F = For full stack automation engineer analyst

In my current role as a practice lead, I spot opportunities and assignments for my team. But lately I’ve been spotting a trend which concerns me. More and more companies are looking for someone that I would describe as a “Full stack test automation engineer analyst” not only do you need to have several years of experience in testing.

You also need to be able to code, build a Kubernetes cluster, CI/CD pipeline and perform a database migration. Oh, and don’t forget to write requirements and have experience in security testing, performance testing and maybe some usability on the side. In addition you need to master several tools and frameworks just for testing part.

Hiring manager, you are looking for a TEAM And maybe an ENABLER team on top of that.

We testers are very creative and eager to learn individuals, but;

• Playing around with Docker and NodeJS for your home automation is not the same as building an infrastructure that is used by many on a daily base.
• Launching a jMeter script does not make you a seasoned performance tester
• Injecting some SQL or script into a field does not make you a pen-tester

While the skills mentioned above are valuable additions to your repertoire and broad knowledge. They do not make you an expert. And that's where the problem lies.

Companies want experts for everything and all in one person. The words specialized and expert lose their very value.

And why is this increasingly difficult for testers? Well...

The tool problem

Recently discussed this with a fellow tester at an automation conference. For testing there are so many tools and frameworks available which each have their quirks and unique way of working. Depending on where you are working, you are building up experience with the tool that is present there. This can be Robot framework, Eggplant, Tosca, UIpath, SoapUI, Postman or just working from the IDE with a framework and many, many others. ?

While you are working at a particular client you become proficient in a tool. However, your next client might require you to be proficient in a completely different tool. Selenium WD used to be the absolute champion, then came Selenide, Protractor, Cypress and nowadays Playwright is everywhere.

Full stack developer vs tester

When you are developer, you often have a stack of choice that’s your favorite. May it be COBOL, C++ C#, Java or Python. It's usually not expected of you to master all the other ones on the side. A full stack developer means someone who masters the back-end and front-end, or server and client for that matter.

As a developer you choose a certain stack because you enjoy working with it and most likely will pursue expertise in this stack.

Disclaimer

Don't get me wrong on this account, I see a similar trend arising for developers. But there is just a whole lot less fragmentation going on revolving tooling. A good comparison would be a developer vacancy saying;

• You have 10+ years experience in IntelliJ
• You have 10+ years experience in VisualStudio code
• You have 10+ years experience in Eclipse
• You have at least 5 years experience in Netbeans

Well you see where this is headed.

As a tester of course you can try to find a new assignment/employer that works with the same tool as the one you are proficient in. But since there is so much fragmentation this is not that easy. Also migrating to a new tool, especially in larger enterprises, is not something that is welcomed.

Add fact that more and more employers expect you to have 5+ years experience in a very particular tool. Sometimes in tools that haven't been around that long.

This makes tooling a problem for us.

I-shaped, T-shaped, pi-shaped, key-shaped, m-shaped.

Testers come in all shapes and sizes, this is a good thing. If you speak to testers at conferences and ask them about their background you get the most diverse answers; Archeologist, English teacher, philosopher and quite often customer-service.

One day I will devote an entire article to the last one, because understanding customers and the problems they face is a key part in being a good tester.

However, the shapes I want to address here are the knowledge profiles of testers.

I shaped[1]

Ok according to some management gurus; being extremely good in one thing is seen as poor. I’m curious what professional athletes, musicians, brain surgeons and professors have to say about this. ?

Also, in our field of work, we often rely on this one person who specialized in a very particular framework for 10 years. I think without some of the I-shaped people, the open-source community would be a whole different ballgame. However, from my own experience, some broad knowledge on top of your specialism as a tester will greatly benefit you and the team. I don't see I-shaped as being bad, but I love to work with others and for me this includes a basic understanding of where they are coming from.

T-shaped

This is where t-shaped comes into play. Besides your deep knowledge as a tester, you have some broad additional knowledge. You can read code, understand what a unit test is and help writing better requirements. I think this is a good thing and contributes towards a team that performs better. ?I also understand that this is being asked, you don't want to create SPOK's when it comes to development. Also it helps to bring in additional points of view in events such as refinements. So far so good, what’s in store next?

