Test First, Code Later
Embedding the value of Test Engineers
“I found another bug guys. That makes a total of 54!”
“We’re doing a great job!”
In this hypothetical conversation — and an all too familiar one for many test engineers — my first thought is: are we doing a great job as testers? Or are we missing a trick?
Having worked in the software industry for the last 6 or so years (it doesn’t seem a long time, but it is in the world of tech), it fascinates (and horrifies) me that testing, for many companies, is still an activity that happens at the end of the software development process.
For software professionals generally, we strive to achieve a very high level of quality, wanting to be the best at what we do. Yet, instead of spending more time really understanding what we’re building and preventing bugs, we’re spending most of our time chasing and managing them.
So what if we brought testing (and test engineers) to the beginning of the process, and thought about discovering problems before delivering code? Afterall, as a test engineer, I’ve always thought of my role as an important complement to the entire development process: I’m the person who’s job it is to ask questions — not to just click buttons. As QA Manager, for me, this early involvement of testing is the key to achieving the technical excellence we’re committed to where I work. I don’t want to see a list of 54 bugs: I want to see 5, and have the knowledge that the product we’ve built is the right one, delivered to the highest quality.
So how do we achieve this? By continually inspecting and adapting our processes to ensure we bring test engineers forward at the start; by focusing on conversations, and reinforcing the commitment of the whole team. In the end, we believe it’s not tools but conversations that matter. Conversations with the right people will save you, affecting the kind of culture shift we need to test first, code later.
Always happen to hear feedback so either leave a comment or tweet me and if you’re a test engineer and you share our point of view, we’re recruiting!
