Testers in Software Development [closed]

Question

In my company we develop a software product. Until now we haven't had any testers, so basically the developers were the testers, and of course the customer and users (not good).

Our team now consists of 4 developers and we work mainly with Cruisecontrol, Flex, ASP.NET, IIS, MSSQLServer and WebORB. I am urging the managers to hire a tester but I wonder if testers are normal in software development. So:

1. Are testers necessary in product (or large scale project) development?
2. Should testers only do test work? Or can you expect from a developer or graphical designer to test half of the week?
3. Where can you find good testers (I suppose there isn't a degree in software development testing)?
4. Is it the task of the project manager of technical teamlead to test everything?

thx, Lieven Cardoen

ps: Thx, Vinay, we do have Unit Tests but indeed, Unit Tests can't cover what Testers can.

Answer 1

1) Are testers necessary in product (or large scale project) development?

Yes. Somebody's got to take responsibility for assessing when something is tested enough and working out which bugs need fixing or can ship because there are workarounds.

2) Should testers only do test work? Of can you expect from a developer or graphical designer to test half of the week?

Testers often do customer support work or work with the customer to develop requirements. The testers can act as internal voices for the customers... and if they interact with the customer enough should feel a sense of responsibility for getting a suitable quality product out of development they know the customer will want.

3) Where can you find good testers (I suppose there isn't a degree in software development testing)?

I bet there is a degree somewhere. A lot of the testers we have are computer science university students who are doing a year out in industry before they go back for their final year at uni.

4) Is it the task of the project manager of technical teamlead to test everything?

Not necessarily. It depends how big the team is, if it's small, then yes, someone can double up and do both roles. For bigger projects though, these are different people.

---

Remember. Having a tester is not an excuse for developers/programmers not to test code as they write it or create unit test. Developers still have responsibility for developing a good product. They should never attempt to make up an excuse for a bug they created by blaming a tester for not finding it.

Answer 2

It's question #10 on the Joel test:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

Should tell you everything you need to know. :)