Pi-shaped[2]

Pi-shaped, should have written this article on the 14th of march to make a joke here. Missed opportunity there.

Where T-shaped has one area of expertise, pi-shaped has two supported by broad knowledge. In some cases, such as an SDET, this would make sense. But for me this is the point where it starts to become tricky. Since having multiple specialisms kind of devalues the word specialism. There are people out there that master development and testing and have some broad knowledge on top of these expertise’s. But they are limited.

In the article written by scrum alliance. The example of a house is used. They suggest a Jack of all trades approach here. A person that can do bricklaying, plumbing and is an electrician on top of that.If you would build house. Would you rather employ a team of 3 of these individuals? Or 3 people who are experts in their field? ?

I know who I would choose.

Key-shaped[3]

So from the realm that is somewhat grounded we are moving to the domain of spreadsheet-management and unrealistic expectations. The key shaped professional. Yup didn’t even know this was a thing until recently. But this is a professional that has a broad area of general knowledge and several specialisms. Varying from very deep to shallower (maybe just add it to the broad layer, but hey?) Using words such as “some” and “dabble” don’t really make the case stronger.

Key shaped? Which door are you trying to open? What does this add? For me key shaped is just a bad implementation of T-shaped.

M-shaped

Let’s move from the realm of mythical to outright delusional. Yes, I am very opinionated about this, because I think this is something though of by people from an ivory tower that is standing miles away from the place where the actual work is getting done.

So what is M-shaped? [4]

“M-shaped people?exhibit a multi-disciplinary profile and can work in depth across multiple complementary areas of expertise. Their cross-functional, holistic thinking results in practical and enduring solutions that can be delivered easier, and quicker: resulting in better outcomes for your business.??“

Apart from sounding like it comes straight of ChatGPT, it’s just not something that is attainable for 99.9% of the people I know.

The expert rule[5]

While surrounded by debate, the 10.000 hour rule still serves as a guideline to master a craft. Some even say it takes 10.000 to 25.000 hours of time invested make you a world class performer. Let’s say you are a 20-something software tester and you want to become an M-shaped expert in testing, analysis and development. ?That adds up to 30.000 hours, at the very least.

·????? That’s 1250 FULL days(!)

·????? Since you don’t have the capabilities to study 24 hours a day, let’s say you have 8 (including weekends) that comes to 3750 full days to master all these 3 crafts

·????? More than 10 years of non-stop studying 8 hours EVERY day, no exceptions.

But there’s a catch. All these areas of expertise evolve as well. Software development in 2015 is different from software development in 2025. So, you need to constantly update your skillset to remain an expert. ?And let’s not forget disruptions that completely change the field as we know it, hello internet & AI.

In addition, putting these skills to effective use and marketing yourself takes a lot of time as well. And maybe, just maybe, you want to have a social life besides studying 8 hours a day for 10 years.

Conclusion

Of course, I’m deliberately taking this to extremes because I want to make a point here. ?

M-shaped sounds amazing on paper and there are probably people in the Software development community who really can be seen as experts in multiple domains. But these are very rare gems, and it took them a whole lot longer than 10 years to attain this status.

For me T-shaped is the way to go. I really enjoy understanding what others are doing and being able to contribute towards their work. But I don’t want to master their work.

Why?

Because I love software testing. It’s an amazing and versatile profession which is very different from development or business analysis.

And this is something that is often not considered. People tend to speak about people rather than with people. If someone gets a lot of positive energy from growing in their craft, try to stimulate them to become an expert at what they do and do not try to force them in a different direction. It will also go a LOT smoother.

I do believe in continuous learning, but I don't need to know everything about everything. Trust me, neither do you. It's one of the mistakes I made early in my career.

Time is your most valuable currency.

I choose to invest my time in my family, friends, colleagues and the international testing community. Making memories that last and that I will remember when i'm a senior-senior tester.

[1] https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/i-shaped-skills/

[2] https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/pi-shaped-work-skills

[3] https://oxford-review.com/shift-between-t-key-shaped-people/

[4] https://portera.nl/m-shaped-people/

[5] https://www.verywellmind.com/expertise-how-hard-is-it-to-become-an-expert-at-something-4173614