Many of those reading this may well have come along and this blog is a wrap-up, both for those whose memories of the occasion may be a little hazy and for those who now realise they should have gone! So here’s what you missed.
Micro Focus were proud to sponsor the TESTA Awards dinner, held yesterday at the Marriot Hotel in London’s Grosvenor Square.
Many of those reading this may well have come along and this blog is a wrap-up, both for those whose memories of the occasion may be a little hazy and for those who now realise they should have gone! So here’s what you missed.
Hooray for us
Much of the work of testing and development professionals is unseen and unheralded. Like the role of the goalkeeper in football, this work can go unnoticed until something goes wrong. So these awards, a first for the European market, are a rare and welcome opportunity to shine a light on the dedication and professionalism of the people who make so much of what we take for granted possible – and help many of us to make a living from this industry.
And if you’re going to shout about your industry, then do it properly – which is what TESTA had in mind when they hired Peter Dickson, the professional voice-over artist heard on The X Factor and, most recently, Britain’s Got Talent. (And it sure has, as the evening proved.)
We all got to enjoy good food, glamour and the surreal experience of listening to the voice of The Price is Right describing ‘the complexities of deploying innovative tooling within risk-based testing’.
Come on down!
With every table sold out, there was a great spread of attendees. Every size of business was represented, from major players like Cognizant, with all their corporate clout, right through to the hard-working SMEs with agility and imagination on their side.
This diversity was reflected in the spread of winners – there’s a full list here. The background murmur was of intense discussion rather than dinner party chatter, a sign of how determined the guests were to get the most out of a rare networking opportunity.
There was plenty of social media ‘noise’ around #TESTA with many people contributing by smartphone – a subject dominating the dinner chat of many attendees – as Chris Livesey took the stage for his keynote speech.
The future – a Borland perspective
A memorable twenty minutes followed as Chris gave us the Borland assessment of the state of the nation as it stands – and where we’ll be in a year or two’s time. Using a manufacturing analogy Chris described the challenges of managing complexity within the supply chain and how the fresh challenges of new platforms and the drive towards mobile will force everyone in the room to raise their collective game.
It’s already an industry driven by detail, and Chris foresees the need for a significant percentage increase across the key areas of precision, control and validation if we’re going to keep up with the demands of the customers’ briefs. And as for the unknowns…
We shall fight them in the silos …
It was a compelling speech that clearly, but subtly, positioned Borland as being aware of the need to be reactive enough to create – and then recreate – tooling to meet the fluctuating needs of the industry as it matches the drive to new platforms.
As the final act of the evening, John Lewis IT received the Borland European Software Testing Award and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house – although some of this raw emotion could be attributed to those settling their drinks bills…!
It was an enjoyable evening that could prove to be the launchpad of some interesting collaborations and an exercise in taking the pulse of our industry it proved that we’re in good shape and with a healthy prognosis for the future.
Thanks for coming – and see you all next year.
