I've worked Software QA for about 3.5 yrs. now, having switched over from development and I can certainly sympathize with the article. While everyone rants and raves about the development process, few people seem to comment about the QA process.
Yes, QA often gets garbage to test and not enough time to do it, but in my experience, Software QA programs are also often inadequate. Few if any CS programs dedicate any instruction to testing. My own experience in my CS work in College consisted of 1 chapter from the Software Engineering book and 2 lectures. That's all. Everything I know about testing software I've taught myself.
At my last job (a well known and respected networking company), I did an informal poll of about 20 testers and found that only 3 of them could explain the differences between system testing, functional testing, integration testing, and unit testing. And some of these people had 10+ years experience as testers and were technical leads!
Another problem is this--a lot of talented engineers don't want to test. Software test is often viewed as the bastard step-child compared to development. Talented people view it as a stepping stone to development, not as a career. Many of the people I've worked with that have tested for many years are just not motivated. It's as though they went into a tech career for the $$$ but would rather be elsewhere. People who have a passion for breaking software are hard to come by. Consequently, you get a lot of interns, new grads, and inexperienced engineers working test, with unmotivated people leading them. A bad mix. . . Bugs that QA should find often slide through to Beta sites or even worse, paying customers in a "final" product.
Management often doesn't understand the role of Software QA. My feeling is that QA should be actively involved from early on in the design process since that's the place where most catastrophic bugs get spawned and act as the enforcer (i.e. QA should force developers to follow procedures and have the proper documentation).
I personally like test a whole lot more than development. I was bored with writing code, but have a blast trying to break it. I work with some real test talent at my job now, but that hasn't always been the case.
Slashdot Mirror
I've worked Software QA for about 3.5 yrs. now, having switched over from development and I can certainly sympathize with the article. While everyone rants and raves about the development process, few people seem to comment about the QA process.
Yes, QA often gets garbage to test and not enough time to do it, but in my experience, Software QA programs are also often inadequate. Few if any CS programs dedicate any instruction to testing. My own experience in my CS work in College consisted of 1 chapter from the Software Engineering book and 2 lectures. That's all. Everything I know about testing software I've taught myself.
At my last job (a well known and respected networking company), I did an informal poll of about 20 testers and found that only 3 of them could explain the differences between system testing, functional testing, integration testing, and unit testing. And some of these people had 10+ years experience as testers and were technical leads!
Another problem is this--a lot of talented engineers don't want to test. Software test is often viewed as the bastard step-child compared to development. Talented people view it as a stepping stone to development, not as a career. Many of the people I've worked with that have tested for many years are just not motivated. It's as though they went into a tech career for the $$$ but would rather be elsewhere. People who have a passion for breaking software are hard to come by. Consequently, you get a lot of interns, new grads, and inexperienced engineers working test, with unmotivated people leading them. A bad mix. . . Bugs that QA should find often slide through to Beta sites or even worse, paying customers in a "final" product.
Management often doesn't understand the role of Software QA. My feeling is that QA should be actively involved from early on in the design process since that's the place where most catastrophic bugs get spawned and act as the enforcer (i.e. QA should force developers to follow procedures and have the proper documentation).
I personally like test a whole lot more than development. I was bored with writing code, but have a blast trying to break it. I work with some real test talent at my job now, but that hasn't always been the case.