keeping testers in test

I did a webinar for UTest.com today and got some great questions. One question seemed to really resonate: how do you keep good testers from moving to development.

I hear this question a lot. Many engineers see test as a training ground for development. A testing job is just a foot in the door for a quick move to development. Sigh.

Let’s be honest, this is not a bad thing. I think that the more developers we have trained as testers is categorically good. They’ll write fewer bugs, communicate with test better and generally appreciate the work their test teams do on their behalf. I think the real sadness comes from the fact that Test as a discipline loses so many talented people.

I am not convinced that the folks who leave are really doing so because of the developers’ greener pastures. After all, there is a lot of code to write as a tester and it’s often a freer coding atmosphere. I think people leave because too many test managers are stuck in the past and living just to ship. Everywhere I see testers move to development I see teams that lack a real innovative spirit and the converse is most certainly true. The happiest, most content testers are in groups that covet innovators and provide opportunity to invent, investigate and discover.

Want your testers to stay? Give them the opportunity to innovate. If all you see is test cases and ship schedules, all your testers will see is the door. Can’t say I blame them either.

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2008
  PingBack from http://mstechnews.info/2008/11/keeping-testers-in-test/

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2008
  The rotations solution might work in terms of making developers and testers understand the importance of each other's jobs, but on the other hand it assumes that any developer is a good tester and vice versa - which I personally don't agree with. There's a certain mindset you need to have to be a good tester or a good developer. A tester will write code to break someone else's code, while a developer will aim to write unbreakable code. I agree with JW - innovation is the best way to keep your testers (and developers as well) content and at their best. Give them a chance to invent, to find new ways, to try their ideas - and they won't leave, not for another department and not for another company.

• Anonymous
  November 24, 2008
  When I asked the question [How do we break the cycle of "Test is where young developers gain experience until they get good enough to "really" be developers"] I was really asking about how to change what calkelpdiver referred to as an environment of "lack of credibility & respect, lack of pay, lack of support, insane work schedules, finger pointing, etc..." I have spent the majority of my 17 years in software development as a solo developer, so I had to learn testing as a survival skill, but I spent a great deal of effort to never be seen as "a tester" because of the lack of respect, pay and career path. My biggest intent with that question was to ask, "how do we alter the environment that testers typically swim in, such that they are appreciated for the work that they do?"