Establishing Communication Between the Tester and the Developer

Communication between tester and developer plays an important role in product development. To ensure good communication between both roles, it is important to implement specific measures at the process, tool, and culture level.

Why there are communication problems

The roots of the problem lie in the difference in the main functions of these specialists: testers are forced to look for errors, mistakes, and shortcomings in programs that developers have spent a lot of effort to create. Unfortunately, this state of affairs does not always contribute to close cooperation.

Although each of us is unique in our own way as a person and as a specialist, we can highlight a number of characteristic features of employee interaction during the work process. Some of them can lead to serious troubles, and therefore our task is to find ways to reasonably solve existing problems and prevent new ones from arising.

Key measures for setting up effective communication:

1. Analysis of requirements before starting development.

The tester is involved in planning to understand in advance where the risks may be. Clarifying the Acceptance Criteria is a basis for general understanding.

Early tester involvement QA should not be the last thing to be involved. A tester is involved in the design, architecture, or at least before the development of a feature begins.

Result: less misunderstanding and discrepancies, saving time and effort, less rework.

2. Clear and structured statement of bugs

Using templates for bug reports. Screenshots, videos, logs — to help the developer. The more details and the clearer the ticket is described, the easier it is for the developer to analyze and quickly take on the task.

Result: it is easier for the developer to reproduce and fix the bug.

3. Task status transparency

All tasks and bugs are managed in one task tracker for example Jira. Clear task statuses: “Ready for QA”, “In Progress”, “Blocked”, etc. linking a ticket to a Pull Request.

Result: everyone knows what is happening with the task right now, ability to track history and write comments.

4. Documentation and knowledge sharing

Description of features, architecture, and limitations.

Knowledge base for example Confluence.

Joint sessions: the developer talks about the new logic, the QA talks about the approach to testing.

Result: fewer questions, fewer errors.

5. Feedback and retrospective

Mini-retrospectives: “what went wrong?”, “what can be improved?”.

Quick response to comments without confrontation.

Result: trust is strengthened and there are fewer conflicts.

Good communication does not happen by itself

It is the result of implementing conscious practices, transparent processes, and a culture of respect. The sooner you start building such principles, the faster the team will become coordinated and effective.

Common goals, not a struggle of roles

Both participants work on the quality of the product, and not “against each other”.

We have a great team at Swan Software Solutions. Both our developers and QA work together to provide our clients with reliable, scalable, and affordable solutions. To find out more about how we can help with your QA, development, or other technology needs, schedule a free discovery call.