What Has Changed in Testing—and What Hasn't
Five tabs. Three versions of the same test script. An inbox full of defects. And then your manager asks, “How are we doing?” You’re not exactly sure.
Sound familiar? Back in 2011, that was the daily reality at a great many organizations. And let’s be honest: at some of them, it still is.
On September 29, 2026, Testersuite will celebrate its 15th anniversary. It’s a great opportunity to reflect not only on ourselves, but especially on the field. What has really changed in testing over the past fifteen years? And what has stubbornly remained the same?
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Why " Testersuite " Came to Be
Frank Paymans founded Testersuite on September 29, 2011. Coming from a background in test consulting, he noticed the same pattern time and again with clients: organizations wanted to professionalize their testing processes, turned to Excel, and got stuck. It was labor-intensive, error-prone, and not designed for collaboration.
The existing test management tools weren't a viable alternative. They were too expensive, too complex, and designed for teams that do nothing but test all day long. Yet for those clients, testing was actually done "on the side"—by functional administrators, key users, and project staff.
That gap between spreadsheets and heavy-duty testing platforms became Testersuite. Retailer V&D was the first customer. In 2012, the team was at the VNSG conference in Maastricht with iPads to demonstrate the tool. Reactions were mixed: organizations that wanted to take their testing further were enthusiastic, while some in the testing community thought it was unnecessary.
Frank talks about it in more detail in this interview about the early years of Testersuite.
What Did Change Over the Past 15 Years
Quite a few. Here’s a sample of what we’ve seen on hundreds of test cycles :
Testing has become a team effort. Back in 2011, testing was often the domain of a small group of specialists. Now, when a release comes out, dozens or even hundreds of end users are often involved in the testing. That calls for a tool that’s easy to understand, even for someone who tests only three times a year.
The supply chain has become more important than the system. Testing individual applications is no longer enough. It’s all about data exchange between parties, supply chain testing, and scenarios that span multiple organizations.
Off-the-shelf software became the norm—and still had to be tested. SaaS doesn't mean "someone else will test it." Every release changes your processes. If you don't test, you'll find that out once it goes live.
Collaboration with development became the norm. Testers work in Testersuite, while developers use Jira or Azure DevOps. Changes come from TOPdesk. Automated test results from Tosca are combined with manual tests in a single view.
Information security has become a strict requirement. Whereas fifteen years ago security was just a side note in a proposal, it is now a selection criterion. Testersuite is ISO 27001 and NEN 7510 certified, with data storage in the Netherlands.
And then came AI. Generating test cases based on documentation is now a reality. We take a pragmatic view of this: AI can save you a tremendous amount of preparatory work, but someone still has to determine whether it’s correct. You can read about how this fits into test management in this blog post on AI-powered test generation and “ Testersuite.”
What Did Not Change
This is the interesting part.
Despite agile, DevOps, SaaS, and AI, the core of the problem has remained exactly the same. Someone still has to determine what is being tested, why, by whom, and at what risk. And someone must be able to demonstrate what has been tested—to a steering committee, an auditor, or a regulatory authority.
The question "Are we in control?" is just as uncomfortable in 2026 as it was in 2011, if you don't have the answer.
What our clients have mentioned most often over the past fifteen years is therefore not a feature. It consists of three words: control, clarity, and structure. A test coordinator at the Province of North Brabant summed it up as a higher level of test maturity, simply by taking a more structured approach to the testing process.
Where We Stand Now
More than 200 Dutch organizations now use Testersuite: hospitals, municipalities, provinces, housing authorities, retailers, energy companies, and financial institutions. A new release is issued every two weeks. The team is still based in Nieuwegein and knows its customers by name.
What hasn't changed since 2011: we're not just building a tool for highly experienced testers. We're also building it for organizations that want to take their testing process seriously, with people who do testing as part of their other responsibilities.
Here's to the next 15 years
Fifteen years is a great milestone to celebrate. But the real celebration happens at every organization that makes the transition from scattered Excel spreadsheets to a testing process they can rely on.
Haven't you gotten there yet? Then this is a great year to take that step.
👇🏼 Schedule a demo below and discover in just half an hour what taking control of your testing process can do for you. Or get started for free and try it out for yourself.
