Testing - A Second Class Career ?

So what makes good software ? Well for me its software that as been designed to meet the requirements of the customer, architected well so it's flexible, easy to extend and has a long shelf life. It's also been designed well, using good software engineering practices and tested vigorously.

Re-read that statement. Why is testing seen as a separate action. Testing should be part of the whole development process, from the moment of inception ofa project, through the design and delivery into the ( hopefully ) many lucrative years of maintenance. So why is testing such a second class career. Why is it that the vast majority of testers are either failed developers, wannabe developers who cannot program, or people who think IT is a good career, and see testing as an entry point and then normally a stagnation point.

Don't get me wrong, I've met some good testers, what you would call vocational testers, who truly believe that good software comes from good testing, but the bad ones so outweigh the good ones that it reflects across the whole group.

What testers need are role models, people who show the way, we need a Linus or a Bill for the testing world, people who lead by example and inspire peopleto follow them. We need to create mentors who gets publicity, press and makes big bucks, because 2 out of those 3 motivate 99.9999% of everyone in IT. What we don't want are a rag bag bunch of people who really really want to work in IT but have no idea what a computer is, and their only path is to be a point and click monkey being spoon fed instructions on what and how to test.

What makes a good tester? Well a bad developer doesn't. To be a really good tester, you have to understand what you are testing, you have to know how its been constructed and what the actions you are carrying out actually mean. I don't expect hard core coders to be testers but I don't expect a basic understanding of programming.

A good tester is someone who to all intents and purposes is a bit of a sadist. They really want to make a developers life hell, they want to get him in their claws and pound and pound away finding fault after fault until they leave a ruined dried up developer, but with a really good quality bit of software.

So why are so many testers timid individuals who if they found a major bug, wouldn't dare raise it because the developer would just shout them down and thetester would just cry. I want equals and peers as testers not second class citizens with second class education and second class training.

Testing is a fantastic career, as much as development when you are on equal terms with the rest of the team, but when you are viewed by your peers as lower class, less experienced and lower paid what hope is there for all of us.