It’s Time We Go Beyond The Test Pyramid (& Do This Instead)

Description

Is the Test Pyramid actually holding your delivery back? In this episode, host Emily Bache dissects the state of software testing in 2026. While the software testing pyramid has been a staple of modern software engineering for over a decade, our guests argue that the way we implement it often creates more friction than flow. Emily facilitates a deep dive into the test desiderata—the essential qualities that make a test suite valuable—and explores why "fast and predictive" should be your North Star. From the origins of TDD (Test Driven Development) and the influence of pioneers like Kent Beck and Dave Farley, to the practical realities of automated testing in a distributed microservices world. In this episode, we cover: - The Testing Pyramid vs. Reality: Why the software engineer's favorite diagram might be leading you toward "slow and brittle" rather than "fast and predictive." - Beyond the Code: How software development teams can move past rigid QA gates and embrace a more fluid, results-oriented approach to programming. - Socio-Technical Testing: Why the way you write code is inseparable from the way your team is structured. - Modern Software Engineering: Moving from "testing as a phase" to "testing as a core tenet of computer science and delivery." - 🎓 TESTING IN PRODUCTION | Free Guide How do you get fast feedback on the quality and value of your software? Testing in Production. In this FREE downloadable guide, I explain: The role of testing in production, what sorts of test make sense, and how these tests fit into a broad test strategy. DOWNLOAD YOURS FOR FREE HERE ➡️ https://www.subscribepage.com/test-in-prod - Emily on X ➡️ https://x.com/emilybache Emily on LinkedIn ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybache/ Emily on bluesky ➡️ https://bsky.app/profile/emilybache.com Emily on YouTube ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@EmilyBache-tech-coach Modern Software Engineering on X ➡️ https://x.com/ModernSoftwareX Modern Software Engineering on LinkedIn ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-software-engineering Modern Software Engineering on bluesky ➡️ https://bsky.app/profile/modernswe.bsky.social - ⭐ PATREON: Support Emily on Patreon here ➡️ https://www.patreon.com/EmilyBache Join the Continuous Delivery community and access extra perks & content! ➡️ https://bit.ly/ContinuousDeliveryPatreon 🎥 Join Us On TikTok ➡️ https://www.tiktok.com/@modern.s.engineering - CHANNEL SPONSORS: Octopus Deploy sets the standard for Continuous Delivery (CD), empowering software teams to deliver value in an agile way. Globally, more than 4,000 organizations rely on its Continuous Delivery, GitOps, and release orchestration solutions to deliver swift value to their customers. Octopus efficiently orchestrates software delivery across multi-cloud, Kubernetes, data centers, and hybrid environments, whether containerized modern apps or heritage applications. With governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) at its core, Octopus supports Platform Engineering teams in their mission to provide a superior developer experience (DevEx). Octopus also actively contributes to the developer community with open-source projects. ➡️ https://bit.ly/MSExOCTDEP Equal Experts is a product software development consultancy with a network of over 1,000 experienced technology consultants globally. They increase the pace of innovation by using modern software engineering practices that embrace Continuous Delivery, Security, and Operability from the outset ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ASy8n0 TransFICC provides low-latency connectivity, automated trading workflows and e-trading systems for Fixed Income and Derivatives. TransFICC resolves the issue of market fragmentation by providing banks and asset managers with a unified low-latency, robust and scalable API, which provides connectivity to multiple trading venues while supporting numerous complex workflows across asset classes such as Rates and Credit Bonds, Repos, Mortgage-Backed Securities and Interest Rate Swaps ➡️ https://transficc.com - #coding #code #softwareengineering #softwaredevelopment #softwaretesting