Who is your customer?

Wow … After a long time I am back with a new blog.

Actually, I was busy in a training CSTM (Certified Software Test Manager). I have gone through the training and exam and waiting for the results. Hope for the best ….

Now let’s come straight to business.

Few times back, I was discussing one of the bugs that my team has found while performing testing for specific software. After analyzing the bug, the developer was not agreeing that it is a bug. Although the bug was a valid one but as usual the developer was not agreeing.

This is not the end of the storey. Finally, I got something from that developer that totally makes me feel like what the hell this is going on. The developer said that “We will not consider your bug as a problem in the software and at any cost we will try to convince you that this is not a bug. Although we are aware that this is a bug but still we will not accept. And if, by chance, we have to accept it as a bug, we will change something in the code which will temporary resolve the issue and will satisfy you. But the problem will be resolved permanently only when the bug will be reported by the customer”.

This was something very strange that I heard from any developer and that too in a so open way. But in my opinion, the fault resides not in the developer. It is the development management part to consider the testing team as their first customer. In this scenario, I would expect from the development managers to transfer all the testing-development knowledge and information to their sub-ordinates and convince them what you mean by the Testing.

But one more interesting question that is hitting in my mind is “What would happen if the management is the only creator of this mentality”. Keep thinking.

-- Sanat Sharma