Some thoughts on the Programmer vs Tester Argument

Shrini Kulkarni wrote an interesting blog about arguments related to the programmer vs tester who is better at testing and why (Programmers make Excellent Testers - Arguments and Counter Arguments).  The idea comes up now and then in development circles, and whether you are a programmer, a developer, a manager, or a student of Software Development, sooner or later a question like this may enter the picture.

Shrini does a pretty good job of illustrating some of the reasons why at any given snap shot moment, why a programmer or tester may be better for a particular task of testing.  I've hard some of these arguments before, and I find that the context of the situation, and sometimes the budget of the team often dictate just how much a programmer or tester is asked to do.  One thing that I find interesting, is why things end up being the way they are.  Each of us if you will may start off as a blank slate at birth, and we learn many, many different tasks.  When we enter the Software field, we even at that point have different ideas, philosophies and hopes and dreams of what a life and career in software might be.  Whether that is to be an Engineer, Programmer, Designer, Architect, Manager, Lead, Tester, each of us started off with an idea of what we might get from this rewarding field.  How many of us though stay on the path we initially pointed our ships bow of learning and experiences towards?  I'm not sure a survey could even give a good idea for why people choose one career path from another.  People are as varied and individual as grains of sand or rocks on any given beach. 

So when I reflect back on my career in the software profession.  I can't help feel the irony to have basically come full circle, and reminded of at least one of Shrini's points. When I Started, all I wanted to do was write Code. I had aspirations of being a "Software Engineer" and thought I had a pretty good idea of what that entailed.  Though I lacked experience I had not thought beyond that little view point.  So when it came time to start my first professional job, it didn't take long before the ideal, and reality clashed.

Learning is often seen as climbing a pyramid between four points.  Along one Axis is technology and the closer to it the more experienced with technology, particularly specific technological contexts represents your learning and experience.  At the other end of that Axis  is the Second point of our Pyramid, that of working with people.  The closer you get to it, the better you work with people, but perhaps you end up spending more time with people then the technology.   Then off on the opposing axes would lie the other two points, in one direction is that of being more of a specialist.  The closer to it, the better and more specialized you are in your context.  You might call someone at that point an 'expert' of sorts, while at the other end is the generalist.  They may be better at one thing than another, but their broad base of experience helps give them a larger context to evaluate their problem set. 

As you move from the Technologist point of extreme towards the  specialist you are really moving around the base of the Pyramid.  Or if you move to generalize you may be moving back the other way along that face.  However, since Computer and technological problems are inevitably people problems, noone stays on the base very long, they begin to grow upward, and toward being able to deal with people. 

I recall being taught taught this 'myth' that programmers code, and testers test, and neither the twain shall meet. Thus fresh out of college there was this propensity among some of us, myself included to see testing as beneath them and not worth their time.  This may have been vocalized by professors, or it may simply have been a matter that Testing was not a focal point of CS or Engineering coursework in college.  The absence of a tester point of view from my Academic experience, clearly colored my early thinking about software.

I had a desire to crank out quality code, usable code, and I saw Software Engineering as a tool to get there.  Just one problem.  In the first shop I worked, Software Engineering principles were not necessarily being practiced.  Even if they had been, I'm not convinced it would have solved the host of problems I encountered early in my time there.  I came to realize very quickly that programming alone didn't insure the code was ready and met the customer expectations. Heck sometimes even other programmers don't meet other programmers expectations. Now almost 8 years later, I'm a full time tester, and now I see the other end of the equation, where some developers seem to see the majority of testing related tasks as 'not their job' or beneath their position or station.

I'm sure, I am not alone in seeing this, and I find it both sad, but in some ways understandable. After all in the technical realm you have generalists and you have specialists, to be good at one thing requires many hours of study and honing of that skill, often at the expense of others.  Thinking back to that Pyramid, and admittedly, this is a very rough model or metaphor in need of tweaking and polishing, We may walk around a level of that Pyramid closer to one skill or another, We may move up it at an angle as we learn multiple skills practically at the same time, and sometimes we may move straight up.

I see the technical Specialists close on the face between the top of the Pyramid (the metaphorical pinnacle of learning success),   and the Specialist and Technology points.  The more specialized the developer, the closer to the specialist point they may be, and likely further up the pyramid to its zenith.  For generalists, the same could be said between the Technology and generalist point to the peak.   The more a person pours into one technology or into technology in particular the less time they've spent gaining other experiences.  So it should come as little surprise when a twenty or thirty year experienced developer who has poured his life into coding has gotten so far away from knowledge about testing as to see it as a foreign country.


