I think it is possible to have an “us and them” kind of attitude between the developers and testers. You are supposed to work together to a common goal; deliver quality software.
Since testers have the responsibility of making the final call if the work is good or not, and can send it back to the Developer, then there can be some resentment here. I have felt that a bit when I was a Tester, but it’s rare to witness events like that.
There was a time when it was announced that the Software Tester job title was changing to sound more important, and recently, there has been rumours that my employer is considering making Developers and Testers: “Engineers”. I don’t understand what a blanket term like that even achieves. Surely it is a nightmare for managers to sort out projects in the future. New managers may end up trying to put several Testers in a team together because all they see on a spreadsheet are several “Engineers”.
Surely it makes recruitment harder when you are advertising for “Engineers” and it isn’t clear what job you are applying for.
Some Testers can write code, and they will create Automated Test scripts, or some helpful application. Not all Testers can write code, or have even a slight interest in writing code.
I think it’s a case of managers trying to fix a problem that doesn’t even exist. There have been a few Testers that were vocal that they don’t want to be called Engineers. They are Testers and are proud of it. They feel that being called Engineers will come with the expectation that they have to be able to code and they don’t want that. I’m sure some Testers will be happy with the proposed change, but I think most people will agree it is a stupid change.
I do wonder who came up with the idea? Why change something if there isn’t a problem? What problem is this trying to address?
Stranger Coding Tings 