This talk introduces a number of the concepts behind innovation and provides evidence on why today’s business should be embracing a culture of innovation even while in a recession.

The concept of ‘adjacent possibilities’ is extended to create ‘lines of innovation’ and this allows a number of the innovations that form the basis for SW testing to be modeled in these terms. An attempt is made to ‘stretch’ a ‘line of innovation’ into the future to provide a prediction of a future testing innovation – ‘people testing’.

Finally, the prime factors for promoting innovation (diversity, freedom, creative thinking, motivation, knowledge, and the physical work environment) will be identified and the means of achieving the first three are considered in some detail.