Even among programmers there are generalists and specialists in particular ideas or platforms, and each type of developer brings their own unique viewpoint to the problem at hand. What does that have to do with testing? Well we have something a bit similar do we not? We have people who focus on particular schools of thought, we have people who pour everything into automation, or pour everything into exploratory style testing. We even have some who are trying to learn as much as they can from every category, not knowing what tool they'll need next.




Now Imagine that there were two more points, a high and a low along the Z Axis the top would be Programmer and the bottom Tester.   I can see from adding those points, and removing the metaphorical pinnacle and replacing it with a point for programming and testing.  A person who is a good programmer and continues on that path, may learn at the expense of learning things related to testing.  Just like a programmer who chooses to learn more about testing, will have less time to focus on the craft of programming.    Each of us then may move upward or downward toward being more programmer or tester.  Forward or backward at being more involved in the technology vs the people, or more a specialist in one area vs a Generalist in others.

So when I look at the tree of development with Development as the grand daddy of all the other nodes, and programming, and testing each on separate branches, I can't help see that there are so many varieties of testers and developers out there. Making each of us unique, or different as our experienced build upon one another.  The real question I think we should be asking, is where do we fit in these areas.  Are we more technical or more people oriented?  Are we more specialists or generalists?  More programmer or more tester?

So who is better?  I'm not sure the question matters.  I think the context of program budgets, team size, and backgrounds often weigh into who does what, and as a team on a project we must each do what we feel we can do that will help the project effectively.  Maybe that Senior level developer with twenty years experience would be wasting his time testing, its not his strength, or area of study, so a specialist tester would be better.  However, I would hesitate to ever rule out a particular individual from testing or other development tasks simply because of lack of experience.  The software profession, like so many is one where dedication to life long learning is paramount.  So we should bear that in mind as we forge ahead, no matter which direction we point our bow of learning to on the next course we may set.

One question, many responses.

I have been going through something of a transition phase in my life.   The project I was on, has effectively run its course, and so the uncertainty of where I would end up next began to pop up.   It has been a stressful time, and I know that there may be more stress in the future. Change seems to require quick study, a measure of patience, and the eagerness to take it by the horns and honk till the cows start moving. 

As I have begun preparing for this next assignment, anticipating that Testing will once again be a primary role that I will fill, I began thinking of how I could be better prepared to meet my new project team, and how I can be ready to give an answer to some of the things that may come up as a direct result of statements I might make, statements that are greatly influenced by a large measure of reading, and collaborating with other Test Pros online, through the blog o sphere, or twitter.  I find I am on edge, not in a bad way, but the Eagle Scout in me likes to be prepared.

Up till now, I've been something a lone gun tester, going where ever the current test ideas, or recent releases seem to point as areas of risk.   Sure, the previous project I worked with a pair of testers, but so much of the work I was doing, was different than theirs, that in essence, I brought something unique to the table something that provided value for those teams.   I want to continue to provide value on my next task.  There will be a lot of new faces, new ideas, and new challenges to overcome, but I'm ready, and eager to mount up and go chasing over and after what lies at that horizon.

As I have been preparing myself mentally for this scenario, a thought occurred to me late last night.  It was a thought that gave me pause.  The thought was this:

If you as a tester on an existing project, were allowed only one question on your first day about the project, what question would you ask?

 
 I regret that I had to hit the hay before I could see some of the fantastic responses from the twitterverse.  Some of the responses were similar to the ideas ruminating in my own head. Reid Sheppard asked: "What's the URL to the SUT?" Lanette Creamer asked: "1 question to who? Very important to know."

Truthfully, Lanette's question was really asking for clarity to the context of the above question I asked.  Since it was framed with out any context for where, or who was available to ask, it was very much an open ended question.  I intended it to be a little open ended, but as I slept on it I realized something.  Not only was it lacking in context, but it begged the question.  For any given project X, how much might you as a tester know before officially being on the Team?  

Every test effort begins a bit differently, but I imagine many of them where a new person is brought into an existing team (the specific context of which I was mulling), would begin by some kind of interview, or screening.  Unless the tester and hiring authority had some familiarity with the particular tester they are hiring, The tester could be just as much an unknown to the hiring manager, as the hiring manager, the test team, and product under test is at the start for the newly hired tester.

