The End of the BlockBuster – III

One comment on “The End of the BlockBuster – III”

1. Wow!! David Gilbert here — Matt mentioned me in part one of this series, and I simply must respond to all of this.

   First, I must thank Matt for his kind comments. I did not get to spend a lot of time with Matt, because as he says, I am on a path, and that path makes me a very busy man at conferences. But from the time I did spend with him, I liked him, and it was obvious he was someone who was doing, and going to do, well in this field. I also owe him thanx for the event around which our meeting hinged. Matt was running the Lightning Talks for StarEast that year, and talked me into doing one. That specific event began a series of events that has kept me speaking and presenting at every conference I could manage to find the time to get to for almost two years. It has been a great two years, and from that single 5 minutes, my path has been straight and wide and traffic free. Seemingly little things can make a big difference in a life.

   I also must lend credence to everything Matt is saying here. He has meticulously and articulately decomposed and put forth an opinion that I have generally held for over a year. That the day of the dinosaur is dead. I have seen great evidence of this lately, capped by the news this very day that HP is officially dumping the Mercury name. This industry is in for a massive shake up I believe.

   Matt talks of finding a niche and finding your path, and finding your passion. Well, anyone who has ever spent enough time with me to drink one glass of really good beer knows I am very passionate about exploratory testing, as well as pretty much any other testing, and very very very passionate about TestExplorer and what we are trying to do. He talks about giving something away…well, those who have been around me for longer than TestExplorer will also remember that we released a small program called the AORE (Advanced Object Repository Editor), a utility for editing repositories in QuickTest Pro…and it has been free since day one. And then today, the link to the article on copying what you like. Well, again, right on target. Anyone who really looks at TestExplorer will see that it is simply a technilogical implementation of ideas long championed by others whose work I greatly respect…there is no rocket science, no earth shattering revelation in there. It is just a lot of good tools put together in a good way designed to do good work in a very specific context that no one else wants to address…because it is a niche. Well, we are happy to be here. And we hope we make a lot of money while we are at it…we are after all a business. But we are enjoying the ride either way.

   Matt has a really good handle on this, and I agree with everything he is saying here. I respect immensely his ability to articulate these opinions that I have held for some time, but just could not speak out loud with such clarity.

   And where does my path lead now? Well, just yesterday I submitted a presentation for StarEast, and if I am fortunate enough to be selected, I will be presenting another new idea I have concerning Risk Based Testing, another passion; and it is so unlike anything that I have seen so far, that it may just shake up an already shaken industry a bit more…and if it catches on, I am thinking of turning it into a new product…and just maybe giving it away!

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