Why every systems test department should have a Test Developer (…or two)

The talk will describe why there exists a need for a system test department to add the skill set of a test developer to the system test department. What unique skills does the test developer bring to the group and what benefits does that entail? Where do you find a test developer for hire or how do you transform existing employees into this role?

Of course there are potential drawbacks in hiring test developers instead of testers – the talk will describe what those drawbacks are and how to circumvent them.

A test developer is a engineer with a divergent skill set and belongs in two different camps – on the one hand the engineer has to be an excellent software developer and on the other hand the engineer has to be passionate about software testing. How to combine these two identities?

The possibilities of having a test developer in your group is something that I will describe – for example making sure the test developer understands the needs and problems that your testers are facing on a daily basis

Why don’t we see the role of a test developer that often? What separates a great test developer from the mediocre ones? Why is a tester who has acquired scripting skills not a test developer?

One area that you should use test developers for is to implement test automation support. Your test engineers shouldn’t waste their time running the same manual scripted regression tests over and over again every time a new release is done. What other custom made tools can we expect from a test developer?

Key outcomes:

By the end of this talk I hope to have inspired people into seeing the possibilities of hiring a test developer and also to inspire developers and testers alike to take the step to transform into a test developer.