We are modest but not that modest.
??? Greed: they want more money. How unusual.
Testers like the odd company ???jolly??? as much as anyone else: it??™s sociable and improves relations. It is
not a substitute for the late nights required by poor planning or a recompense for being treated like
pariahs because of the embarrassment they provoke. To send testers on courses, to buy them the tools
they need, to review their work (and find fault in it), to encourage them to write papers and attend
learned conferences are far more effective ways of motivating than feeding and watering them.
9.6 Career Progression
Testers:
??? Think.
??? Write documents.
??? Review documents.
??? Design tests.
??? Write and execute code.
??? Manage people.
There is thus nothing in what they do which inhibits a move to other careers within IT. Many have so
moved. Testing is in fact an excellent basis for a career in programming since the habit of testing (and
thereby getting feedback) is already instilled. Companies can reinforce this by assigning:
??? New graduates to act as unit testers, possibly paired with a more-senior programmer, for a limited
number of months (because otherwise testing will be seen as a career black hole).
??? New business analysts (and anyone involved in writing requirements specifications) to system
testing such that they learn not to make mistakes in writing requirements specifications.
??? Testers with enough programming experience to work as junior programmers (if they really want
to program they??™ll accept).
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