Razor Insights
So, as a software tester, you just break things right?
Matt Christie is the Test Lead at Razor, and he is here to reassure us that software testers don’t just break things. They’re actually an incredibly important part of the software development process.
I’ve been a software tester for 10 years and I really enjoy it. My day to day is incredibly varied, and I get to work on some fascinating projects. To be a good software tester you need to have a logical mindset as we follow defined processes and I really thrive within this structure. My job is all about delivering the best possible product to the customer, and who doesn’t want to do that?
Do software testers just break things?
Software testing is all about helping the team deliver a polished product, but that is rarely straightforward. It’s a common misconception that as a software tester all we do is break things and to be honest, I don’t think it’s an accurate representation of what we do.
We’re not actually trying to “break things”, we’re trying to find any bugs that already exist so the customer doesn’t find them first! And from my experience, customers often do some surprising things with your products. They don’t always behave logically or in a straightforward way so we try to replicate the unforeseen ways they might interact with your product, preemptively finding any issues they might.
So, we’re not really breaking the software. We’re just finding the ways it’s already broken. We want to find any bugs or vulnerabilities and then feedback to our incredibly talented development team so they can fix them.
What could happen if bugs go undiscovered?
We’re trying to ensure our clients get delivered the best possible product because if they don’t, the customer experience will suffer and they might even face financial or reputational penalties.
For example, on a recent project in the login section, there was an image on the side of the page. We discovered that if you clicked on the image it allowed the user to access the restricted section of the website, completely bypassing any login verification. This is a major issue as we don’t want unauthorised users accessing the whole system. Luckily this bug was discovered during the software testing process which alleviated the security risk. If this wasn’t found by the test team this could have had large reputational and financial losses.
Why I don’t love people saying we break things
As software testers, we’re not breaking or destroying things and to say we are, actually sounds quite negative. We’re actually hunting down existing issues, which is a positive thing!
We’re all on the same team, developers, testers, project managers etc. We’re all working towards the same goal, and collaboration is key. We’re all responsible for the quality of the work we deliver and we all want to make the best products possible, and saying we’re breaking the developer’s hard work doesn’t add to the harmony.
Want to know more about how the Razor team work together in harmony and how our development process works?
Want to know more about how the Razor team work together in harmony and how our development process works?