Programmers vs QA's ..It's A Dog Fight..

Programming and Quality Assurance are one of the key areas that is essential components in the world of  IT.  To build a superb IT application, it is important to have good programmers who has knowledge about the business domain and more than that; about the technology they are using to create those applications. After the system is built , it is important to ensure it is in good quality and is meeting the requirements for which it was built for; in the first place. That is were the Quality Assurance analysts comes in and they carry out testing using various testing techniques to ensure the built application is up to standard.  The ride is smooth as long as the QA's doesn't find any faults in the system. But, when they do; the fight begins.   


We are all used to hear the age old quarrels between daughter in laws and mother in laws. The battle between the Programmers and QA's is somewhat similar to that;  though it does get more serious at times.   In most situations its a fight between Boys ( the programmers ) vs Girls ( The QA analysts), but there are situations where Boys vs Boys have their own battles as well.

The reason for these quarrels and fights is quite simply are the "bugs" that comes , appear in the systems developed by the Programmers. The programmers are unaware about them and the QA's find them and when they do; they report to the programmers to fix it which most of them don't like to do since they are working on something else or fixing another bug that was reported earlier.  Both sides face critical deadlines. So when the pressure mounts, the anger, the frustration , the boiling of blood , the war of words starts to take control.

No side gives up on stressing the importance and providing their case of the story, which makes the battle more serious .  In the end, even the project manager cannot handle the situation and the side that is had enough in the plate, walks away ; not because they lost the battle, because they just don't care about arguing or fighting anymore.
 
So how can this mini battle can be stopped to achieve peace ?  The answer is simple.  " The battle cannot be stopped but Peace will be achieved through a quality , bugs free system is given to the clients." Both parties should understand that their opposition is carrying out the arguments not because of personal grudges; but to get the application working to a state where they can satisfy client needs and put out a quality working system. If they achieve that task,  the effort of both parties would not have gone in vain and both parties will understand the arguments and quarrels were worth it.

The important lesson here is not to take anything personally and not to go over the limit. Both parties should understand that, all are human beings and not machines and can only do a certain amount of tasks at a time.  Once that is understood this could be a brilliant partnership and with the help of the project managers and the BA's; they could put out quality IT applications for the clients who undoubtedly will love the system and will be motivated to work with it and provide more business to the team , to the organization. 

It could be the infamous battle in the world of IT.  But it's the most effective one as well.  The purists might think its a battle resembling the World War 2. But , the experts know that it's one of the key elements that is required to put out a high quality, working  IT application.

Cheers !!

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