This text is a review of the one posted on Bytes Don't Bite.
Should people, who work with software testing, have development skills? The business knowledge is necessary for professionals in the testing area, but understanding about the structure of what is tested, which is primarily a software, is also important.
James Whittaker, who worked at Microsoft on testing and currently works at Google, wrote a book that demonstrates some techniques to "break" a software. The displayed faults are interesting, and likely to be achieved in black-box approach. The book demonstrates failures that can be caused by the user interface or through other software. Whittaker also says that many developers have difficulty to understand the environment in which the software works.
In the experience I had with software testing until now, I had the opportunity to work with several kind of testers that only interact with buttons, or other visual components, which are offered through specifications. Such testers disregarded file system, external components, operating system, network, relationship with other features, etc..
With this post, I want to encourage a fight.
Software testers, you must learn where the developers leave the bugs. Believe me, most of the failures of software are in the code! Consider different ways to find the problems. Understand the operating system, examine the software source code, understand networks, study the shortcomings of the used frameworks, study how to verify the security of the product (do not use the excuse that security is a non-functional requirement), consider all that is valid to ensure software quality.
Developers, will you let the testers break your code? See what these testers can do with the code produced by you! Approach to the thought of the testers, see how they act. Develop a critical thinking. Work hard to not let common flaws happen. Study where the bugs appear, to be able to avoid them!
At the end, this healthy dispute, between preventing and find bugs, is a way to get a software with quality and a team in continuous evolution.
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