How to work with developers who had never worked with testers

Exactly six months ago on 23rd May 2016 I joined Insidesalesbox (Part of Drishti-soft Solution Private Limited) as a Test Engineer. I was the first and only member of the quality team, and I was going to work with a team which never had the testing team member. So how did I manage to work with them who were not aware of the importance of testing, consequences due to lack of testing and the fear of having a testing team.

A classic problem for testers who works with developers for the first time is the fact that they feel they are not listened to by developers. Testers, often rightly, warn developers from doing stuff because the consequences could be dangerous, but developers in many cases don’t listen to them.

This is very upsetting, and testers find themselves lonely within an agile team(we follow agile in Insidesalesbox) because of this. They get frustrated, and if they keep on asking and screaming their needs, they risk being alienated by their team members.

Initially, All these things happened to me as well. Before joining the Insidesalesbox team I worked with a separate QA department/test team at my previous companies where I didn’t face this problem because there was a test manager that was fighting the battles for me and deciding the test strategy to be applied.

It was evident to me that things are not going to change unless the thinking of developers is changed towards testing and for this to happen some initiatives needs to be taken from my end as well.

I am listing some of the things which worked for me while working with the developers who didn’t have much experience in testing –

1.Influencing–

When working as a tester on an agile team you’ve got to develop a skill that before you didn’t need that much.

2.Listening-

I started to listen to what the developers said instead of listening for finding gaps in their thought. I listened and listened and listened a bit more.

3.Questioning–

I started asking questions, showing real interest in what they were doing. Being mindful of their fears and feelings. I made sure they knew I was there to help and that we were all in the same boat

4.Praising–

I started praising them when they did something good, for example thanking them for writing a detailed test case or for fixing the bugs reported by me very quickly.

5.Coaching–

I started coaching them on how to test by testing with them. When they saw what testing involved, they understood its importance and challenges and started asking interesting questions about it.

I didn’t mention about the process changes which we did because some of you may not be able to relate to that. Do remember to try these things when you are working with developers who didn’t work with testers before. Any suggestions? Please comment in the comments section.