1.5.3 Independence of Testing

Question 1

A certain degree of independence makes …

Independence is not, however, a …

Answer 1

the tester more effective at finding defects due to differences between the author’s and the tester’s cognitive biases.

replacement for familiarity, e.g. developers can effectively find many defects in their own code.

Question 2

Independence levels

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Answer 2

• their author (no independence)
• by the author’s peers from the same team (some independence)
• by testers from outside the author’s team but within the organization (high independence)
• or by testers from outside the organization (very high independence)

Question 3

For most projects, it is usually best to carry out testing …

Answer 3

with multiple levels of independence (e.g. developers performing component testing and component integration testing, test team performing system and system integration testing, and business representatives performing acceptance testing).

Question 4

Main benefit of independence testing is that independence testers are …

Answer 4

likely to recognize different kinds of failures and defects compared to developers because of their different backgrounds, technical perspectives, and biases.

Question 5

Moreover, an independent testers can …

Answer 5

verify, challenge, or disprove assumptions made by stakeholders during specification and implementation of the system.

Question 6

Independence drawbacks

Independent testers may …

Developers may …

Independent testers may be …

Answer 6

be isolated from the development team, which may lead to a lack of collaboration l, communication problems, or an adversarial relationship with the development team.

lose a sense of responsibility for quality.

seen as a bottleneck or be blamed for delays in release.