I find myself coming into a team that to my understanding has already been through several bug/fix and release cycles.  So to me, the context in this case actually includes a few things that are not clear in my statement. The Customer is an entity with which many people might have some experience, or at least preconceived notions regarding how this entity helps them leverage what their service provides. 

Stepping back from the specific instance in my mind, to a more general case, which is really where this question began.  How much does the average tester know about a project before going in?  It might depend upon how their interview and contact with the team began.  Maybe you know who the Customer is, but maybe that information is sensitive information that is only given once a person is a part of the team and agreed to sign on.  Maybe, you do not even have an idea of the scope or mission of the subject under test before agreeing to act as a tester.  Sure there may be cases were that information is available in that screening process, but if it isn't, that's context most testers would hope to grasp early in their testing role. 

Others responded with questions about why the limit of only one question? 

Ajay Balamurugadas asked: "How can I get information without getting restricted by number of questions? #there is a better question :)"

In fact, the limit of one was not meant in my formulation as a hard limit.  My thought was what is the first, question, the first one you'd ask so you can begin pondering all the who's and whats, whens, wheres, whys and hows of testing the application.  Perhaps I can give more idea why my thinking was 'limited' in this context.

When I first came on board here, I remember days of reading that I had to go through.  Much of it wasn't even related to the tasks I would be doing day to day.  time sheet training, ethics rules, benefit packages, taxes, I-9, so much paperwork.  So for someone who is coming in brand new, to be a full part of a team as a tester, the thought occurs to me that they might spend most of their first hours doing a lot of untester things.  So what if at the end of the day, you have an hour left, your tired from all of the tedious paperwork you've had to file, you've signed your life away with a non disclosure agreement, or perhaps signed a contract for term to serve.  Whatever the case is, the thought was this: 

What if in the span of that one remaining hour, in the process of being greeted by the team after you emerged from where HR had you sequestered,  what if one of those team members, not a customer, probably not even the manager, it could be another tester, a developer, a business analyst, whoever it may be, what if they turned to you and asked that question, "Hey, we are glad to have you with us.  Just ask us any question and we'll try to answer it."  However, the new colleague, then adds that they only have a few minutes to spare before they will be leaving for the end of the day.  It's possible you might only have enough time that first day for a single question to ask.  There are so many questions you could ask, and maybe there would be time for more than one question, but depending on the answer you receive it could take up the rest of the time to complete.  This was the frame of mind I was in when pondering this question.

In reality, that first question could be very important, or it could be just the first of a series of questions.  That first question might be forgotten, and left in the dust bin never to be remembered.  The thought would be not so much what is the one question you might ask, but rather what is the first question you would ask? Would it be the same question in a different context? Perhaps it would be different.

Truthfully this does not really matter, there are many questions that will need to be asked to successfully test any product.  Some of these will be obvious, and some will have to be unearthed after peeling back a few layers of the onion.  So I come back to Lanette's question, who is there to ask?  

If it is a tester, perhaps you might ask what areas they've had difficulty testing?  Or maybe you could ask them how the team documents the defects encountered.  If it was a programmer, you might ask them where they think the code is weak, or as Lanette suggested: 'I like to ask developers, "What was the hardest part of X to design? What was the hardest to code so far? What worries you?'  Sometimes the developer will know where their code is weak, or what areas were harder to code, or what areas they've had particular difficulty with.  These kinds of questions would help to identify areas of risk.

In actuality, it may not matter what our first question might be, in fact the thing that sticks out to me is that the issue really shouldn't be what the first question is.  The first question could have a myriad of answers, and in turn a number of counter, or clarifying questions could come up in the course of understanding that answer.   I found this an interesting puzzle to consider.  Just like I do not believe there is a such thing as 'best practices' in testing, there is testing that is good, and techniques, or approaches that are good in some contexts, but perhaps dangerous in others.  So perhaps the best response would be to ask the developer or tester that has opened this door, to simply explain their experience while testing the product.  As such an open ended question, the ideas that might be unearthed could be true gems that lead to effective testing down the road.

