CAST 2016

Testing is not optional in software development. Development without testing is impossible. While the existence of "QA" departments and the future of the role of the dedicated tester might be up for debate, the importance of careful model-building, empirical investigation, effective issue reporting and advocacy, and other skills endemic to skilled testers are not.

Every developer who says they "don't know how to test" nonetheless uses testing skills as a first recourse when something doesn't work. This being software development, "something doesn't work" _a lot,_ and so, developers test, _a lot._ This is true even in the absence of practices that formalize the role of testing in the act of programming, such as TDD and BDD.

So why do they think they can't test effectively? Why do _we_ think that? What can we do about it? What have we been doing to perpetuate a world where developers can shrug off the responsibility for being good at such an important part of their jobs?

This talk will cover the importance of testing skills and practices to our friends in Product, Design and Engineering roles, and contemplate how seeing testing as separate - be it as a separate org, a separate team, a separate role or even just a separate person, lengthens or even opens feedback loops, retards growth of testing skills, and invites problems into the development process. It will also discuss a growing awareness across these disciplines of the importance of traditionally testing-related skills and practices, and how testers can work to eliminate this divide, or make it less harmful.

If testing is a key catalyst of development, can anyone afford for it to belong to testers alone?