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Coder vs. Tester: Who's Better?
This is one question that often comes up when interviewing applicants to our department. We come to a point where we ask what the applicant prefers doing — testing or coding. The usual answer of the applicant is that he or she prefers to do code rather than do testing. Honestly, if I was an applicant who just graduated from school, I’d prefer coding over testing. After all, that is what I was taught to do when I was still in school. However, over the years, I’ve come to a realization that the better way to go should have been to be a tester first, before doing the code. By the way, I am not referring to testing that involves high-level tasks, i.e., making sure that the windows and icons are of the right size, etc. I am referring to testing at a lower level where you can see how each object or function interacts with the others to complete particular tasks. In Software Development Life Cycle parlance, I’m referring to the Unit Test and Integration Test stages. So why, after all these years, have I changed my way of thinking? 1. Working as a tester first before doing code would allow the developer ample time to learn not only how a particular system is designed, but also how it works in the real world.
2. The developer can get exposed to best (and worst) practices in a manner where he or she can see how it directly affects the code being tested.
3. The coding standard can get ‘etched’ into the mind of the tester since day in and day out it’s all that he or she sees. With this in mind, I can see one real-world situation where this has been proven to work well. This is in the world of open source. Most of the participants actually start by getting the code from the internet and participate in testing. Later on, as they learn how the code works, they slowly post one suggestion after another on how to make a particular routine run faster, or how a bug can be fixed. The cycle goes on an on until this tester is given less responsibilities in testing and more in the development side of the project. Then lo and behold, the tester is now a full-time coder. Now, if you were asked the same question, which would you prefer doing upon entering a particular project? |
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