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Testing is broken—and not in the ‘let’s improve it’ kind of way. Dear Testers, I didn’t write The Last Book on Testing to start a conversation. I wrote it because the conversation was dead. Buried. Under processes that numb you, ceremonies that drain you, and tools that scream louder than your thinking ever could. Testing… used to mean something. It used to mean fearlessness. Used to mean challenging assumptions. Now it’s about saying the right buzzword before they dismiss you. I see testers walking into meetings like hostages—smiling, nodding, parroting Jira ticket numbers. No one asks, “What do you think?” They ask, “Did it pass?” You wanna know why I wrote this book? Because I’ve sat in too many rooms where thinking was treated like a liability. Because I’ve watched sharp minds dull themselves to fit the workflow. Because somewhere along the way, testing became theater. And we’re all performing for an audience that stopped caring a long time ago. Let me say this loud: PLEASE STOP INVENTING NEW NAMES TO COMPENSATE FOR SHAME. We still can’t say “manual testing” without someone flinching like it’s a slur. Like, what happened? Did the word “manual” offend a boardroom somewhere? Suddenly, it’s not enough to test—now we’ve gotta rebrand the dignity out of it. Exploratory Quality Partner. Human-centric Validation Engineer. Context-Aware Risk Observer. What are we doing—naming indie bands or doing the job? You think renaming manual testing is gonna solve the real problem? No. All it does is dress the same disrespect in a slightly shinier outfit. It's like calling the janitor a “Sanitation Ninja” and still paying them like dirt. Manual testing isn’t broken because of the name. It’s broken because somewhere along the way, we stopped treating thinking as respectful. Pride. Depth. Craft. But no—that’s not “innovative” enough. So now we invent fancy job titles, pile on fluff, and act like semantics will save us. It won’t. You want to dignify manual testing? Stop renaming it like it's the uncle you're embarrassed of. Start defending it. Honor it. Give it room to grow. And for the love of whatever deity runs your CI/CD pipeline—stop apologizing for it. Manual testing is not the problem. Disrespect is. And no title, no framework, no LinkedIn hashtag is gonna fix that. I’ve seen testers who care. Who fight. Who think. But I’ve also seen them give up—not because they were wrong… …but because they were alone. So no. This book is not a guide. It’s not a framework. It’s a flare gun. If it sounds angry, it’s because I am. If it sounds cynical, it’s because I’ve been watching this decay from the inside. If it sounds like I’ve lost faith… …it’s because I still give a damn. And if that makes me “unprofessional,” maybe “professionalism” was the first lie we bought into. PS: No. This post is not about defending the term 'manual testing'. Get over it. #SoftwareTesting #TheLastBookOnTesting

The Parrot Who Owned Agency In the hills where birds once flew free, there lived a flock of parrots who didn’t just talk—they defined. Every word they heard was a thing to polish, cage, and display. One day, a small mynah bird flapped onto a branch and chirped, “You know, when I chose not to mimic anyone today, I felt… agency.” The parrots all turned their heads at once. The tallest among them—Mitra, who wore glasses carved from nutshells and spoke in conferences—gasped. “Agency?” he whispered. “That’s a powerful word. Dangerous in the wrong wings. We’d better take care of it.” And so they did. By nightfall, they’d created The Manifesto of Agency, and hosted a symposium "AgnecyNow" where they explained to other birds what agency really meant. The mynah returned later and said, “I used the word ‘agency’ in a song I wrote—about choosing silence. Isn’t that agency too?” Mitra frowned. “No, no. True agency involves conscious enactment of empowered decision-making within a recognized sociocultural scaffold.” “I just... didn’t sing.” The mynah blinked. “Well, that’s lack of agency,” squawked another parrot with a lapel pin. From that day on, no bird could claim agency unless it was approved, peer-reviewed, and properly theorized by the parrots. Eagles had to submit essays. Pigeons took night classes. Owls were forced to co-author papers just to be allowed to hoot in public. Eventually, a woodpecker knocked on the tree and said, “I’ve been practicing agency by ignoring you.” He was banned for life. And so, the parrots flourished—guardians of a word they no longer understood. They held forums, collected fees, and reminded everyone: “You may have agency… but only if we say so.” That was just the beginning. When parrots own your wings, even flying feels like theft. PS: Inspired (though the message is tangential) by a recent post on Agentic AI by Tariq King. Go read it, it's excellent. Let sanity prevail. I strongly advice you to follow Tariq's work to stay clear of hype and fear. #Testing #HowToTrademarkDictionaryWords #WhySoSerious