From the dark ages, to test automation

Some days inspiration comes so thick that all your ideas begin to stick together in one melding like pancakes with butter, maple syrup, and strawberries.  What follows is a second post, that begin inside my earlier posting: Where in the world are all the software testers?  So if some ideas from that post are also found mixed in here, that is why, but I did my best to refactor my initially 2,500 some odd words from the initial post to create what I feel are two very distinct posts.  While the first one is my thinking about Alan Pages blog on forward thinking, this one is a bit of an experience report, all be it a bit of a history about my first experience in software, and a bit about some of my more recent challenges.  I describe the trial of working with out a source code repository, and even describe some of my frustrations at having to build using clearly out dated technology.  Sometimes it is hard to realize how valuable any given tool is, unless you have ever had to try to work on a project without that tool.  This is where I began, and to forget how I first tread foot into the industry, would be to forget how far I've come, how much I've learned, and how much more there is to learn and do...


When I first started in Software, testing was seen as something I did when the time and necessity called for it.  Though initially I was hired as an integration developer, focusing on piecing module code from one place into another in the stable product line, testing was something that seemed as if it was just part of the job, but not necessarily the most important.  Maybe its the way software engineering is glamorized in the courses I took at WVU, I'm really not sure; nevertheless, as I began to grow understanding around the product, its structure, and purpose, It was not long before I found myself in a "Test First, Test Often" mindset.  

The reality of my first professional Job seems almost barbaric compared to recent projects I worked on.  There was no source code repository, no Visual Source Safe, Subversion, or CVS in general use, so this meant that when new modules were being developed they were always in what was deemed as the last stable development build.  Many times the build that the features were added to comprised a number of new features and bug fixes, so the porting of that code had to be done laboriously by hand.  If I had not been so green as a Developer at the time, and had scene the value of source code repositories before my professional time, maybe we could have changed how things worked.

In any case, it was my job to kick the tires on these features by porting them into the latest and greatest build, and then seeing what the new additions actually did.  Suffice it to say, I highly recommend a source code repository for projects, especially when you have people working remotely or on different sites.  However, this was the situation I found myself in as a young software practitioner.   Finding all the right bits of code, initially was not easy.  Sometimes I would get complete source, and have to scour every class for changes (And really, with little background on the project before, It is quite possible some of those changes had been changed not by that module, but in previous bug fixes in the new build.)  So I began pushing back to have some way of seeing and marking what areas they had changed, so I could focus there, and not on other parts of the code.  The wrap around comment with tags for each module became the first thing I searched for when integrating.

That's how the process was initially described to me, so that's how I went about my tasks early in that assignment.  This turned out to be a harder more time consuming method though.  With developers deployed overseas, sometimes on different operating system setups, even the code they wrote that worked on their systems did not always work correctly on hours.  Were these Regression errors that crept in as features kept being added?  Or were these simply the result of the different platforms we were using?  To this day I am still not certain, but the obvious solution came that we began requiring a demonstration build of each feature.  First it would allow us to see if the build actually worked on our production systems which were perhaps closer to what our customers actually used, and secondly it would also allow us to see whether the feature worked as expected before putting the time consuming 'monkey work' of copying code A to class B.    So I found myself doing about 50% more testing than actual clerical/coding work on our project, and found a lot of bugs in the process.  Suffice it to say, I look back on those first steps as very raw, hard ones in my development professionally, and am thankful that I have learned and moved beyond such outdated techniques.

So it has been just over five years that I have been on this latest assignment, and one area that I have found myself thrust into has been testing.  What others on our team realized, though I couldn't see it from my eagerness to help out the team in any way, was that I was actually a pretty good tester.  I'm not sure where this skill, or perceived confidence in me as a tester came from, but as a Colleague said to me just this past week, "He's a testing Wiz."  I smiled and accepted the compliment graciously, but deep down, while others think I have it all figured out, I know that I have a long way to go before I consider myself to be any kind of expert, at Testing or Software Development.   Truthfully I wonder if it is even possible to be an expert in anything software related given how fast the state of the art moves in some areas.

So what does this have to do about forward thinking?  Before the last year I had not seen myself as a tester, just a software developer, eager of doing whatever the team required to succeed on our projects.  I stepped up to an offering of a different role as a developer of test automation, and also testing in general, and I embraced the chance to learn and do something new.  I did so not enter this assignment knowing how long I would be kept on the project, and I did so, having done perhaps more coding work than actual testing on recent assignments, but I didn't let that stop me.  As I had recently learned from the classic book from Spencer Johnson, M.D. "Who Moved My Cheese?" to not only anticipate change, but to embrace it, and relish it, I plunged into what initially seemed like a rather dull engagement, and not to mention highly time consuming, but I could see why they needed someone to focus on test automation, it just frankly took too much time to have the regular testers doing it.  

