A tester among developers, or Alice in Wonderland, part 2

If you missed the first part of the article read it here.

It would be unfair to ignore the risks that testers face working side by side with developers. For me, the description of the defects became the most serious risk.

Sometimes, testers try to save their time and efforts by discussing defects directly rather than receiving detailed written reports. That said, as new developers and testers join the team, having clear descriptions is important to get them up to speed.

Initially, I even tried to adjust the testing strategy depending on the specific functions of the developer. However, that was not correct, as sooner or later, it leaded to missed defects.

The first time I found myself in the epicenter of a developers meeting I felt like I was in another country.

But, as it always happens in the real life, after a while their language didn’t seem so foreign.

In the beginning I appeared at such meetings by chance (all meetings were held near my workplace), but it soon became clear that my presence at the general meetings was quite useful for the project.

Being a part of those meetings I understood every single detail and often was valuable in developing the testing strategy. Moreover, I informed team members how the code or its part would be tested, that helped to prevent defects proactively.

The abovementioned communication rules are pretty clear and simple. However, these obvious steps are rarely executed when the team is distributed across different floors, different cities and countries.

All too often, IT project participants forget that developers and testers have the same goal: to deliver high-quality software. No matter how talented its participants are, the project will never run smoothly if the team doesn’t strive for the same result. Providing a common goal helps establish a team environment and clear lines of communication. Everyone will benefit —software developers, testers, managers, customers, and the company in general.

The article by Anastasia Kotsevich — a QA Team Lead at a1qa —  was published on Stickyminds. Read the full article here.