Why Microsoft Has 1 Tester Over Three Developers

Software development companies are aware of the importance of QA testing. But, still, there is much less progress in this field. Developers are expected to focus on writing codes instead of full-time testing.Along with that, several organizations don’t have a separate team of testers, as developers do their own testing to verify the product. So, it becomes very crucial to understand their importance.

Table of Content

1. Why is Software Testing Important?
2. Release Flow of Microsoft
3. Why Microsoft Prioritises on Having 1 Tester on 3 Developers?
4. Conclusion
5. FAQs

Why is Software Testing Important?

In the past few years, lots of changes have occurred for the developers. Now, you need to write the code and programs for testing. So, every line contributes to the final features of the product. Upon that, 3-4 lines of code are written for testing the functionality.

Errors made by humans are evident. Some mistakes may not be important, while some of them can be disastrous. Hence, they are differentiated into catastrophic or trivial depending upon the consequences. To avoid that, it is crucial to follow a detailed and strategic testing process.

These are the following reasons that sum up the importance of software testing.

• Testing identifies the defects or errors
• Improve the system quality
• It helps in reducing the flaws in your system
• Furthermore, it increases the reliability of your software and increases its performance

Release Flow of Microsoft

Top organizations like Microsoft have a specific standard to maintain consistency. The release flow of Microsoft combines the DevOps process starting from development till the release.

These are the following steps they follow.

‍Pull request- The pull requests ensure that every branch policy is satisfied. This process builds proposed changes and also runs a quick test pass.

‍Push- When the integration is ready, the developers push the local branch to the server. Then, they open a pull request. To avoid any confusion, the developers tend to choose naming conventions to reduce any confusion.

‍Branch- This step involves implementing a feature or fixing a bug. For this, the developer needs to create a different branch. In this way, they can avoid long-running features and improve the software.

‍Merge- After the pull request is compiled and matches with the build policies, the topic branch gets merged into the main integration branch. In this way, pull requests get completed.

Why Microsoft Prioritises on Having 1 Tester on 3 Developers?

Do you know, in 2017, an estimation of $1.7 trillion across the world owing to software failure? It signifies that having a powerful and comprehensive QA procedure could prevent that. Apart from that, various other reasons encourage them to have 1 tester upon 3 developers. They are as follows.

#1- Developers Don’t Have Much Time

First of all, testing software is one of the most time-consuming tasks. Not only that, you need to be focused throughout the QA testing journey to maintain its quality. So, if a developer also handles the testing part, it can take a lot more time.

Ultimately, the developers are already occupied with a lot of work to do. Tasks such as creating strategies, liaising with the stakeholders, project documentation, etc. As a result, they are not able to give 100% to it and it affects the testing process.

#2- Slows the Release Times

It is now clear that the jobs of a tester and a developer are completely different. So, if a person does both of them, it cannot be done simultaneously. You need to stop coding to run the tests.

In this way, the development cycle gets interrupted and slows down the release time.On the other hand, having a proficient testing and development team can help you save a lot of time.

Hence, this is also one of the prominent reasons why Microsoft equally emphasizes upon having the right ratio of testers to developers.

#3- Reduce the Chances of Unconscious Bias

If you want your product to be flawless without any bias, then having a tester by your side is important. There is a high chance of the developer being biased against the test results unintentionally.

But, this is not the same with the testers. They always have a neutral approach to testing your software and delivering fruitful results. Hence, they can easily design the testing framework, run the tests and create a detailed report that delivers a flawless user experience.

#4- Trained Testers Enhance the Quality of Testing

QA testers are specifically trained for this task. There is no doubt that developers also have the skills to carry out a wide range of QA testing methods. But, a specialized QA tester in a development team will make a huge difference.

Their wide technical perspective and background deliver the highest efficiency as compared to the developers doing the testing. Therefore, the quality of the testing approach increases significantly.

Conclusion

The main motto of having 1 tester over 3 developers is to increase the efficiency and smooth user experience. From the above discussion, you can now understand the reason behind this ratio of testers and developers.

The tech giant equally prioritizes and is dedicated to development as well as testing to deliver a prompt experience to bring the experience to the digital world.