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Peter Farrell-Vinay

"Manage Software Testing"

The configuration manager can be a useful source of metrics and will be the
person in charge of configuration-managing your test packs. He can sometimes give you advance warning
that an alleged change to some specification has not yet been committed and that therefore you might
do well to wait before rewriting your tests. Conversely he can warn you of website changes.
9.8 The Politics of Testing
???We don??™t have internal politics here.??? (Smile. Lie.) You don??™t really believe that either.
???Conflict between software testers and developers is inevitable??? [Cohen].
???Who (is doing what to) whom???? Vladimir Illych Lenin.
You have a bunch of developers trying to build something which works. You have a bunch of testers
dedicated to proving it doesn??™t. Conflict??™s inevitable, yes? No. In 25 years I have never seen any more
conflict between testers and developers than can been expressed by a slight hardening of the voice, a
certain resignation, and an upward flip of the eyes.
But that isn??™t the whole story. Developers are many. The project manager is one. He is the person who
is blamed by senior management when a project is late, over budget or fails. The test manager is the
person who leads the team which ???delays the project, runs it straight over budget, and demonstrates that
it fails.??? Note the inverted commas. No project would be delayed if there were no bugs. I??™m just proposing
the common misperception.


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