Working Effectively With Developers

Abstract

This paper is about my approach to working effectively with developers. I expect that you, my reader, are a tester and spend most of your time looking for bugs, talking to developers, and writing bug reports. This paper describes three things I've learned to do better over the years: 1. Define my role in a way that makes a developer want me around. I help the developer get rid of bugs before anyone else sees them, which reduces total project cost. 2. Explain myself and my job such that a developer gives me the benefit of the doubt. I reduce the opportunity for snap judgements about me, and I take an unusual approach to convincing the developer that bug reports should not be seen as threats. 3. Write bug reports in a way that allows for little misinterpretation. The three main sections are largely independent. The techniques do not depend on each other. 1. Picking an Effective Rol