Exploring the Dual Roles in Software Testing: Quality Advocacy vs Hands-On Testing

[rforjoe (Richard Forjoe)]

Career wise, I’ve often navigated between these distinct roles: Quality advocate and Tester. I’ve noticed that these roles, while interrelated, are frequently conflated in discussions, leading to misunderstandings and unproductive conversations.

As a Tester, my focus has been on honing the craft of testing - improving skills like note-taking, exploratory testing, critical thinking, writing tools to help me test a feature or product, planning my testing etc. This role is about learning the product in-depth and providing stakeholders with valuable insights. This is where test techniques, heuristics, test articles, hands-on experience, pairing, RST community etc, help me improve. When i haven’t worked on my testing craft those skills have gotten worse. The skills required for effective testing, are often underrated despite their crucial role in identifying significant problems in the product.

On the other side, as a Quality Advocate, my role extends beyond individual testing tasks. It involves a holistic understanding of the project, including the architectural/system ecosystem, people, teams, and tools. This broader perspective enables me to influence and improve the overall process, with the intention of trying to enhance product quality and delivery. I tend to try to limit this to not trying to tell other teams how to do their jobs but how they can support testing better.

I’ve found that my hands-on testing experience significantly supports my role as a Quality Advocate, and vice versa. However, the blending of these roles in discussions sometimes leads to confusion. People focusing on quality advocacy calling it testing, and people focusing on the testing craft differentiate it from quality advocacy.

I’m curious to know how others in the testing community perceive their roles:

• How do you view your role in testing?
• Do you find yourself leaning more towards quality advocacy, or are you focused on improving your hands-on testing skills?
• Should we clearly distinguish between quality advocacy and testing as a distinct craft in our discussions?
• Are there any other ways or lenses we should be looking at?
• Do we need to value hands on testing skills more and work on it?

I’m eager to hear your thoughts and experiences. Open to all views

[jesper (Jesper Ottosen)]

Hi @rforjoe

Good challenge - I hope others can pitch in too.

My role trends towards more advising than doing - more of helping others do the work than doing the work. That’s where I’m at giving my 20+ years in the field and personal preferences. For you, it might be different.

My reading is that as a tester doing testing, you will get stuck career-wise and personally if you don’t offload to others. You will never be a principal tester covering more teams if you don’t delegate. Perhaps instead of seeing it as a problem that your testing skills rust, you could consider it the time to bring in new people for the intricate testing activities.

#297 – Stop Hoarding, Start Growing Others

[simon_tomes]

Excellent reflections, @rforjoe. Thanks for sharing.

It makes me think of Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory’s Holistic Testing Model.

Source: Free downloadable book at Agile Testing Fellowship.

1. Building in quality using the left side of the Holistic Testing Model
2. Checking what you built using the right side of the Holistic Testing Model

[mtest]

I wonder if we can think of it as a career progression. Hands-on testing while you are early in your career and then Quality Advocacy when you are later in your career.

The only problem is that I feel the industry prefer people hands-on testings (manual, automation), and not necessarily quality advocacy. Also, I would say quality advocacy is a soft skill that not everyone can master.

@simon_tomes, thanks for sharing that pdf. Reading that now and it has been excellent (always nice to have something I can reference later on).