Friday, October 5, 2012

Tester vs Developer


I am dedicating this post to all my Tester and Developer friends. Reason behind writing this post is to analyze the sweet (not really ;) relation between tester and Developer and finding out some solution to make it better J.

 It is very common everywhere developer thinks that tester’s are trouble makers and there is some bitterness at some point between these two roles.

 For developer there code is like their baby and no one like to hear flaws in their baby and as a tester we just think about the quality and that’s why we find the bug. Well it’s natural if you are developing something then it will have bugs but whether to fix that bug or not is a different story and it depends on many factors like severity, priority, type and scope. But for a Tester a bug is bug and a tester will always try to point out the bugs after bugs in the testing phase because it is s their work

 So; when we got lots of bugs to fix and count increase, developers get frustrated at the number of bugs and some time on the person as well and this is where the debate occurs about the valid bugs, invalid bugs. A Developer always tries to prove the bug is invalid or it is a feature; some of the common replies which we get in this situation are:

 “That’s weird…”
"It works on my machine"
"No user would ever do that"
"That's not a bug, it's a feature"
"It's supposed to do that."
There is a long list available about the developers reply to testers but t I have just written which I have heard frequently.
 Now  the question arise that; is it all about the Developers?
 Hmmm…..Answer for this is simply No. In this game these two players has different and opposite role and to make this relation better both need to work together as team.

 A Developer needs to understand that when we raise bug then we are not criticizing a developer or not pointing the mistake in the person and on the other side a Tester should give the proper information about the bug you got and about the scenario in which it has occur and what impact it is going to have in business.

Developers and Testers can actually help each other in many ways; for example a Devloper can help in the following ways:
  1. By sharing information;Since you have developed the product so you can share the information about the diffrent paths and the impact and vital informaiton which you think could help to make the product better.
  2. Before you give any of the above given reply; please give it a thought that tester is not pointing out mistake in you; It’s just that he/she has raised the bug before client will raise; So spend some time in understanding the issue rather than just simply rejecting it.
There are many ways in which a tester can play a big role to make this relation better; tester's can help in the following ways:
  1. Do not hide your scenarios thinking that towards the end of phase you will raise it as a bug; If you have got something in your mind share it with the team and this way we will not only build a good relation but also will have a better product because when both the parties shares the information they both can help each other in understanding features which they might have missed.
  2. Talk frequently with the developers; don’t just talk with them when you have got some issue.
  3. Raise a bug in a way so that it should not hurt the feelings means raise the issue in a positive way.
  4. Before raising the issue do some research yourself; for example:  if you are trying to open some folder in some directory and you are not able to open that then just blindly don’t drop the email; At least first check if you are in the proper directly if the path is proper or not.

There are many more things for developers and testers which i can write about but I am just keeping it short :).

So now all my developer friends please share your experience and write what kind of help you think a tester should provide and vice versa my tester friends what you think the developer should do or should not.

You can also share any quote which you might have heard from a Developer or from a Tester!!!!!!



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Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

13 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 5, 2012 at 10:01 PM

    Hi Huma,
    Gone through the above article Testers Vs Developers and found quite interesting.

    Here is my wish that how a developer and Tester should be:

    Those are the some of the above comments where testers will be listening from developers when ever testers raise a defect...

    but to eradicate these difference between developers and testers...testers need to provide full proof of the issue by providing some valid screenshots,making a call and explaining the issue or by proving the step by step details while raising the issue in Defect Report tools..

    Having a good coordination between developers and testers will produce a good product which will be help full for the success in the release of the product which results in company growth.

    Kiran Kumar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Huma AnsariOctober 7, 2012 at 10:54 AM

      Thanks Kiran for finding it interesting. And yes i agree with you good coordination between developer and tester is needed.

      Delete
  2. IslamOctober 6, 2012 at 6:11 AM

    Superb job Huma!

    For the success of a project/company we (tester/developer/ +) should be working as a team & should never lose our coll :).

    And one more interesting line that is used by developers in my project

    "Its an environmental issue."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Huma AnsariOctober 7, 2012 at 11:01 AM

      Thanks a lot. I appreciate that you read it and commented your thoughts.

      Delete
  3. ArchanaOctober 6, 2012 at 9:02 AM

    It is nice article dear.
    “Testing is an infinite process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous in order to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous.”

    ReplyDelete
  4. Harish Kumar.MushyamOctober 9, 2012 at 1:09 AM

    Hi Huma,

    Fabulous extraodinary work done.....!

    The concept you explained above is not only about Tester vs Developer, its how to improve the Quality of a product and working environment in coorparate companies.

    Between Develpoers and Tester's there should be mutual understanding of the product. Every one in the project like support guys, developers and testers need to contribute there 100% effort to produce a quality product.

    You have explained key areas where developers and testers can help each other.

    I want to add some more points :

    1. Developers and Testers as to think in customer point of view. (Before developing, developers need to understand in detail of the requirement and then starts thinking in business level and customer level to implement a quality product. Before testing, testers need to have proper understanding of the requirements and proper knowledge of Domain. Think in +ve and -ve ways for covering all the scenarios. One thing testers need to keep in mind that if i am a customer then will i accept this product).

    2. Developers should share the information with testers in intital stage, because developers will think in his or her own ways to build a module.If they share the info. with testers then testers will give more ideas and suggestions to get it perfectly done.

    3. Testers job is not only cracking the code and finding the bugs/defects, according to the requirements and business standards they need to raise the defect and it should be properly documented by giving indetail description of test scenario, test steps, screenshots etc..,

    4. After finishing the code developers should compare the design,features with other similar applications in order to get some more idea or new fetaures.

    5. Last but not least to get a qaulity product developers need to do Unit testing once moudle is ready, testers need to do integration and system testing, Support/Tech guys need to do installation testing, UAT as to be done before hand overing to customer.

    My Quote : "Quality of work gives Quality of product..."

    Thanks for sharing the valuable information keep posting with different concepts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Huma AnsariOctober 9, 2012 at 1:58 AM

      Thanks a lot Harish, for reading the post and adding the points to the list.And very well said " "Quality of work gives Quality of product..."

      Delete
  5. UnknownOctober 9, 2012 at 2:24 AM

    That's true its all about sharing knowledge with each other. That's cool. Great Job

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Huma AnsariOctober 9, 2012 at 10:19 PM

      Thanks Nikhil for reading the post; and yes your are right it's all about sharing the knowledge with each other.

      Delete
  6. Sisir RayaguruOctober 10, 2012 at 4:26 AM

    Nice article, Huma. And thank you for sharing your tester' thoughts; would certain help a developer understand a tester.

    Tester vs Developer, a never ending discussion. Here are certain points to make Developer and QA Relationship Healthy...
    1. Objective must be to focus on quality. Usually a developer cares about delivering on time whereas a tester emphasizes on the number of defects.
    2. Both, Developer and Tester must consider interchanging roles for a while to know each others responsibility.
    3. Following newer development models, such as Agile in which developers and testers form a part of the same team.

    A Developer must acquire a bit of pessimism and a Tester optimism.

    Thanks,
    Sisir
    (A Developer)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Huma AnsariOctober 10, 2012 at 1:16 PM

      Thanks Sisir for spending time on reading this post and making suggestions. Following agile is indeed very good way of making the relation better as most of the problem occurs due to lack of communication or miscommunication.

      Delete
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