Tuesday 6 January 2009

Is it really 2009 ?

Whilst browsing reddit programming I found a blog about The Dysfunctional State of Bug Tracking

It seems to have the usual confusion between QA and QC

"QA is rarely treated as a part of the development process."

If QA isn't part of the development process then what else is there for QA to do ?

"I've been in more than a few places where most of the testers were Art School dropouts"

Ouch
( any Art School droputs reading this blog ? )

Maybe the best solution is something none of us have thought of before.
I recommend to start by making QA a real part of the development process. This integrating QA and development. Allow testers to influence development and allow developers to influence the test process somewhat. Let's make code easier to test


Sigh
It's 2009
I really shouldn't be reading stuff like this where suggesting QA really does QA and testers and devs are both involved seems like a radical notion

Happy New Year everyone

3 comments:

Paul said...

You're right, people should not be thinking that. The QA process should start the moment requirements are drafted.

What is a talking point is the balance between the QA and Dev teams and getting that right is a difficult task: you need to work closely with them but always maintain objectivity.

Anonymous said...

Hi, first off, I just want to say thank you for providing some insight on the topic.

In too many environments where I've worked, QA doesn't get the treatment it should have. Often, code is written, and an app tossed over the wall for the testers. God forbid testers and developers actually talk to each other.

On a government contract I was involved in a project where the test plan was actually kept a secret from the development team.
The reason given, they "don't want the developers to code for the test plan".
My response, "we shouldn't be coding for anything else".

It's a shame that integrating QA and development is considered radical (in so many places).

Sorry about the confusion over QC/QA, maybe as part of integration, I need to do more homework too
;-)

testerab said...

I never applied to art school, but I did drop out of A level, does that count? Physics was easier.

I suspect that an art school background, dropout or not, is just as likely to generate good thinkers as a compsci one.