I believe that one of the important things in the work life
of a tester is to have a good working relationship with developers. This will
not only make a tester's job and bug advocacy process easier but will also give
him the ability to exert influence on quality, promote positive collaboration
and learning opportunities.
Roy Osherove interviewed James Bach on “The Role of the Tester” where Bach talks about
this. He says that:
‘…developers are the people who create quality; they
make the quality happen. Without the developers, nothing would be there; you’d
have zero quality.’
After all without developers on the project us – testers –
will not have a job!
In the last few years I have worked thoroughly integrated
into Agile development teams as a lone tester. I tend to gravitate more towards
developers as opposed to testers as I feel that it helps me expand my domain
knowledge and technical skills and…be a better tester. Plus programmers are
WYSIWYG. I prefer it when people do not beat around the bush when working
together.
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On occasion I hear and read stories about the challenges and
conflicts both sides have experienced in the workplace, as well as tips and
recommendations on how to handle difficult situations and work on improvements
from the tester’s viewpoint.
I thought it would be interesting to find out from
developers what they thought about testers and their skills. I conducted a very
unscientific survey of some developers that I have worked with and whom I also
consider professional mentors and good friends.
The replies were pretty refreshing. I hope testers find
them useful and take them into consideration in how they go about their work.
Here are the results: