Testers have always been advocates for the end-user. But there are now more opportunities to be that advocate, including emotional intelligence-based testing and role-based testing, which form a critical part of empathetic testing. Building empathy into our software engineering process ends up benefiting everyone.

Many new project fields look simple from a distance because we only see the outputs and interfaces. But corner cases, bad data, users with special needs, regulations—getting inside a new knowledge domain and teasing out the special cases and unhappy paths is a skill. This is why business analysts are so important.

The most important element for revolutionizing quality engineering across the board—for testers, others in the product group, stakeholders, and even competitors—is an open mind toward quality. This means a willingness to consider new avenues toward pursuing quality, including techniques, roles, and attitudes.