Back in the day (okay, if I can so use a term to denote the '90's), devs cared for one thing, and one thing only; the coolness to code. And to hell with whether the d**b-users got it on how to use the software. Or if the software was crappy.
Okay, so maybe I'm generalizing a bit here. But I do remember getting this piece of code thrown over the wall. I write a 1-line piece of test code that "new's" the class. I get a null-ref. And I'm sitting there thinking... "Really! The dev couldn't write 1 line to verify if the class could be instantiated??"
Fast forward to the early 21st century. The young-un devs I meet nowadays have one totally exemplary attribute. They get the need for quality. They write unit tests without nagging, begging, fisticuffs. They ask how they can help us in Test test better. They care about the quality of their code. They don't want to break the build. They want to find bugs BEFORE they checkin!
This is the world we in Test have been struggling for, for so long. Hurrah!!
Except...
Now that we're here, I believe an existential crisis is at hand: So why do we need Test? What's the role of the tester in this new world? Can devs not do the entirety of building and shipping quality software?
James Whittaker has a provocative and thought-provoking set of ideas on this topic in a webinar titled "More Bang for your Testing":
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