So I embraced the change, challenge, and at times boredom of test automation, and learned how to string together tests in a version of the test tool we used.  While I looked for and anticipated change, I had set my mind to get 'comfortable' in performing these tasks the way they were demonstrated to me.  I didn't know at that time that anyone else had tried and given up on the effort in the past, nor did I have any prior experience or research to back me up in finding a better way, but it was a start.

As I pushed forward through these challenges, I took time when I could to research the certain unique problems I encountered along the way, and at some point I stumbled onto a blog.  I don't recall which blog it was that I first read, but I began reading this blog and using the challenges to learn more about testing in general.  Then one blog linked to another, Google Reader began suggest some other similar blogs, and suddenly a new world of testing was open to me, and as I learned, read, and absorbed new ideas, and techniques, and it transformed my understanding and view of the field.

Now I am engaged on a new project, one where I am not constrained to a particular tool set, rather constrained to doing the best job I can in testing the application to find bugs, to learn, and to apply as never before new found technology.  Some of my tasks have afforded me the chance and need to develop a test harness, utilizing both C# and Selenium.  Perhaps later I shall try to bring some examples of the generic process  I went through to create and build a test harness for some of the automation tasks that make sense for this project.  For now, it feels good to no longer be back in the dark ages, but to be in the present ever living moment, applying new ideas as I encounter them, learning and building both my knowledge, as well as wisdom on when and where to use certain testing ideas.

Where in the world are all the Software Testers?

One of the blogs I read on a regular basis is Alan Page's Tooth of the Weasel Blog.  Recently I have been particularly engaged in thought on the question of forward thinking as it relates to software testing.  There have been discussions on Twitter recently about just these sorts of things, and as Alan wonders on his blog entry Careers In Test:  "What are the new ideas in testing? What is our role in the future of quality software? How do we advance the state of the art in testing?"

These are interesting questions, and initially a lot of this discussion focused on some of the concepts other authors have been writing about for years. The problem seems that in many places testing doesn't has the appearance that it hasn't changed, that it isn't any different than it was twenty years ago.   Now I have only been in the technical field of software professionally for about eight or nine years now, so I do not have much first hand experience to go on about what was the common practices in testing fifteen or twenty years ago.   However, I have been able to get a peak back by reading every morsel I could get my mind's fork into as I gobble up old software test articles, or books written that give some shading and hue to the background of the field I now find myself thoroughly engaged.

Once upon a time, testing was just one sliver of what I did in my role on a software project, but now testing is very much a key and important part of everything I do, for it is by testing that we learn about the projects that we build.  Which brings me back to Alan Page's recent entry.  Where are the forward thinkers? I don't know if I qualify as a forward thinker just yet, but I am certainly more aware and active in my role in testing than I was before.  But Alan raises an interesting question, why don't we see more Forward thinkers.  I personally believe they are out there, but where I could not guess, and there certainly are some forward thinking minds that are now practically famous in the testing community now, too many for me to list them by name.  However, it got me to thinking about why things may have been different twenty years ago and one word came into my head:  the net.  

Twenty years ago even dial up service was hard to find in some areas, and the so-called "Information Super Highway" had not yet materialized as a tangible valuable asset that it now is today.  When I think about testing, and the norms of any work place, I can't help but picture that many are just working in their current area to earn a buck, to put food on the table, to continue to exist with some level of lifestyle familiar unto them. 

I find that many people are developers or testers by day, but by night they put off that cloak and become something else, a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, a friend, a sportsman, a couch potato, a bachelor, whatever.  Many of these people are very bright in technical areas, and people I hold a great deal of respect for.  I imagine there are many Joe or Melissa, average testers out there striving to make their little corner of the software world cleaner, like a broom trying to get the last few kernels out of a corner.  So I found myself this morning commenting on Alan's blog and found inspiration for my first Blog of December.  (Thanks Alan!)  So here is the crust of what my thinking was this morning: my original comment is here.

