Robin Ninan

Ditching the test pyramid in a microservices era

We have all heard tales of the infamous test pyramid. Some of us have scaled the pyramid, some camped halfway and some dare not even attempt. Time and time again, I've heard of the test pyramid in multiple talks, test articles and blog posts, but not many have dared stray away from it. Why do we often return to the same solution for every test problem?

What if we had another way forward; one that did not involve a pyramid. I once too advocated for the test pyramid in the good old times of monoliths. Times have changed.

We are now in the era of microservices and like many others, I found myself on shaky grounds with the test pyramid. It baffles me how little effort has been made to redefine or re-evaluate our quality assurance strategies. Whilst advances and breakthroughs are ripe in software development, our quality assurance processes and strategies often trail behind.

So why had I found myself on shaky grounds with a test strategy that stood the test of time for so long? In this session, we unravel why the onset of microservices shook the pyramid and we explore how we could succeed without having to scale the pyramid.

If you, like me started off with the search for a better test strategy that has been tried and tested in the microservices furnace and ended up unsatisfied with the answers; let me introduce you to a new era.

About Robin

Senior QA

Senior QA at Koodoo. Seasoned Quality Assurance Engineer with an eye for test tools, strategies and architecture.