Finding low-hanging fruit Rikard Edgren
Now and then you hear that developers should implement better support for testability, so testers can work more efficient.
This is all well, but what about the opposite; how can testers make developers go faster?
System testers have system (and a lot of other) knowledge, and we can see if the product turned out really useful.
We can find major problems, but also trivial ones that are easy to fix, and both are needed for ambitious projects.
We can find small Enhancements, nifty little additions that are fast to implement and test, and make the product better.
This can be called low-hanging fruit; we find them, and the developers pick them.
All you need is an environment that encourages looking at the product’s best before looking at the requirements and to-do-lists.
There are a lot of other ways developers and testers can help each other, think about it, come up with good ideas for your situation, and add a comment to this post!
The last time I helped developers finalizing some of their boring unit tests, it didn’t take long before I got a lot of energy in my direction.
Mutual interest and collaboration inspire each other; you spend some time, but get more back.
And to get back to the initial thought; it’s a compelling argument to suggest that logging of this and that will make developer debugging much faster.
I find often a simple discussion between both parties often results in an inspiration of new ideas.
Some of my best work is done simply from catching up with developers on my team, and that’s the honest truth.
Communication can go a long long way.
Good point!
I often hear (and sometimes feel) that testers don’t have time to take part of early developer discussions (also when they are invited.)
This is short-term thinking; if we can help developers go faster and better, it will pay off in the end.
Talking is dynamic, and can give you better information than reading.