Its a developer’s world!

Being a tester, I should be trying to bust that myth. Yet, here I am endorsing that view. It is an irony. But this is the truth.

The world of software has come a full cycle. It started with only developers who wrote abstruse code. Then testers came into the picture. Their job was to break it and they were getting paid for that. They were absolved from all responsibilities of understanding the code beneath. They were only concerned about the functionality.

With the fast paced changing of the business and the rise of internet, their arose the problem of increased number of users and thus the performance of applications became a determining factor in the success of the business. Thousands of users accessing the application around the same time broke the servers. And so the performance testers were born. Yet in all these cycles, one thing remained the same – Only developers would look at the code and testers will ignore the code. Even the unit testing was supposed to be done by the developers and the testing will be done by independent testers. This was to remove the my-code bias they said. All true. But the adage remained -

Testers would not look into the code beneath.

Some claimed the world is changing. The testers will be the new lord of the software world as more applications will go in maintenance mode. But technologies evolve faster than a single cell amoeba. The developer remained the king. The testers became the judiciary, holding aloft the high ground of ensuring the business functionality is as per the requirements.



However, today testers are getting challenged. This time it is not the old rival – the developers. But technology itself on which they worked. Instead of the straight-forward, three tier architecture, the architecture moved to n-tiered architecture, involving newer design principles. The first technology that challenged testers was the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Suddenly the familiar UI, which was the tester’s playground, was robbed from them. They were asked to test a non-UI functionality. SOA was sacrilege for a tester’s religion revolved around UI. Now it is the norm. With host of new middlewares coming, each of them non-UI, the testers have lost their favorite playground.

The MQs, JMS, and the webMethods of the world have asked a new question to all the testers. How are you going to test? How will you break the code, without knowing the newer technologies? What testing can be done to ensure these middlewares are functioning as designed?

To answer these questions, testers need to abolish the old adage. They not only have to look into the code, but they have to understand it and then write code themselves which will try to break the developer’s code. A big challenge for a tester is the shrinking testing time in SDLC. Yep that is why, the business do not want a tester who knows only business and write test cases around. Organizations want a person who not only understands business and but can write codes to break the code. A person in whom both technical and business skills are in yin-yang balance. That points to a developer with business understanding.

So testers – to save your jobs, become the next generation developers. Alright, that is a bit over the board :). Yet the essence of the post is brush up your coding skills – your next project may just need it.

PS: Just to be on a technically correct side, testers these days need to know the language in which the code was developed, may have to write wrapper codes which would give interface like features. Of course, there still exists UI-based testing, yet organizations depend on automation to get the UI testing done. What they want testers from testers is innovative test strategies which can efficiently test the mix of old and new technologies, independent of the developers. A big challenge, yet an achievable one like all other challenges..

P.PS: I have taken the liberty of taking some assumptions in this post to emphasize my point. So your comments are most welcome.

FIGHTING THE CLIMATE CHANGE !!!

Everyone wants to 'go green' but are we really working towards it not really.I feel we should do something about it. Here is what few things that every one of us should follow from today to help reduce your environmental impact, so that we can save money , live happier and more importantly healthier life.First and foremost that I learnt and experienced along with my soul-are the concepts of

Save water to save money.

--> Shorter showers to reduce water use. This will lower your water and heating bills too.

--> When you wash your hands at wash basin try to install sensor type washbasin's or else here is the thing when you are washing your hand with soap don't let the water flow until you are going to use it keep it closed at what ever stage. This can be seen even in your day to day activities like while brushing your teeth, a person may be brushing his teeth but the water may be flowing not knowing when he/ she would use the tap.

Less gas = more money (and better health!).

--> Walk or bike to work. This saves on gas and parking costs while improving your cardiovascular health and reducing your risk of obesity.

Be bright about light

--> Make it a habit to turn off the lights when you're leaving any room for 15 minutes or more and utilize natural light when you can.

--> Make it a policy to buy Energy saving lightbulbs ( CFL ) and fixtures, which use at least two-thirds less energy than regular lighting, we could also use timers or motion sensors lamps that automatically shut off lights when they're not needed or when there is no object around it.

Maximize computer efficiency

Make it a habit to turn off your computer—and the power strip it's plugged into—when you leave for the day. Otherwise, you're still burning energy even if you're not burning the midnight oil.

Go paperless when possible

Make it a habit to think before you print: could this be read or stored online instead? When you receive unwanted catalogs, newsletters, magazines, or junk mail, request to be removed from the mailing list before you recycle the item.

Stop using disposable bags – order some reusable bags, or make your own
Pay as many bills as possible online.
Unplug unused chargers and appliances.
Collect rainwater, and use it to water your houseplants and garden.
Use cloth napkins daily instead of paper.