The Real Value of Testing

It is not only quality assurance, it helps to steer the project at all levels.

It is a common misconception that the value of testing is quality. This relation was set by Waterfall, inspired by the production chain. Waterfall copies how a factory works: it adds as the last step the verification that each produced product works as expected. But that does not apply for a program, right? We do not produce a thousand times the exactly same program. It is rather the opposite, each program is unique with its own business value.

Testing Primary Value: Common understanding

The primary value of a test is to share a common understanding across all roles of a project, make sure that everyone is in the same page.

The traditional approach of software development starts with business creating a new feature. This feature is a text describing what to do. The developer reads it, it may do questions, and implements it. Then it comes QA that also reads it, also may have questions, and then validate that the product satisfies it.

The first problem is when the developer receives the new feature. Developers have a different background and different understanding, so they may not ask the right questions. It also happens that developers…