Do We Really Need A Test Automation Engineer?

Ever since Bas Dijkstra started working in the testing and automation space, he has been a 'Test Automation Engineer'. Over time, he realized that the role of Test Automation Engineer is a difficult role to fulfil, because it requires you to be both a great Tester (automation supports testing), as well as a good Software Developer (automation is software development). However, many companies hire 'Test Automation Engineers' and looking for that elusive person who can 'do it all'. But do we really need a Test Automation Engineer?

In this keynote talk, Bas will tell you about his working history, the results of focusing on test automation as a role and as a separate project rather than as an activity, and how he thinks we can do better moving forward. He'll tell you stories about past projects he has worked on, what worked and especially what didn't work, and what he learned from that. Bas will also talk about what a balanced software development team looks like and how test automation can be made an integral part of the daily work of such a team.

Bas Dijkstra

Bas Dijkstra is an independent test automation consultant and trainer. He has been in the test automation field for some 17 years now, and has worked on software testing and automation solutions across a wide range of programming languages, frameworks and technology stacks.

He has delivered test automation training to dozens of companies and hundreds of conference attendees in the Netherlands as well as abroad.

He is also the developer of RestAssured.Net, a library that is meant to to make writing tests for HTTP APIs in C# a breeze.

He lives in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, with his wife and two sons. When not at work, he likes to go outside for long bike rides, or to sit down and read a good book.