Role of a Tester – An interesting discussion with an upcoming tester.
Today i had an interesting discussion on the role of the testing with an upcoming tester Debasis from Chennai, in India.
Debasis: Hi venkat
Venkat: what’s up debasis
Venkat: going great. Happy Testing and more posts on my blog these days.
Venkat: That’s interesting. let me ask you some stuff on Testing
Venkat: what’s the role of testing in SDLC
Debasis:The same as of parents in the upbringing of a child
Venkat: oh. That’s interesting. But don’t you see it’s the role of the management more
Debasis: Okay b4 I cud answer, i want ur definition of SDLC
Venkat: The process used to develop software the phases involved init
Debasis: But to me the processes can be of many types and of different approaches. Assuming that I am following a generalised SDLC approach…
Venkat: go ahead.
Debasis: The role of testing is to ensure that the intended user gets a good quality product after the release
Venkat: hum. good quality product. great go on.
Debasis: But that in no way mean that the Product is Completely bug free after testing
Venkat: So what do you mean by a good quality product then. Are you acting as a quality police in order to get the good quality product out.
Debasis: what do you mean by quality police
Venkat:Look at this post to get some info on quality police
Debasis: oh no. I have not seen a quality police in my entire career. There may be ppl claiming to be quality police
Debasis: But my role is to point out important defects as quickly possible in a given SDLC phase
Venkat: that’s great to hear and expecting the same. u r coming on the track now. This is the role of testing.
Debasis: Thanks…
Venkat: Catching up important defects in early stages helps a lot. This is how you can become the headlights of the project as James Bach used to say by giving the right information at the right time.
Debasis: Yes u r right
Debasis: And to try and get them fixed b4 a Product release
Venkat: hum wait a while let’s discuss on fixing the issues part at a later stage.
Debasis: oh ok.
Venkat: How do you know that the bug that has been discovered is critical or not.
Debasis: Simple. If the defect is such that which may/can bother the stake holders of the product, them I assume that its important.
Venkat: Are you assuming ? Will there be any evidence for this bias.
Debasis: might be checking with the docs and stakeholder will resolve the conflict.
Venkat: That’s good to know.
Venkat: let me come back to this. Are you trying and get the issues fixed b4 a Product release
Debasis: yes. It’s my job to get all the issues fixed that are reported by me.
Venkat: Does your bug reports clear for the deveper to re-produce the same.
Debasis:Yes there are really good.
Venkat: Does your bug reports contain complete information on the bug. A story about the same and helps developers to reduce their debugging time for the issue.
Debasis: And I as far as reproducibility of an issue is concerned, I am thankfull to god to have been gifted with gr8 bug reporting skills 🙂
Debasis: Also sometimes I am assigned to try n reproduce some hard to reproduce issues posted by other testers
Venkat: that’s great man. So what do you mean by trying to get the issues fixed.
Debasis: Convincing, motivating & helping the developers to get the issues fixed.
Venkat: oh is it. Why do you need to do it. Let me ask you some thing different. How many times did the developers tried you to convince, motivate and helped you to uncover more issues in their code. Think for a while on this.
Debasis: What ?
Debasis: Hmm.. May be u r rite. Will definitely think over it
Venkat: you have given the enough information on the issues so that they can be re-produced or to debug the same. And more over you have also given it’s relevance wrt it’s stake holders.
Debasis: But isn’t my job to get my issues FIXED? If they r really imp.
Venkat: No way. That’s the role of the management. If they are really imp, they will get it fixed. Why should u worry about the same and spoil the relationships with the developers.
Debasis: hmm, good point. will try to ponder about it
Venkat: most of the testers here in india see Testing as a support function to the development. So this has been there in their mindset.
Debasis: But I don’t. I see Testing as an important part of SDLC which can’t be substituted by anythingelse
Venkat: That’s great to hear. If that’s the case, i don’t expect the statement, But isn’t my job to get my issues FIXED?. how many times did ur dev team asked to report bugs on their code ?
Debasis: May be u r rite. Will definitely think over it
Venkat: The role of tester is to catch the imp bugs at the early stages and give complete info on the same as qucikly as possible. It should contain all the required info for that issue to reproduce.
Debasis: Sure, thanks. Any way, I enjoy chatting with you
Venkat: i want an upcoming testers like u to be very clear on the role of testing and the role of tester. Once this is clear, you can explore on the skills that are required for that role and improve the same. hope this helps
Debasis: Thanks again for sharing ur views on testing with me
Enjoy the reading and share your views
Explore posts in the same categories: Software Testing, Thinking like a Tester
March 25, 2007 at 11:21 am
Hi Venkat,
First of all Thanks for considering me as an upcoming Tester in India. 🙂 But while chatting with you I never expected that you would post it in your blogs. Any way, I am sitting with my fingers crossed and waiting for comments from other readers.
Thanks,
– Debasis
May 5, 2007 at 5:56 pm
wow thats really great…. i enjoyed a lot while reading your conversion. Its really so important that one has to know there roles while getting into there domains generally speaking. As we being tester we has to be more clear in our ideas,cuz, we deal with improving quality to the customers in such way that they has to be convinced and satisfy.
June 20, 2007 at 9:37 am
Great Post…..an interesting conversation to read. Really enjoyed the way questions were put up by Venkat and answers given by Debasis. Debasis…..in fact u are an upcoming Tester…I must say.
June 22, 2007 at 4:58 pm
what i know is :
1- During Req phase: tester will check the requirements conduct walkthroughs.
2- During Design phase: tester will check the DS and conduct walkthroughs.
3- During Construction phase: tester will create test cases, test enviroment, test bed preparation.
4- During testing phase: tester will execute test cases conduct verification and validation activities.
5- Regression Test.
6- Shipment Assurance.
July 20, 2007 at 12:35 am
I doubt mr.debasis is in real sw testing world. But sure that he is trying hard to upcome as a tester. Not to mention mr.Venkat is very cool….the proffesional interviewer. Concluded the points very clear.
It leaves one with imp points to remember as a tester…that,
What is SDLC?
What is meant by Testing?
Why and When to find Bugs?
Importance of a Bug?
How to fix a Bug?
What is the Role of Management?
What is the Importance of Communication in Issue dealing?
July 20, 2007 at 10:21 am
Vijaya,
Thanks for your views.
Debasis has proven capabilities interms of his passion towards software testing and quality of applications we deliver.
Many of the new comers into those situations and Debasis is not exception there.
It’s better if the seniors in the community put them in the right direction and bring more awareness of what are the important activities for a tester.
Regards,
Venkat.
August 23, 2007 at 2:01 pm
These Conversation (Views) will be really helpful to the freshers who are just entering into this Field. The role of a tester in SDLC is very important but many of them does not know about them. This conversation will surely help them to know the same.
Regards,
Sudha.M
August 6, 2013 at 12:11 am
I think, organisation need to think once again for the tester…
Tester are key resources who can play any role in the industry. As per my observation, requirement must be analysed by tester rather than any other resources, so that all scenarios must be come in front of us at early state.Some other benefits are also on the same
1. Help in effort estimation
2. No time is required to find out the scenarios at developer, they just write unit test case and run.
3. Each release will not take more than 2 round.
4. It is also better for tester functionality related are ready in early stage of SCDL
5. Improve the coverage
…
…
…
Best Regards,
Sandeep Nagpal