Traditional development practices had precise roles and responsibilities. Team members were confined to those roles and were not supposed to think outside of them. The belief was that specialized roles allowed people to work faster by focusing on their work only.

Traditional practices are being phased out by agile development. Team members are working more closely together. Specialized roles are becoming blurred. Roles are overlapping. The developer vs tester internal struggler is coming to an end.

Historically, developers devalued testers. As programmers, we are heavily invested in our code.  We designed, wrote and tested it. Our code is like our children, there can be nothing wrong.

Testers feel developers can’t perform proper testing. Testers feel we are too attached to our code and can’t take criticism. Developers are too focused on the big picture to catch the small things. Always working towards a solution instead of testing complex scenarios a user might create. Developers are always looking for the solution. Testers are always searching for the problem.  

In the search for speed and quality, we need to put these feelings aside and work as a team. Product quality starts with a test first approach. This approach requires both developers and testers to test code. We should cross train each other to gain additional skills while improving our development.

What Developers Gain From Cross Training:

It is time for developers to take testing seriously and stop looking at it as a punishment. We have limitations as testers. Recognizing our weaknesses is an advantage. We can work to turn this into a strength. We encourage you to learn from testers and don’t be afraid to ask them questions.

We need to change our mind set. We need to think like a user. No more looking for the simple solution. We have to create positive and negative test scenarios like a true user would. It is your goal to try to find the weak spots in the program. To help, I recommend keeping a checklist of test items and their results.

What Testers Gain From Cross Training:

Testers have a valuable resource they work with every day. You have experienced developers that can teach you how to program. Like any skill, practice makes perfect. Grab a private sandbox and start building a small program or fixing bugs. Research the code you are testing as well. Try to understand the code and why it is producing certain results.

A tester with the ability to program can produce valuable automated test code. Automated test code provides faster and repeatable testing. It combines your testing experience with your new skill of coding. You are improving your skill level while improving your organization development process.

Developers and testers have a common goal of producing high-quality apps for their users. Collaboration and cross training enhances the skills of everyone on the team, increasing productivity and quality of development.  We encourage cross training within your team if there is a divide between developer and testers.