Programmer Tester V/s Non Programmer Tester

Hi Reader,

It has been long time since I have been thinking about something which I am sharing with you here, after I got an interim answer . It is a conflicting situation every tester passes through at some stage or the another. I have to warn you this early of the post that perceptions may differ and experiences vary from one person to another.

__ Programmer Tester V/s Non Programmer Tester __

Yes, I was wondering as a Tester should I spend some time learning programming or live a life concentrating only on Testing and nothing other than that. Its a tough call for any tester but more than 90% of the Testers I have seen learn programming after this kind of confusion coming up. The rest 10% could be split in categories like - unable to learn programming - feeling programming is boring - no passion for either testing or programming - feeling programming is a brainy job - happy with whatever job in hand ... To be frank, I too fall under this 10% category as of today.

What happens when a Tester learns programming ?

1. If programming is new to him, he may find more pleasure in development than testing since developers say "its more joy to make it work than to say it did not work".
2. If a tester gets skilled in programming his manager may move him to development since for the management they want to put you in a role where you can make more money for them, when you give a super duper hike to a tester to make him a developer, most of us would take it up.
3. A tester may look out for development jobs since it is better to join a new place as a developer than jumping from testing to development in the same company.
4. Exception - He may still continue in testing and start thinking of automating something that was making him painful to test a few scenarios/cases , helping co-testers.

What happens when a Tester doesn't learn programming ?

1. Simple, he makes an attempt to learn programming.
2. At some stage starts getting an inferiority complex and does some course or any certification that can suffice his complex-ion.
3. Exception - concentrates more on testing concepts and wants to become the best black/box or system tester.
4. Exception - utilizes the time he would have spent on learning programming on learning new protocols, doing some research work on his own....
5. Most common - Would want to move to management ASAP to avoid comparison of a developed tester.

Introducing you to the best automation tool you could ever see ...

"Pradeep, you were talking about tester learning programming and suddenly you are jumping to something else. Are you sure you want to talk about that tool at this point?"

Yes, I am 100% sure, there is a relation between the tool and the topic I have been discussing above.

The pic you are seeing in this post is the logo of a tool, a company called SPB software house in Russia developed. They have developed a fantastico tool that helps the non programmer Tester to do an automation of test cases ( of course without any programming )

How can that happen ?

Yes, it is not a miracle. What the Test Suite 2.0 does is to sit on your Pocket PC and note down what you do and ape you ( follow you ). That doesn't mean if you by mistake power of the Pocket PC , it will also ape you. You should be smart enough in telling it what you want it to do by doing it manually.

How it works ?

It kicks its action recorder once you ask it to do so and then notes down your actions. Example - you open an application give some input and close the application, it forms one test case.

You can see a product demo and read its documentation if you are interested ( if not, Close this internet explorer window you have opened , dont worry, you can open it again)

Now the question comes up - If such products come up in the future, do Testers need to learn programming ?

__ End of __Programmer Tester V/s Non Programmer Tester__

"In future Managers can track your performance, running this tool. Beware tools are getting smart enough to talk to the girl in the next cubicle"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer : I am not a part of the organization that developed that tool nor am I into advertising it nor have I got any money from them to write about their tool. As a tester I felt its a tool worth its space in my blog. Everyone can/should learn programming based on their own interest and not just becuase the tester near you is doing it.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, go through this link.