Daniel Knott and His Journey in Software Testing

Recently I had the joy of talking to Daniel Knott, a well-known YouTuber and QA leader in the Healthcare testing space. He shares a lot of his knowledge and experience on his channel as well as his blog called Adventures in QA.

In this interview, we talked about how Daniel found himself in the QA world, how he applies automation testing in his day-to-day work, and the implications of AI for Healthcare testing.

Here are some takeaways from the discussion for you:

1. The journey to software testing

Daniel was offered an opportunity in QA, and he took it with an open mind. He began by simply “clicking around, tapping around on the product,” with no structured process, just intuition and exploration.

For me, it was always the bigger picture of a product that kept me interested.

Daniel Knott

QA leader & Influencer

Over time, Daniel’s experience expanded through further learning and reading books on unit testing and automation frameworks. It was, as he described, “an eye-opener.” That convergence of mentorship, curiosity, and technical depth laid the foundation for a 20-year career (and counting) in software testing.

Daniel Knott's advice for beginners in software testing

Daniel pointed out how computer science programs teach primarily programming, architecture, engineering, but only touch briefly on testing. So, for those who are curious about how systems behave and want to understand the whole system, Daniel believes testing is a uniquely rewarding path.

His guidance is clear: be curious, be technical, and go beyond just scratching the surface. That means digging deep into architectures, APIs, databases, not just front-end interfaces.

He also emphasized the importance of self-driven learning. For beginners looking to build a foundation, Daniel recommends reading key industry books like Agile Testing by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory, The Art of Software Testing, and Exploratory Testing. Blogs and community forums, he said, are also great resources to stay current and inspired.

Daniel Knott's on automation testing

Automation testing I see as an addition to testing basically, because automation testing or test automation or automated scripts help us to free up the time of a software tester.

Daniel Knott

QA leader & Influencer

For Daniel, automation is essential, especially at the unit, API, and integration levels, but never a substitute for human insight, particularly in end-to-end or user interface testing. He sees it as a critical part of the software development pipeline, especially in modern CI/CD workflows, but one that should complement manual testing, not replace it.

In other words, knowing how to wield it effectively is what separates a tester from a test script.

Software testing in Healthcare

Daniel currently works in the healthcare space, and it was true that testing in such a highly regulated industry differs from other domains.

You have to work towards specific processes. You have to provide specific documents to agencies or to regulators... That’s also a challenging part [...] When you handle really private and sensitive healthcare data, this [data security] is also something you have to have in mind, especially as a software tester and everybody involved in building healthcare products.

Daniel Knott

QA leader & Influencer

Interestingly, Daniel pointed out that domain knowledge, while valuable, isn't a blocker to entering healthcare testing. What matters more is an open mind and a willingness to learn. As he put it:

It’s not that important to get started in that industry. However, you have to be open... The domain will help you enrich your testing activities with more cases, more situations, and also to get more of that user’s perspective into your work.

Daniel Knott

QA leader & Influencer

Leading a QA team

As our conversation turned to leadership, I asked Daniel how he motivates his team and helps them navigate the ever-evolving challenges of QA. What stood out in his answer was a deeply personal, individualized approach to leadership.

If I talk to five people, they have completely five different interests. For me as a leader, it’s important to first understand the people’s skills and what is their goal or their next step in their career, and what they would like to achieve.

Daniel Knott

QA Leader & Influencer

Daniel doesn’t believe in one-size-fits-all planning. Instead, he prefers to sit down with each person individually to talk through their interests, whether it's AI, automation, CI/CD, or observability, and collaboratively define learning paths or project responsibilities based on those passions. When new challenges arise, his team comes together to assess their collective strengths and skills gaps.

AI in testing and the tester's new role

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Daniel the question on everyone’s mind: How do testers stay relevant in the age of AI? His answer was both cautionary and optimistic:

We’re getting more code faster, and I would say we’re losing the big picture in this product architecture… We have quick wins, we have great results for a specific feature, but I think in the long run the generated code might not work well together. This makes testers more important than ever to judge the output of AI systems.

Daniel Knott

QA Leader & Influencer

This is especially true in healthcare, where regulations are tight and trust is non-negotiable. Rather than displacing testers, Daniel sees AI as shifting the tester’s responsibilities. The emphasis is less on writing test scripts and more on reviewing, validating, and contextualizing AI-generated outputs. Any implementation must be carefully evaluated for accuracy, privacy, and compliance.

Final words

The discussion with Daniel was surely fascinating. He offered a lot of insights that both newcomers and seasoned testers can take home and apply to their work.

And of course, if you're interested in more QA content from Daniel, don't forget to check out his YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button!