Introduction

One of my earliest jobs in IT was in software testing. I discovered that developers and testers have separate communities, with separate techniques and bodies of knowledge. I also found that, in some companies, the developers had an antagonistic relationship with the testers: developers resented testers for being proud of poking holes in their hard work. In return, testers resented the slapdash and inconsistent way in which the developers had written and released the software. Of course, neither of these extremist positions was actually grounded in reality.

This chapter lays out a way of thinking about making software that puts developers and testers in the same position: that of wanting to make a valuable product. It then includes an introduction to the field of systematic software testing, as understood by software testers, and as apparently given little attention by developers.