The death of the Testing specialist

In many QA Job opportunities and postings these days, I have observed that almost 90% of the job descriptions specify coding and automation knowledge as mandatory. This does seem natural, going by the logic that IT and software companies do require a certain amount of computing cognizance. But as a hard-core QA professional who’s spent more than 12 years trying to break code, it really doesn’t make sense.

And why you ask? Surely a good tester should know how to code? I beg to differ. While I agree that knowledge of coding is definitely an advantage for a tester; a feather in one’s cap, it is no substitute for hard-core testing and QA skills. It takes a fair bit of creativity, instinct and effort to find critical bugs in software. In today’s highly complex software scenario, testing has evolved into a highly specialized and viable career option rather than an offshoot of development and coding which many sadly perceive it to be even today. It is a mistake to ask your tester for coding skills. If the testers start to code, then what will the coders do?

In the good old days of yore, software project teams were split into specialized teams based on their job functions: BA teams for requirement gathering and liaising with the client, A technical architect for designing the software architecture, DBA teams for setting up and maintaining the Database,  Development teams for coding and unit testing, a QA team for preparing Test cases, RTM and testing the application and an Application Maintenance team for providing support after product Go-live. Each team had a manager for guidance. Each team had their defined boundaries and everyone had a clear cut task and skill. The work was well-defined and everyone was happy.

But the scenario is changing fast. Software is growing in complexity day by day. The landscape has become very competitive, especially for IT service providing companies based in India who look to add value to their clients by delivering high quality software in a reasonably quick time. Newer and more dynamic methods of Software delivery such as Agile have replaced traditional software models. In a bid to maximize revenue, many companies actually take testing very lightly and look to reduce the head count of the testing team. In many teams, the developer to Tester ratio is highly skewed in favour of the dev team. Many project and delivery managers sadly have a very biased opinion about testing. “Testing?!! Mehhh ….. anybody can do that!” they say. Very little priority and thought is given to testing these days and this is the prime cause of software failures. When software fails, the credibility of the organization and the team which built the software takes a hit and this results in numerous other complications.

Which is why you need specialized testing teams for detecting bugs before deploying the application and going live or before UAT. The art and science of detecting defects in code is a very specialized skill which requires a lot of patience, perseverance, skill, creativity, instinct and experience. No amount of coding experience can substitute it.

Let’s take a simple example. Lets’ say you’re a newly appointed chef in a reputed hotel and you have just rolled out a new signature dish. You will of course, taste a bit of it to check if all the ingredients have the right consistency. Too much sugar or too little salt, a dash of chilly and pepper to boost the taste. If you’re satisfied, you can send the dish out to the customer. But you would be taking a great risk in doing so. A wise and experienced cook will always have the maturity to let a specialist taster and sampler to sample the dish before sending it out. Let’s face it, we’re human. If we were in the cook's place, given the time and effort we have spent in making the dish we will tend to feel a bit biased towards it. Deep in our heart, we would like to believe that our dish is perfect. This unfortunately, is an ideal scenario. Something which is non-existent in the real world. Therefore, we would need someone experienced, neutral and unbiased for tasting our dish. Someone who can rightly detect any inherent flaws we might have inadvertently made in preparing the dish. Someone who understands what cooking and good taste is all about and also understands the customers’ needs. This would go a long way in ensuring that your dish is well received. The flip side is: if your dish isn’t well received, you can always blame the taster ... :)

The same is the case with Software Development. Software Developers and Managers must realize that no matter how expert they are in interpreting the requirements and coding and despite their best efforts, bugs and critical errors inadvertently creep in. Some might be minor or cosmetic issues, but some might be show stoppers and might ruin the software’s performance, costing the company a huge amount of money to make a fix. Like I said earlier, we’re only human. And developers do have the tendency to think that their code is infallible. Every Software team needs a good amount of specialized and experienced testers who can detect an inherent amount of bugs in the application. Like the specialized tasters, testers (pardon the synonym) help in reducing errors and improving software quality by making sure your software product performs as per specifications and meets the end users’ requirements. As I mentioned earlier this kind of testing is a full time job which requires loads of patience, perseverance, meticulousness, creativity, a sharp eye for defects and various other positive adjectives. Having a good knowledge of coding makes you a good programmer but does not necessarily make you a good tester. And of course; if things do go wrong in production … you always have the QA team to blame …. :).

There are of course some areas where coding expertise is required, such as Automation testing. But there again, a good record and play tool eliminates the need for complex scripting. And as I mentioned in an earlier blog post (Manual V/s Automation), a good round of manual testing is required before you can proceed for further testing such as Automation and performance.

So whether you like it or not, Dev guys; wake up and smell the coffee. You will need testers to examine your code.

Asking your tester to code is like asking your number 11 batsman to score a century each time he comes out to bat. When there are runs required to be scored and wickets are few in hand, your batting skills will come in handy. But that's not always applicable. You have specialist batsman to do the job and if they have let you down then you cannot blame the tail-enders for not scoring runs always. As in software, each person in a team should have a core skill (batting, bowing, wicket keeping) and he should stick to it and develop it well.  

This is an open request to all IT companies, big or small to let go of their obsession for testers with coding knowledge. This attitude has made testing an endangered profession as it is. If this attitude persists the day is not far off when testing and QA will be added to the extinct professions’ list. You ignore specialized testers at your own peril. In the long run, the effects on Software Quality will be there for all to see.