Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing Days

My slides at Nordic Testing Days 6.6.2024
Climate impact / sustainability of software testing discussed on the talk. ICT and testing must carry their part of global responsibility to help with the climat warming. We can minimize the carbon footprint but we can also have a carbon handprint, a positive impact on the climate. Quality characteristics can be added with sustainability, and then measured continuously. Test environments can be used less, and in smaller scale and on demand. Test techniques can be used in optimizing or minimizing number of tests. Test automation can be used to speed up testing.

1. Climate Impact of Software Testing
Kari Kakkonen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
Dragons Out Oy
Nordic Testing Days
6.6.2024
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2. ROLES
•Dragons Out Oy, Director of Training, Trainer
and Coach
•Children’s and testing author at Dragons Out
Oy
•TMMi, Board of Directors
•Treasurer of Finnish Software Testing Board
(FiSTB)
ACHIEVEMENTS
•Tester of the Year in Finland 2021
•EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award 2021
•Exemplary DevOps Instructor Award 2023 by
DASA
•ISTQB Executive Committee 2015-2021
•Influencing testing since 1996
•Ranked in 100 most influential IT persons in
Finland (Tivi magazine)
•Great number of presentations in Finnish and
international conferences
•TestausOSY/FAST founding member.
•Co-author of Agile Testing Foundations book
•Regular blogger in Tivi-magazine
•Growing Knowit to Testing Leader 2002-2024
Kari Kakkonen, Lead Testing Consultant
SERVICES
•ISTQB Advanced, Foundation, Agile Testing, AI Testing
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•Quality & Test process and organization development,
Metrics, TMMi and other assessments
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•Leadership
•Test automation, Mobile, Cloud, DevOps, AI
•Quality, cost, benefits
EDUCATION
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& Agile Tester certified
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•M.Sc.(Eng), Helsinki University of Technology (present Aalto
University), Otaniemi, Espoo
•Marketing studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
the USA.
BUSINESS DOMAINS
Wide spread of business domain knowledge: Embedded,
industry, public, training, telecommunications, commerce,
Insurance, banking, pension.
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twitter.com/kkakkonen
dragonsout.com
act2lead.net
MORE INFORMATION
linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
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3. The book project ”Dragons Out!”
•Mission
•“Software testing brought to children”
•Book
•Author Kari Kakkonen
•Illustrator Adrienn Széll
•Text and illustration rights Dragons Out Oy
•In Finnish, English, Polish, French and growing
•For ages of 10-99
•Free “Dragon lesson in software testing”
presentation under Creative Commons –license
•Translated to 20 languages!
•More info: www.dragonsout.com
•Also other books coming out
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4. ISTQB

GLOBAL PRESENCE
•Numberof exams
administered:over1,2 million
•Numberof certifications
issued:845,000
•In 130 countries
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5. TMMi for test improvement in all kinds of testing,
including agile and DevOps
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6. Agenda
•Green ICT
•Green Testing
•Testingmeasurescarbon
footprint
•Minimize
carbon footprint
of test environments
•Minimize
carbon footprint
of testing
•Whatnext?
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7. Green ICT
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8. Climate change
•Climate change has been a
major topic in political debate in
recent years.
•The Paris climate conference
(COP21) in 2015 set a target of
limiting global warming to below
1.5°C compared to pre-industrial
levels.
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9. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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10. Green ICT
“Green ICT isthe study and practice of using computing resources
efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the
environment.”
Handbook of Research on Green ICT, B. Unhelkar
“To combat climate change, all viable avenues must be explored, and
the ICT industry must also play a role.”
Green Code, Janne Kalliola
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11. Carbon footprint and handprint
“A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including
carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.”
Nature.org
“A carbon handprint is the opposite of a footprint. It recognises the
actions you take to have a positive impact on the climate, over and
above reducing your own carbon footprint if you do enough of these
they might even outweigh the size of your carbon footprint.”
https://go-positive.co.uk/climate-positive
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12. Towards carbon handprint
12
Carbon
footprint
Minimize
carbon
footprint
Carbon
handprint
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13. IT has clear carbon handprint
•All too often we in IT are content that we can help other industries
reduce their carbon footprint
•Let’s move your servers to the cloud
•Let’s create a paperless process
•Let’s streamline how your business process works with this software
•That’s great, but…
•IT also has a carbon footprint – so let’s minimize it!
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14. Green Testing
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15. Green Testing can help
•Testing can’t change the world of ICT on its own
•But
•Testing can measure the climate impact of ICT
•Testing can choose to be as green as it can in its own practices
•Find the green aspect in the testing practices
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16. Sustainable Software Testing
•Optimising Resource Utilisation
•Test Automation
•Performance Testing and Optimisation
•Defect Prevention and Early Detection
•Test Environment Efficiency
•Green Testing Techniques
•Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
16
https://www.experimentus.com/sustainable-software-testing
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17. Testingmeasures
carbonfootprint
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18. ISO 25010 qualityattributes,
expandedbyClimateImpact
Climate impact
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19. Sustainability in quality criteria
•Rikard Edgren at the TestEye
http://thetesteye.com/posters/TheTestEye_SoftwareQualityCharacteristics.pdf
•Sogeti at TMap
https://www.tmap.net/wiki/quality-characteristic-sustainability
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20. QualitycostsPAFF-model(Feigenbaum)
20
Qualitycostsareallthe coststhatwoulddisappearifeverythingwasdonerightthe firsttime.
Prevention costs
Coststhataimto preventthe creationof defects.
•Qualitysystems
•Methodologies
•Training
•Understanding customer expectations
•Codereviews
Appraisalcosts
Coststhataimto maintainthe company
qualitylevel.
•Test planningand execution
•Test management
•Test environmentsand tools
Failurecosts(internal)
Coststo fixdefectsthatarefoundbefore
deliveringthe software to customerand its
users.
•Debugging
•Defectfixes
•Retesting
Failurecosts(external)
Coststhatoccurwhendefectsarefoundin the
software thatthe customerhasalreadytaken
into productionusage.
.•Guaranteecosts
•Penalties
•Price reductions
•Product call-backsand disposals
•Image, PR
Investments
Costs
and
penalties
PAFF = Preventioncosts, Appraisalcosts, Failurecosts(internal), Failurecosts(external)

