There is always a kind of natural friction between the testers and developers. Even when they were friends outside the door, professionally they seemed to be from different planets altogether. Testers would say bug and developers would reply, 'as designed'.
Like Woman, Developers belong to Venus
Venus is the Goddess of love in Roman mythology. Developers are “creators”. They write code and the code becomes 'alive' when it executes. This act of creation makes them fall in 'love' with their creation. It is difficult for anyone to find faults with their creation. Some developers are totally smitten by what they have created.
Like man, Testers belong to Mars
Mars is the warrior God in Roman mythology. Testers like to 'destroy' things. They like to 'break' the product to find defects. They take the customer's side (an outsider) instead of siding with the developers (an insider!). They are always coming up with suggestions on what can be done better.
No wonder developers and testers seem to be on opposite sides. However, without independence, testers will not be able to do justice to their role.
So how to bring them together?
Here comes the role of project manager who by his sheer diplomacy and attitude brings both of the world together. But then some natural friction will do creep in as the work demands it. But this friction is needed to ensure quality. Conflicts need not get out of hand. They can be a positive force to improve quality as mentioned below:
Feel it:
Developers can review and unit test each other's code. Put them in the tester's shoes and feel the code by the tester's role and check how it can help. Similarly, testers can review each other's test cases and documents. Sensitizing them to each other’s feeling will make them understand each other better.
Attitude:
The key is to make sure the attitude of either party is right, let it be tone of communication, behavior etc. When people find fault with your work, it is easy to get defensive. It is easy for the critic to be seen sitting in judgment of the person instead of commenting on the work product. One should ensure the attitude is objective both in written bug reports and in meetings.
Power Balance:
Testers in many software teams feel powerless. This comes from historical reasons where project managers seemed to take sides with the developer. While testers are responsible for quality, they do not feel empowered to stop the release. When you empower your testing teams, your product quality improves and establishes a good balance in your team.
Whatever be the frictions be , With an ongoing project in time they will respect each other and keep each other honest. So they are two different mind sets of a team to function as a whole. Development and Testing are like the positive and negative terminals of battery, two opposing and complimentary forces that create great energy source to devices. Similarly they are the source of energy for software development.
