Community of Software Testing Professionals
Tester as a Developer
Hi all,
I am Ramesh Kumar J
obviously, my job role is "Testing"
i am just 2 days old for this forum, quite interesting. Now, skipping into the section; a question which is running on my psyche is :
What if a "Tester" become a "Developer" ?
1> Will he/she capable of deliver a bug free product ? (my answer is "no" but i am not sure why)
2> if no, why ?
The reason i am posting this question, i am also participating with development team.
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Rams
I am Ramesh Kumar J
obviously, my job role is "Testing"
i am just 2 days old for this forum, quite interesting. Now, skipping into the section; a question which is running on my psyche is :
What if a "Tester" become a "Developer" ?
1> Will he/she capable of deliver a bug free product ? (my answer is "no" but i am not sure why)
2> if no, why ?
The reason i am posting this question, i am also participating with development team.
--
Rams
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bhargavi M: My Age '-1'? on -
What if a "Tester" become a "Developer" ?
1> Will he/she capable of deliver a bug free product ? (my answer is "no" but i am not sure why)>>
Can you tell me if a "Tester" does not become a "Developer" remains as a "Tester":
1> Will he/she capable of deliver a bug free product ?
:)
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Permalink Reply by Ramesh J Kumar on -
yup ! ;( ofcourse not
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Permalink Reply by Bhargavi M: My Age '-1'? on
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Can you tell me if a "Tester" does not become a "Developer" remains as a "Tester":
1> Will he/she capable of deliver a bug free product ?
yup ! ;( ofcourse not >>
Ok. Do you know why?
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Permalink Reply by Ramesh J Kumar on
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pleasure to hear you answer !
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Permalink Reply by Bhargavi M: My Age '-1'? on
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@Ramesh,
I wonder how you answer to the question when you do not know about the reason.
Anyways,here are few cases that could I think of at the moment (from what I learned ):
-We cannot test all the failures in the software because we do not know all the failures that exist in the software.
-We cannot test all the possible inputs to the software. We might be aware of valid inputs but invalids inputs may be many. So the as the combinations of inputs.
-We cannot test all the paths, because there may be millions or more to enter and exit the software. Then think of sub paths. Every test we perform is different from each other.
-Time constraints.
- Sometimes the configuration of your system you test may not be same as the other user.
-The softwares you run while testing may not be same as your customer use.
-Fews bugs occur when used with particular speed.
So even if you want to develop such a product considering the above factors it is not possible to do so.
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Permalink Reply by Shrini Kulkarni on -
>>> I wonder how you answer to the question when you do not know about the reason.
Bhargavi, Ramesh may be asking the question (or answering) because he does not seem to know the reason *exactly*. He only seems to have a hunch.
As a good citizen of the software world, he wants see defect free software - the light of the day. Some how he has a thought that it is not possible. He must have heard from somewhere ... Now he wants to know "Why"
>>>So even if you want to develop such a product considering the above factors it is not possible to do so.
Biggest of all the reasons - which you missed. One - cost of defect free software - economically it is not feasible to develop such software as it takes huge time and money.
Second it is human develops and uses it - the most unpredictable creature and the only blessed with "thinking" and articulation ability among others on this planet.
One is business problem and other socialogical problem of inability to express in unambigious terms - "what he needs when and how?"
Shrini
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Permalink Reply by Bhargavi M: My Age '-1'? on
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Biggest of all the reasons - which you missed. One - cost of defect free software - economically it is not feasible to develop such software as it takes huge time and money.>>
True.
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Permalink Reply by Ramesh J Kumar on
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nice to hear you on this discussion ! tnx ...
Sorry ! if i dont give you the reason for my answer !
If you go through my question again there itself i mentioned indirectly that i know bug free product cannot be delivered but i am not sure why :).
Thanks for make me clear,
Really gud one
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Permalink Reply by Bhargavi M: My Age '-1'? on
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Sorry ! if i dont give you the reason for my answer !
If you go through my question again there itself i mentioned indirectly that i know bug free product cannot be delivered but i am not sure why :).>>
Good that you understood. You can even think of other possibilities if you can.
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Permalink Reply by Pradeep Soundararajan on -
John works as a tester at a start up. In the last 5 years, John has not asked the question in this thread because he learned the following lessons, pretty early his career:
1. All bugs are not because of developers.
2. All humans are fallible and so are their ideas.
3. Testing or development is not an activity of making a product bug free.
4. "Bug free" is an impractical thought.
5. Testing is questioning a product in order to evaluate it -- James Bach
5. A tester is not a person who builds quality in to a product whereas a tester protects the value - Michael B
6. Asking such question is important as long as one learns the above lessons (and more), move on and ask more important questions to aid education as a tester.
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Pradeep Soundararajan - http://testertested.blogspot.com - +91-98451-76817 - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com
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Permalink Reply by Shrini Kulkarni on
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James Bach in an interview recently to an indian Tester mentioned this (not exact words) - this is very important distiction between developer (skills) and tester (skills)
Development is an act of construction and deals with thinking about "how to build a working code from a specification". Tester's work deals with the act of questioning and evaluation - "how this (how many ways) specifiation or working code can be used/misused?".
So at the end of the day the comparison is between "construction" vs "evaluation". "converging" vs "diverging", "finite" vs "infinite"
To answer your question - can a tester become developer - Yes he/she can provided he/she shifts the thinking pattern from evaluation to construction. Will he/she be able to produce a defect free product - Ref to Pradeep's reply.
To add to what Pradeep said -
1. There is no universally acceptable definition of the word "defect". Most of the available definitions of the word bug/defect assume a "bug free" (ironically) specification or some expert opinion on what should be a bug and what is not.
2. To build a defect free product it will take infinitely long time - when such a product is released, nobody might buy it becuse it is outdated. So, even though the word "defect free" is attractive and good to have - it may be practically/business wise feasible aim for it ....
3. Biggest block for defect free product is "human" and human related aspects. It may be possible to build a defect free products for "robots"
Shrini
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Permalink Reply by SathishKumar on -
"Tester becoming a Developer"
It is important to understand the following before answering this...
Why is the tester want to become a Developer?
What is her role as a Developer?
Here is my answer...
When a tester becomes a developer, she is no more a developer. So if she performs testing now, her scope will be within the limits of unit testing. She will be allocated the time only for her development activities and hence testing will only be an additional effort if time permits.
So there is very less chance of building a bug free product.
Additionaly, no developer can develop a bug free product.
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