Why do CIOs fear “Test Automation” as much as they want it?

They wanted it but had too many bad memories.

Table of Contents:
· 1. Desire:  for “Release Early, Release Often”
· 2. Reality: real test automation engineers are extremely rare
· 3. Politics: it is hard to acknowledge being fooled
· 4. Solution: easier than you think

A couple of years back, I was working at a large local financial company as a test automation consultant. My first week's work brought some attention, and a test lead of the main division invited me to a meeting along with my manager. I heard in that meeting that the last thing the CIO wanted to hear was test automation. He said: “The last test automation attempt cost $2 million (mostly the human cost, plus some software license fees), with absolutely nothing to show for”.

I heard a similar comment about a departing CIO by an architect. “He wanted test automation implemented, and he trusted IBM’s Rational Functional Tester based on a Gartner report”.

It is not CIOs who don’t want “test automation”. They really want it. A CIO would dream about test automation success like the one in LinkedIn:

• “spiking profits” in a short time; “stock has more than tripled in less than two years”
• might be featured in Wired Magazine or CIO.com