Software Architect's Handbook

What makes a good tester?

While we are on the topic of testability, I wanted to touch upon the characteristics of a good tester. As a software architect, you may be providing guidance to testers. Good testers perform their tasks with a greater level of efficiency, effectiveness, and thoroughness.

Testers that operate efficiently do so in an organized way and their efficiency allows them to complete test cases faster, and find defects quicker. They are not just using the software and happening upon bugs, but using a systematic approach to finding defects.

Testers who achieve a greater level of effectiveness do so because they focus particular attention on problems that users will care about in the released version. Part of the process of finding ...