A Book So Honest, It'll Make You Cry. Or maybe laugh if that's what you do when you want to cry. Either way, some crying is certainly involved. Dharmendra Kumar—one of the few people with a functioning brain—calls it raw, witty, and brutally honest. I tend to believe, there are more like him. There must be. My whole "marketing" is attempting to filter and reach those readers, while saving the time and money for others. I am trying to find my tribe. The book is not meant for those who think of a satirical fiction novel on testing as blasphemy. Nor for those who confuse a fable on a slide with storytelling. Those who do should stick to another corporate-approved sleep aid, because here in this book, you have a story spanning 250 pages. It’s a satirical gut punch to the self-important experts, the process-worshipping drones, and the people who think emojis can compensate for a lack of emotions. The others...my tribe... if you’re gonna read it, take a cue from Dharmendra—actually read it. Start with the damn cover. Then read the disclaimer, the acknowledgements, the three forewords and the preface this time. There's a reason they exist. They are there to prep you before the madness unfolds. My editor had laughed—"Why are you writing a disclaimer for the disclaimer for still other disclaimers in the first 10-15 pages?" I forgave her. She doesn't understand my audience. I do. Here's a sample warning in the book: ---- I know what you expect from a testing book. I also know—you don’t know me. Allow me to disabuse you of the vulgar notion of expecting the usual. ---- All I could do is to warn you/prep you in time, but how could I help those impatient ones who skip pages? Then it's between you and the book. Start your chaos here, if that's your game: India: https://lnkd.in/eVGPFZCn International: https://lnkd.in/e7ubCKgb Thank you Dharmendra Kumar. It's people like you who give me hope that I really wrote a book and not an expensive doorstop. #Testing #TheLastBookOnTesting

The Lie of Averages You ever look at a book rating and think, "Oh, it's a 3-star book, must be meh?" Yeah, that’s some lazy thinking. Averages are for cowards. My book, The Last Book on Testing, is sitting at 3.0 stars. Sounds mediocre, right? Like hotel eggs. But dig deeper—50% of people gave it 5 stars. The other 50%? 1 star. That’s not an average book. That’s a love-it-or-hate-it experience. It’s the Cilantro of books. Some people swear by it, others think it tastes like soap. So if you’re looking for something safe, predictable, "industry-approved," go read a book with 4.2 stars, where every review says, “Good book, met expectations.” But if you want to roll the dice on something different, something weird or something that makes you throw your book out the window, I might have written just the one. Choose wisely. Start your chaos here: India: https://lnkd.in/eVGPFZCn International: https://lnkd.in/e7ubCKgb (Free delivery for Amazon Prime users. No refunds. You break your brain on this thing, that’s on you.) #Testing #TheLastBookOnTesting PS: I'm kind of feeling honoured by the present state of ratings.

Ever met someone who thinks they’re the final word on everything? It’s like they’re wearing a crown of "I know everything about testing" and strutting around like they invented the whole thing. The Last Book on Testing doesn’t just knock that crown off—it picks it up, throws it in the bin, and laughs like a toddler seeing a puppy for the first time. And don’t worry, it’s not all just a jab at others. It’ll make us laugh at our own ‘expertise’ too. Because if we can’t laugh at ourselves, then we might as well be one of those baboons. #Testing #TheLastBookOnTesting #WhySoSerious #ABitOfHumilityIsAllItTakes

First 5-Star Review: Jason, You Absolute Legend! Look, I already felt honoured by the rage-fueled 1-star rant from someone who mistook the book for a certification guide and is now furious that it contains jokes. “Unprofessional! This is NOT how testing books should be written!!”, is all I mostly expected when I wrote The Last Book on Testing. But then, Jason Arbon shows up, actually reads the damn thing. Proves that at least one person in this world understands satire, has a pulse, and survived the soul-sucking absurdity of testing long enough to appreciate it. So now, the first 5-star review is in, and we’re off to a solid start. Jason, you’re keeping the dream alive. To the rest of you: Read it, love it, or rage-review it. Either way, mission accomplished. Start your chaos here: India: https://lnkd.in/eVGPFZCn International: https://lnkd.in/e7ubCKgb #Testing #TheLastBookOnTesting #JarbonGetsIt