Five Tips On How Testers Can Collaborate With Software Developers

Previously Published August 27, 2019 on the Threat Stack blog, based on the TestingGuild.com talk I gave back in June 2018, How to Work With Developers.

Whenever I join a new team, my first task is fostering and nurturing a good working relationship with the developers. Why? If there is good chemistry between testers and developers, the quality of work improves as the quality of communication increases.

The relationship between developer and tester shouldn’t be one of artist and art critic. Rather, it should be like the relationship between a writer and a copy editor, where each contributes to the quality of the final product.

Developing a good working relationship with developers can be tricky. I am really fortunate working here at Threat Stack where my work is valued and my ideas are appreciated, but in my career — like many of you — I have had my struggles.

With that in mind, here are five tips that I’ve found helpful in nurturing and developing relationships with my developer teammates.

10 Automated Testing Tools That Threat Stack Uses — and Why

Previously published on the Threat Stack Blog, September 19, 2019, co-author Laura Haiduck. 

All software development projects, whether they’re large or small, can benefit from well-planned and well-executed testing. It’s your way to ensure that the software you’re developing performs as expected and delivers value to the customer. More important — given the nature of our current cyber landscape — well-executed testing is your way to ensure that your software doesn’t ship with errors or vulnerabilities that could compromise its integrity. In a word, good testing lets you pass on performance value to customers — while also providing them with underlying security.

At Threat Stack, we have a complex, full stack development environment that requires a great deal of planning and decision making within the Test Engineering Team to make sure that all the functional areas of our platform are being tested effectively and efficiently. This includes decisions about what testing tools to use, since the right ones allow us to introduce automation as well as speed, repeatability, consistency, and accuracy of results.