After writing some more this morning I had more thoughts on this, so I'd like to even take it one step further than that, to issue a challenge to my fellow testers out there, some may have already done this, but earlier in the year I put out a question on twitter for any testing societies within my home state.  As of right now, there are none, none that I can find, so this is something of a troubling thing for me.  One of my hopes, and goals should I continue to do as I have here in West Virginia is to find a way to establish a community of testers either within just my corner of southern West Virginia or perhaps the entire state.  The problem is how to start it.

The first is to reach out to testers that you know.  On my hand, I can think of four people at work who are testers on other projects, and there may be others.  The challenge I think is to find a way to network with those we know, those we may come in contact them, and invite them into this world that is growing online.  My challenge is this, what can you as a Tester do to grow our reach as a community?  I challenge you to invite one person, one possible tester into this world.  Invite them to check out at least one part of our growing community.  Whether it is the articles and blogs on Software Test Pro or show them the site for the Association of Software Testing.  Link them to blogs and sites for other testers like Michael Bolton, Lanette Creamer, James and Jon Bach, Matt Heusser, Alan Page, or maybe some other site or part of our community.  Let's do our part to build the community of testing up, and through that maybe we may find out where in the World are All the Software testers?

Edit:

(I forgot to link to Alan Page's Blog post, Thanks Michael Bolton for catching me on that, I will try to do better on my citations in the future.)

An End, and a new Beginning...

A lot can happen in two months time, nations have fallen, court proceedings have been completed, and sports seasons are nearly done.   When I last posted in August, I wasn’t quite expecting to go all of September without a blog entry.  I knew that based on the schedule for our Cub Scout Pack, Soccer, and Work schedules that October could be a heck of a month, but that was still almost six weeks away. 

I had just completed a research project, and come to the determination that if we wanted test automation that was easier to maintain, and of long lasting value, that we would very likely have to move away from using the older tool that we were using on the project.   Then came the exploration of a slightly newer version of the tool, and yes it provided some new bells and whistles, but when it came down to it, I still felt that given the way our website worked, that tool was not meeting our needs.

It’s a shame that it took me nearly a year to come to that conclusion.  Oh I knew the tests I was capturing, building, and testing were brittle, and sometimes it’s not something that’s easily avoidable given development practices on any given team, but it had become crystal clear to me, that building and maintaining automation did not have to be so hard.   Well, it is shear irony that I came to this conclusion just a couple of weeks before I was told they would not be keeping me on for the next contract year.  I thanked the project manager for allowing me to learn so much from the time I spent with their team, but realized that shifting gears at this point was not a logical possibility.  So I resolved to capture as many tests as I could in the short span of time I had left, and to leave behind documentation of the struggles, and conclusions I had come to so that in the future better solutions could be chosen for their team.  I am hopeful that work was not done in vain.

It was an interesting project, and I am thankful for every moment, every topic that came up in the pursuit of becoming better at testing, and specifically test automation as I worked to test for that project.  I really enjoyed working with the great group of people that comprised that team, and I hope I may one day be able to work with some of them again, but it was good to move on.   

When I took the step of faith to step out of my cushy box as a software developer, to walk on the other side of the cube so to speak, it was a bit of a risk.  I had done some testing off and on before, it seemed to always be something I would be called on to perform now and then, but without any formal training, or much relevant experience to fall back upon, I did not know if I was equal to that task.  However, I was eager to learn new things about software development, and was determined to become as solid as possible as a tester on this project.  In hindsight, I believe I achieved that goal, and as a result opened a vault of untapped knowledge relating not just to software development, but testing as well. 

The experience truly has transformed my thinking, although I now feel somewhat like a software development mutt, caring both about increasing my skills as a developer and tester.  The new project I am on promises to permit me to grow, and apply some of the techniques and skills I learned about testing, even some that were not applicable to the kinds of testing I was required to do before.  Plus, as a bonus I may get to learn more about a new technical area of which I have always had a small interest in, but little time to really dig into it until now.  

So the old project is done, a new one is on my plate, and I couldn’t be happier for the change, change truly is good, and I thank God for the opportunity to continue to build knowledge related to testing, even as I find myself straddling a fine line between being a pure developer, and a pure tester.   There will be more posts coming about lessons I’ve already learned and applied on this new project, but for now I am happy to be where I am professionally right now, and I can’t wait to see what’s around the next corner.  So while I’ve come to an end, I’ve discovered that it’s really just a new beginning.