97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

Chapter 92. When Programmers and Testers Collaborate

Janet Gregory

SOMETHING MAGICAL HAPPENS when testers and programmers start to collaborate. There is less time spent sending bugs back and forth through the defect tracking system. Less time is wasted trying to figure out whether something is really a bug or a new feature, and more time is spent developing good software to meet customer expectations. There are many opportunities for starting collaboration before coding even begins.

Testers can help customers write and automate acceptance tests using the language of their domain with tools such as Fit (Framework for Integrated Test). When these tests are given to the programmers before the coding begins, the team is practicing acceptance test–driven development (ATDD). The programmers write the fixtures to run the tests, and then code to make the tests pass. These tests then become part of the regression suite. When this collaboration occurs, the functional tests are completed early, allowing time for exploratory testing on edge conditions or through workflows of the bigger picture.

We can take it one step further. As a tester, I can supply most of my testing ideas before the programmers start coding a new feature. When I ask the programmers if they have any suggestions, they almost always provide me with information that helps me with better test coverage, or helps me to avoid spending ...