Tom runs the Philadelphia office for RTTS and is an expert engineer who excels at providing guidance, planning and automation to software quality projects. Tom lives in the Philly 'burbs with his wife and son and is an avid Eagles and Phillies fan.
Second Class Citizens - Really?!?
Every now and then, on testing blogs, forums, lists and in the workplace, I hear the classic tester's lament "why are we second class citizens?"
Get over it!
There are really only two possible scenarios, if you feel like a second class citizen as a tester.
First, there is the remote possibility that you are a highly skilled tester, who adds significant value to the project, yet you are not viewed as valuable as the developers. I've got news for you - if that's the case, it's time for you to move on to a place that will appreciate you.
Second, and more likely, is that you did it to yourself. I think we testers as a whole sometimes play the victim role. We got bad or no requirements from the BAs. We got code that did not meet the requirements from dev. We got no time in the schedule for proper testing from project management.
What really bugs me (believe me, I've had to edit the "bad" words out of this rant more than once already) is when people change the meanings as an attempt to raise the value of test, or show that test "has a seat at the table", or is a "first-class citizen".
I have to tell you, I'm sick and tired of testers whining about not getting respect.
If you want respect, you have to give respect and you have to earn respect.
Well said.
Now, I will readily admit that, earlier in my career, testing was not as fun. Back then, I did encounter some "second class" scenarios, where QA was not taken seriously. On those early projects I had to fight hard to earn respect. Some of those projects certainly viewed test as a necessary evil. I can still hear the refrain
