The role of the tester

- Every role within the scope of development has an important contribution. A tester's role is to be the guiding factor of a product's quality. Business need indicates quality, an abstract concept that doesn't begin with a measure. By conceptualizing the product and talking through the product's anticipated use, a measure is then created. This practice of product creation allows enough insight into the desired user experience and its anticipated usage that a tester can begin to understand what the business expects.

This idea is considered product complete. From the information gathered, a tester can conduct feedback and help govern the quality of the product as it's being built. This guide assists the tester in giving vivid descriptions to the team through feedback and direction about how they are and are not aligned with the product vision. This is done by the issuance of documented stories created from interacting and testing the product. Testers begin this process by applying unique skills to assist in governing quality.

For example, at the beginning of a project, while getting acquainted with a product, a tester reviews any product requirements, asks clarifying questions, extracts important information needed to set a standard of quality, creates a plan outlining the product's testability, and implements a structure in which a team can be successful at realizing this quality. The process is looking at the product from a different scope. The challenge here is in staying in alignment with business expectations as on overall outcome.

Knowing that quality is achieved when a product matches the description, a tester's job is applying all the skills and process necessary to accomplish this. Some skills that are especially noteworthy are communication, curiosity with the desire to explore, attentiveness, active discovery, problem solving, mitigation, creativity, and risk assessment. These are just some of the skills a successful tester needs.

I often say testers are the mediators between business and tech, although they are a technical role. Proper technical knowledge is entirely useful and should not be discounted when considering testability. This knowledge is imperative when diving deep into code to assess potential risks. Testers serve a unique role and when included as part of a product team, are able to amplify a product's quality. Through testing and guided practices, the tester can manage quality, implement a standard of quality for the product, and monitor its success for the team throughout the agile process.