21. QualitycostsPAFF-model(Feigenbaum)
withclimateimpact
21
Qualitycostsareallthe coststhatwoulddisappearifeverythingwasdonerightthe firsttime.
Prevention costs
Coststhataimto preventthe creationof defects.
•Qualitysystems, incl. climateimpactof code
•Methodologies
•Training
•Understanding customer expectations
•Codereviews
Appraisalcosts
Coststhataimto maintainthe company
qualitylevel.
•Test planningand execution
•Test management
•Test environmentsand tools
•Measurementof climateimpactof code
Failurecosts(internal)
Coststo fixdefectsthatarefoundbefore
deliveringthe software to customerand its
users.
•Debugging
•Defectfixes
•Retesting
•Testingtimeand environments
Failurecosts(external)
Coststhatoccurwhendefectsarefoundin the
software thatthe customerhasalreadytaken
into productionusage.
.•Guaranteecosts
•Penalties, climatesanctions, CO2 compensation
•Price reductions
•Product call-backsand disposals
•Image, PR
Investments
Costs
and
penalties
PAFF = Preventioncosts, Appraisalcosts, Failurecosts(internal), Failurecosts(external)

22. When to apply the climate impact criterion
•In the Definition of Done
•In test planning and design
•In reviews
•In coding and testing
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23. Minimize
carbonfootprint
of testenvironments
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24. Later is more expensive
24
https://reqtest.com/general/a-bug-goes-skateboarding-on-boehms-curve/
More time
More test
environments
Larger
environments
Bigger
carbon
footprint
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25. Smaller test environments early
25
https://reqtest.com/general/a-bug-goes-skateboarding-on-boehms-curve/
Smaller
environment
early
Smaller carbon
footprint
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26. •Virtualization •Serverless/FaaS
On-demand test
environments in the cloud
Shared
machine
Less carbon
footprint
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27. •Virtualization •Serverless/FaaS
Automated test environmentsFaster
environment
setup
Smaller carbon
footprint
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28. Cheap, affordable test environments
give feedback to the team faster
Faster
feedback
Smaller carbon
footprint
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29. Minimize
carbonfootprint
of testing
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30. Product Vision Requirements Test Design
Coding &
Testing
Test
Automation in
CI/CD pipeline
Monitoring in
production
Minimizing carbon footprint in the value stream
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
Shift Left
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31. •Target for carbon handprint with the software
•Include sustainability of coding and testing in the product vision
•Require sustainability in requests for proposals of systems
development
•Include energy efficiency in the concept of quality
Climate impact in the product vision
Sustainable
big picture
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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32. •Define requirements well enough
•Require energy-efficient code, done with energy-efficient tools
•Consider static data design over dynamic polling
•Minimize the number of features in the product, is MVP enough?
•Review for
•Climate impact
•Testability
•Test automation
Reviewed requirements mean easier tests
Easier tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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33. •Remove duplicate coverage in the test suite
•Remove unnecessary tests
•Prioritize tests to find defects faster
•Do it for first-time tests and regression tests
•Use
•Test techniques
•Risk analysis
•AI models
Optimized test suite means less tests
Less tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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34. •Run easy, fast tests first
•Use earlier test results for smarter tests
•Test critical things first, run only needed tests
•Simulate first (APIs, models), only then use real environments
•Use on-demand test environments
Optimized test execution
Smarter tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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35. •Smaller environments
•Test automation is developed in smaller environments
•Test automation should run first in smaller environments, then in larger ones
•Test automation executes faster than manual tests, resulting in
resource efficiency
•Automate test data creation
Use test automation
35
Faster tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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36. •Continue testing in production
•Monitor performance, and tune it
•Observe user experience, and tune it
•Measure energy usage of use, compare to energy use of development
Monitor production
36
Production
monitoring
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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37. •Shift left means testing earlier, resulting in less rework in coding and
testing
•Early feedback saves time and resources
Use Agile and DevOps
37
Less rework
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
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38. Whatnext?
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39. What next
•Learn more about Green ICT and Green Testing
•Check how green your testing is – luckily sustainability often goes
hand in hand with good testing
•Testing early
•Agile
•DevOps
•Optimizing test
•Test automation
•Adjust your testing to be greener!
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40. •https://www.exove.com/green-code/
•https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/162912 (ICT Climate strategy)
•https://www.experimentus.com/sustainable-software-testing
•https://www.infoq.com/articles/fight-climate-change-software-engineer/
•https://principles.green/
•https://greensoftware.foundation/manifesto
•https://labs.sogeti.com/how-sustainability-testing-helps-reduce-the-carbon-footprint-of-
your-it-landscape/
•https://www.functionize.com/blog/how-green-is-your-testing-softwares-dirty-secret-
revealed
•https://www.austriantestingboard.at/aspects-of-sustainable-test-processes/
•https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-08581-4_8
Additional reading
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41. Any questions?
Follow and share the Kari’s testing book projects:
•https://www.dragonsout.com
•https://www.act2lead.net/
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•Kari https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
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