Why can't programmers test and what can you do about it? Do your developers take part in testing tasks? Fact! [Most] developers are not good testers. So how can we help then out? Full webinar recording here: https://www.practitest.com/qa-learningcenter/webinars/developer-testing-webinar/

1. Joel Montvelisky
Chief Solution Architect
Simplify Test Management
Why Can’t Programmers Test
-&-
What Can You About It?

2. What do we want to cover today?
• Why are developers BAD testers?
• How can you help your developers test better?
• When to involve developers in your testing
efforts?
• Questions and Answers

3. A little about me…
 Professions :
(last 19 years)
- Tester
- QA Manager
- Blogger
- Speaker
- Solution Architect
 PractiTest:
- Chief Solution Architect
- QA Manager

4. About
 SaaS ALM Solution
 Simple & Intuitive – yet – Methodological & Flexible
 Integrates with Jira, Selenium, Jenkins, Pivotal Tracker, QTP,
Bugzilla, Ranorex, SoapUI, etc…
 Best Darn Support in the Business 

5. Show of hands
“Raise your hand”
if developers in your
team take part in
testing tasks.

6. Show of hands No. 2!
“Raise your hand”
if you are happy with
the results of your
developer’s testing

7. Fact:
(Most) Developers
are not good testers

8. Why are developers
so BAD at testing?

9. We are all wired
differently…

10. Top reasons why Devs
suck at testing…

11. Reason 1:
Parental Feelings towards their creations
We all feel proud
and protective about
our kids
Something similar happens to developers with their
code.

12. Developers take complex business scenarios and
brake them down into very simple features
Reason 2:
Developers simplify complex problems
Testing is about combining simple
features into complex scenarios to
find bugs and issues
- versus -

13. Reason 3:
Focused on the “Positive Path”

14. Reason 4:
Miss small things in big pictures

15. Reason 5:
Lack of End-to-End knowledge &
Real-User perspective
Reason 6:
Less experience with common bugs &
application pitfalls

16. Reason 7, 8, 9 and 10 together…
(Some) Developers see testing as a
reprimand and an inferior task.

17. How to help developers
test better?

18. Step 1:
Don’t make it a reprimand,
dev testing should be regular work!
-Clear & bold message from
management
-Everyone should test
-Set aside time and priorities for testing
-Provide visibility to results and value

19. Step 2:
Understand the limitations and
weaknesses of developers

20. Step 3:
Teach Developers to plan their testing
 Don’t test your own code
 Work with the testing team
to find relevant cases
 Think about positive and
negative scenarios up front – WRITE THEM DOWN!
 Work with Checklists and Heuristics

21. Step 4:
What to do while testing
 At the beginning use pair-testing
 Have a notebook handy, write down ideas & questions
 Work with extreme & unconventional data
 Think about mediocre users
 Look at the complete application and not only at the
scenario at hand – find the “along the way” bugs

22. Step 5:
Developer testing should have value
-Devs should have a say in what they
test and how they do it!
- Have developers report bugs and
follow up on them
- Count them as part of the testing resources for
reporting and metrics
- Don’t give developers only the low priority testing tasks

23. Step 6:
Involve developers more in the testing
process – regardless if they are testing
or not!

24. When should we
involve devs in testing?
 When there is value to be gained from their work
 When you can take time to work with them
 When there is a need to get a whole team effort
 When you have something to gain from their
experience and knowledge
 When your organization is ready to do this

25. Questions & Answers
Developer Testing
Do’s and Don’ts

26. About
 SaaS ALM Solution
 Simple & Intuitive – yet – Methodological & Flexible
 Integrates with Jira, Selenium, Jenkins, Redmine, Bugzilla, QTP,
Ranorex, SoapUI, etc…
 Best Darn Support in the Business 

27. Thank You!
joel@practitest.com
http://qablog.practitest.com