Josh Glover wrote:
> On 02/07/07, Kae Verens <kae at verens.com> wrote:
>>> I think I wouldn't be alone in saying that it's not usually the
>> developer that notices the bugs! I have a habit of writing code, testing
>> only the bits I'm interested in, and publishing it. Thank $deity for bug
>> testers that are not coders!
> Engineers / hackers are very bad at testing their own code because
> they know how it is "supposed to work" and "supposed to be used".
> These assumptions lead the developer to develop unlikely test cases
> that his code handles flawlessly, but miss the stuff like "the user
> clicks on step B before finishing step A", because to the developer,
> that is a completely nonsensical way to use his code.
that paragraph defines exactly what I was trying to express. As a
developer, I unconsciously work with my code in a way that I know will
work. It takes a second set of eyes to see the paths that I'm
absentmindedly skipping over.
The reason I prefer my testers not to be coders themselves is that they
may fall into the same habits. Thankfully, we have a very good tester
who manages to stay ambivalent to the way our software "should" run, and
comes up with bugs which I would not possibly have noticed because I
tend to follow the same routes through the software.
Kae
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