top website. Common mistakes and pitfalls that will save managers a lot of headaches.
Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: Managers, Directors, and other leaders approached me for advice on testing, and I knew there was an opportunity for a bigger contribution. Make no mistake, you test every line of code you produce, either intentionally within your development pipeline (That’s good!), or you let your clients and customers do it for you (This is terrible).
I knew I had to get through to managers and leaders with the higher level perspective of testing to make a real difference. Resource management, company culture, hiring. The ability for teams to leverage testing starts from the top.
Q: What can we expect from your company in the next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: Watch for our product launch soon, an educational course for managers to get acquainted with software testing terminology, best practices and most importantly, how to hire testing savvy teams. After that, we plan to launch an advanced course for leaders who are already testing. A guide to industry leading, advanced software quality control you won’t find anywhere else. I’m excited to launch! We’ve been working towards this goal for a while.
Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: I developed cutting edge strategies to improve testing efforts at my company, and wanted to share them with the world. For me, that world was other individual software engineers. I shared ideas with my friends and peers. I talked at conferences. The reaction was positive, but I kept hearing roadblocks when engineers described their work culture. Some were simply indifferent to testing, it wasn’t taken seriously in their organization.
The beautiful thing is front-line engineers are more than ready for leadership to let them loose on automated testing. Experienced leaders know this enthusiasm carries its own inherent risks. Keeping testing projects on the rails can be a new challenge, and my experience has brought me here, warning, perhaps even pleading with you to take testing seriously, and give it the careful consideration you bring to all your product development efforts.
