Can a Good Tester-Developer relationship result in better testing ?

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Permalink Reply by Vanita on February 16, 2010 at 10:23am

Funny how almost everywhere developers to take the test of the rioters and vice versa. Constantly there is bitterness at some point in the game between these two functions. I wonder why? It is gender and responsibility of these two functions.Naturally, something will develop errors. This will depend on the severity, type and scope of the correction of errors in deciding to work or set aside for the moment. At this point in time, situations can get nasty in the debate between these two roles. Of course it is fitting to point out the mistakes after mistakes in the testing phase. After all, his responsibility.While they are there to fix bugs, developers are frustrated in the account and even in person too. The level of understanding between these two roles conflict not only in one place, but in many areas. So how to make the relationship between the two and understanding?My experience tells me that team work is the best solution. It is the responsibility of both to ensure that the final product is to work in the best conditions. While developers must ensure that no errors as they develop, the examiner should ensure that if any, which must be given, runs at the correct time and scope.Please note that I have not mentioned once quality control, but only the tester. The reason is either a solo or a tester quality assurance testing, come in the testing phase to make this work. This is where the role of quality control can help the developer to work better to produce no errors. You see, a tester is working to end the product as soon as he / she receives. However, quality assurance support from the beginning to help the developer hesitate to advise, identify areas where it is prone to errors. Thus, in solving fewer mistakes. Not only does this help solve the problems with developers, taking into account the cost in a business perspective is much lower and the customer is much less nervous than before. Who would not love to have something free error right?So my experience says that when you are a quality control, the relationship between you and a promoter is made easier. As a team. Together they are able to work together in finding defects in advance is always appreciated. Not only that, sitting together at a table design, solutions, makes the developer to be aware of the different topics and areas to improve quality, thus having the mind to a higher quality.When you are a tester to find the flaws, it's always good to share some tactics with the developers on how you test. Maybe this will help developers test before delivering the best product. But this works if everyone is cooperative enough to look at the real objective - to deliver quality.


Thanks
www.vanitahasija.com

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Permalink Reply by Indira Pai on February 16, 2010 at 6:14pm

Hi Venu,

This is an interesting discussion. How you work with developers depends on your organization structure and polices. I work in a Startup organization, in a Agile based model. Hence I have got the opportunity to work very closely with the developers.

Sharing my views from my experience on it...

1)How can a good Tester-Developer relation result into better testing (or bad testing ?)


Any relationship which is good within a team always helps out in smoother interactions. ie., if we accept we work in a team towards a common goal: To release a bug free ( or as near to that as possible) software.

Examples where in it can be helpful:
1) Test cases can be reviewed by developers also, and inputs from them as to inclusion of some flows, some variations of test data always helps in building up more confidence in the system.

2) Developers can give feedback on testing cycles where in improvements can be beneficial to both testers and developers, such as flows which reduce testing time, additional information required in bug reporting which can help solve the bug more quickly with a high turnaround efficiency.

3) Testers can give feedback to developers as to the basic testing (Unit testing, System testing ) done on their end before handing it on to testers. This ensures that the easy to find bugs are found out and being worked upon, and testing team digs out other bugs for which they normally dont get time to test, hence a higher amount of confidence in testing cycles can be built.

4) And as a result of good team relationship, developers can always help out testers debug bugs which are non reproducible of difficult to reproduce, as they have coded that s/w, so they know the flows which can be helpful to reach there.

5) When a status of a bug is changed say from higher priority to a lower one, or from a valid to invalid one, or from fixed to reopened one, a discussion before doing so between the developer and tester always helps out take the whole change in a positive way, rather then enabling them to fight about it.

6) Developer shares out small tweak changes, which normally are skipped in release notes so that the tester can test in detail.


2)How can a bad Tester-Developer relation result into bad testing (or better testing ?).....


Some Examples of bad developer tester relationship:
1) Developer not accepting a bug found by Tester as a bug and marking it invalid before discussing it out..

2) Developer not accepting priority/ severity for a bug logged by Tester and marking it as lower priority rather then discussing it out.

3) Developer making changes in code and not letting the tester know.

4) Tester logging a bug without complete information, making it the developer's headache to debug and find out the actual steps of the bug.

5) Both of them may not be on the same page with regards to requirements, and this may lead to logging of invalid bugs or marking valid bugs as invalid due to lack of communication within themselves

6) Ego issues will result in lower quality work on both ends

7) Instead of working towards common a goal of releasing a high quality bug free S/W, they both end up in trying to show the other down.

I have personally benefited a lot from developing a healthy positive relationship with the developer when testing his piece of code. Naturally, when someone criticizes your hard work, no one likes it. Hence, there is bound to be some level of discomfort between the developer and the tester. It always better to understand, that the aim of testing is not to make the lives of developers difficult and vice versa, by both the developers and the testers, but to work together for a releasing a high quality S/W to clients.


Indira Pai

http://softwaretestingjn.blogspot.com/

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Permalink Reply by Venu on February 16, 2010 at 9:46pm

Hello Vanita and Indira...
Thanks a lot for sharing your views...Its really great and I fully agree with your views....
3 Ts(Trust, Transparency and Togetherness) in a Tester-Developer relation will make testing more effective and efficient !!!
..Venu

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