Bad data but also production data. Curiosity Software's Huw Price and Rich Jordan move the conversation on from GDPR compliance to bad data in software delivery. Together they explore the concept of the data gambler and sceptic, and the tension of using commercially live data in software delivery. Asking, is data more than a side gig for organisations? And ultimately, why it’s all about data, and why without test data there is no testing?

Can we change the narrative? Implement Design through Data Security to shore up predictability and repetition, which can reduce disorder in a system and set the bedrock for dynamic automation. And then what actually defines synthetic data? Responding to this, we touch on using API over unit testing and the role of a data generation AI to move away from the buzzy gold copy database. 

What can you do? Design to do critical changes only once, then disguard them, reducing the amount of logic gates with each test, so reducing test bloat. Just spin up just the right amount of Dynamic Automation,  ensuring to be critical around test cases, starting with manual, then go towards negative testing, for instance coping with nulls.

Finally, realising the cost to the business? To what extent is the delivery team that works like a feature factory aligned or detached with the audit team verifying by checklist? Maybe start weighing in on this as a compliance versus conduct risk situation in the organisation. The need then is to align the synergies between what’s being asked about the customer profile and how the profile of the customer is actually understood.

Ultimately you’ll be upping the bar on both functional (one-to-one testing of cases and data) and performance (what would, or even should production do) testing. GDPR guidance is there to be interpretted by the individual organisation, which is missing right now, and so at the molent is this just a type of control theatre mitigating a real lack of understanding of the unknowns in a systyem under test?

The Curiosity Software Podcast featuring Huw Price and Rich Jordan! Together, they share their insight and expertise in driving software design and development in test. Learn how you can improve your journey to quality software delivery, by considering how much do you really understand about your systems, and when things inevitably go wrong, why didn’t you test that?

Inside the outer loop – brought to you by the Curiosity Software team! Together with industry leaders and experts, we uncover actionable strategies to navigate the outer loop of software delivery, streamline test data management, and elevate software quality. Tune in to transform the way you think about software delivery, quality, and productivity!