"Testers are not treated in par with developers" - is this what you think I would be writing in this post? Actually, No.
Instead, I would be writing how...
1. Customer are cheating themselves by cheating testers.
2. How the Indian software companies management is going wrong w.r.t to testing.
3. Indian testers are being deprived of knowledge and exposure.
_ Injustice to testers - I fight _
"Pradeep, are you trying to create a hype or do you have evidence to support your claims?"
I am a tester and this is my blog dedicated to testing because I am a passionate tester. This is no media channel and I am no journalist.
It happened and its happening in the companies I have been and also I hear the same from my friends in other companies.
What's going wrong?
India is a place where technologies like 3G, GPS and other technologies which has not completely penetrated into Indian market are being developed by software companies and not just development but testing too. Wait, that's not wrong.
Testers test the products developed in simulated or emulated environment in the lab of their respective companies. Wait, that's not wrong.
Once these products reach a mature level , the products are put to Inter Op Testing and it usually happens in Europe.
I have come across a couple of companies who send developers for Inter Op testing. Unfortunately dumb customers support that.
( Just think ) A tester who tests the product for years together in simulated environment never gets a chance to see the product working in real time scenario. A developer gets to develop the product and learns more about the technology and product during such IOT he experiences.
Is it right on the management to expect a tester to have complete knowledge about the product when the tester never gets to see the real world?
Is it right on the management to catch hold of a tester for a bug customer has found?
Is it right on the management to rate the tester based on number of bugs missed/found?
Is it right on the management to explain, "this is what customer wants and if developers go for IOT, they can fix it too" when people like me question about the injustice?
Is it right on the management to be partial to developers but claim, "we are an equal opportunity employer".
Is it right on the customer to get angry for finding a bug at field test without insisting testers on real time environment?
Is it right on the customer to be comfortable about having a developer sent for IOT?
Is it right on the developers to call a tester and ask "Hey, I am calling from IOT site, could you please help me in doing this test" ?
No wonder I am frustrated about these things happening to a tester around me, I learnt the following -
- I no more believe a company, which claims, "We are equal opportunity employer".
- I have heard many times the management speaking in all hands meet "Test team is our backbone for quality of the products we develop" and I would laugh at that hereafter.
- I lower my respect towards such a customer.
- This makes me more skeptical about my own work and it becomes hard to believe I have tested a product well.
- This makes me less confident about the knowledge/experience of the product I have tested.
- The quality of a product depends not only by following quality standards such as CMM or ISO but also on the attitude the management and a customer has towards a tester.
- Developers are partially testers, just that they are on site testers. If developers find 5 bugs and fixes 4 during IOT, testers can find 20 bugs during IOT, which still can be fixed by the developer. If it requires a developer on IOT that does not mean a tester is not required.
- Many Test Managers don't even consider this as a problem for their testers growth and yet continue to push testers to do good work.
- If I were in the management, I would talk or brief the customer the importance of having the tester on site for IOT and get the funds for it instead of answering my tester "Sorry, the customer has not allocated funds for testers to travel".
- Most of the Indian IT companies are developer friendly and deprives the learning opportunity for testers.
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_ Injustice to testers - I fight _
I know people who would oppose this post of mine are the testers who have been on site and are happy of what they have got without bothering what is happening to other testers.
Look dear testers, I know a very reputed company in India where none of the testers have seen the real world of the products they test but developers keep traveling so often to IOT and other conferences. All testers get is an e-mail... "Hi , Chocolates at my desk, please help yourselves".
Had a tester traveled for IOT, he would come back and send a mail "Hi, Lot of bugs on your code, please help yourselves."
"Developers are ready to do testing, provided they travel and see other parts of the world"
Thanks and Regards,
Pradeep Soundararajan
Disclaimer: If you felt guilty, I wanted it to happen. If you haven't felt guilty, you are arrogant. If you are a tester who is facing this and you keep quiet after reading this, you deserve what is happening to you. If you are someone who felt I am complaining against all the IT companies in India, you are wrong. If you are someone who felt a need to change how things are happening, India is on the verge of improving further because of people like you.
Note: This post is not from someone, who is greedy about going on site but is from someone who is concerned about his peers who work very hard but are deprived a chance to develop themselves to become a better tester in the domain.
4 comments:
A good post on the current situation of the industry. I think we need to change in order to be on par with the maturity of the industry.
Yes Pradeep, I'm totally in favor of you. And also hope that you remember ,even I had discussed about this to you when we had invited you to our company for Free talk .
Why is this the that development team get all the credit? Why we testers are under estimated in India??
What can be done to over come this problem???
Why is this the that development team get all the credit? Why we testers are under estimated in India??What can be done to over come this problem???
Its because we haven't proved ourselves. I must say that I gained credibility as a tester from the development teams and they did respect me. Those who fail to build credibility are the ones who suffer.
In the talk that I gave in your company - you could see designers and developers asking questions to me about how they could do something. That is a mark of credibility that I gained in a short while and that's the kind of credibility I expect you to gain and that can happen as you gain more skills. When I say skills I don't mean QTP, Winrunner, Silk, Cotton... Go through Rapid Software Testing Slides and see what you can do.
Yes you are right we need to prove it through your skills and I believe everyone has hidden potential, so one day even I'll be gaining the credibility for the efforts i have been putting .And also "Action speaks more louder than words". So instead of arguing for our rights, it's better we strive to prove our excellence.. Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestion.
Can i get "Rapid Software Testing Slides" in our blog??
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