The Psychology of Testing

Question 1

Who should and should not test a piece of code?

Answer 1

The developer should not test their own code.

The software should be tested by someone not involved in creating the software (Test independence).

Question 2

Rank these tester options by their level of independence.

• Members of a different company (a testing consultancy/outsourced).
• Members of a different group (independent test team).
• Those who wrote the code.
• Members of the same development team.

Answer 2

1. Those who wrote the code.
2. Members of the same development team.
3. Members of a different group (independent test team).
4. Members of a different company (a testing consultancy/outsourced).

Question 3

How can you prevent bad blood between the owner (developer) of the code and the tester, and also bad climate between teams?

Answer 3

• Testers need to use tact and diplomacy when raising defect reports.
• Defect reports need to be raised against the software, not against the individual who made the mistake.
• The mistake may be in the code written, or in one of the documents upon which the code is based (requirement documents or system specification).
• When we raise defects in a constructive way, bad feeling can be avoided.
• There should be focus on good communication and team building between coders and testers.