"Testing Is Not a Specialism" - You keep using that word…
Vernon got triggered. A bold LinkedIn post declared "PSA: testing is not a specialism. Thank you for your time." Mic drop, walk off stage, no explanation. And it wasn't just one person. So Vernon did what any self-respecting tester would do: he asked why. And didn't get an answer. In this episode, Vernon and Richard dig into why some developers seem to find the idea of testing as a specialism genuinely laughable, what happens when you confuse a skill with a role, and why, in a world where everyone's building agentic workflows, nobody seems to notice that they're writing skills.md files full of testing knowledge. They also explore how AI is already reshaping what's expected of every role on a software team, why "knowing what good looks like" has never mattered more, and what skill stacking means for testers who want to stay ahead of the curve.
Chapters
01:17 - Vern's welcome rant
01:42 - The topic: Is testing a specialism?
07:17 - Rich gets a chance to speak 😅
07:29 - Good Testers vs Bad Testers
11:15 - Aren't we all developers now anyway?
13:06 - There's testing and there's Testing
15:01 - Testers communicating their value
18:34 - If testing isn't a specialism, where does that leave agents and skills?
20:30 - The lads cook up a new way to reframe the situation
23:53 - Who should do testing?
32:27 - Vern believes these folks are saying one thing and doing another
35:02 - Rich wants to know what happens to the 0.5x Testers?
45:36 - The thing most people haven't done but need to
50:04 - Are we all Domain Translators now?
Links to stuff we mentioned during the pod:
Got thoughts on whether testing is a specialism? We genuinely want to hear from you. Vernon still doesn't have an answer to his question. Run it past a friendly developer and let us know what they say. Drop us a message on
LinkedIn and if Paul or Greg are listening, the invitation to come on the pod is very much open.
Episode 35
