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Monday 19 May 2008 - Testers reviewing/reading code.

So I'm abit confused, apparently there are discussions in the Testing World as to whether or not it's a good idea for testers to review code.

It's something touched briefly on a few blogs I read recently: http://blogs.msdn.com/imtesty/archive/2008/03/11/do-testers-do-code-reviews.aspx#comments

and http://www.goldb.org/goldblog/

I'm sure the discussion is on a load of forums and blogs everywhere but those are the two I read most recently.

What I don't understand is why anybody would question whether or not it is a good idea for testers to review code. Fixing an error before it makes it to a build seems like a wicked idea! Imagine that! Fixing a problem before it's a problem! You could be known as a psychic software tester. I! Tony Bruce am the worlds first Psychic Software Tester! Call 1800 Magic Testing now!

Well, the first apart from the all the men and women testers who already have the ability or skillset to read and review code.

And I guess that's what and where it comes down to, testers with the skillset to be able to review, not just read code.

I aim to be able to review code but how useful is it going to be if I just learn to read code? I maybe able to spot one or two things but for it to be a useful practice will I first need to have experience with development?

Anybody been there? Done that? Can you shed some light? How have your experiences been?

• Post A Comment!

Monday 19 May 2008 - its a great idea but...

Posted by philk10

In my past life as a programmer, simply keeping up with the advances in programming was tough ( VB to .Net, HTML to .ASP, .txt config files to XML )
Becoming a GOOD programmer was even more work so I would imagine most testers would find it hard to even comprehend the code, never mind be able to review it and find mistakes

However, the real benefit we gained from the code reviews we did was getting the programmer to explain the structure and what he thought the code was doing, this could lead to hidden assumptions being uncovered and other mistakes

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Monday 19 May 2008 - Re:its a great idea but...

Posted by spikyone

So essentially if you don't already have the skill set AND keep your skills up-to-date a peer review probably won't do a lot of good, however a paired review with a developer and tester who is able to read code could prove quite fruitful, which makes sense.

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Friday 30 May 2008 - Reading code

Posted by JakeBrake

I think it is a good thing. I have done this in the past and can boast some rather significant contributions. Most of those contributions were along the lines of code that would eventually have significant system-level impact. I think having been trained in machine and assembler language gave me a sense of appreciation for the finite nature of computing systems, and - how an innocently derived and looking unit of code could bring down a whole system. In general, I believe it is good to have the skills you speak of as long as the skills are asked for used “skillfully” and do not represent an attack on someone’s territory.

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Friday 6 June 2008 - That's the difference between white and black box testing

Posted by Anonymous

If a tester reviews code and writes test cases to the code, how will you know if there are errors in the code? You won't but the customer will when they find defects.

If you write test cases (you can do boundary, positive, negative, etc.) to requirements, users will actually get what they wanted - a system that works based on requirement. This is what white box testing is and it's not the same as UAT.

--Sheri (experience: a lot)

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Monday 9 June 2008 - Sheri - Lil confused

Posted by spikyone

Sheri, thanks for taking the time to read and comment although I'm a little confused.
Why wouldn't the reviewer find errors in code? And/or poor coding? I didn't mention writing test cases to the code, I'm writing about reviewing it and the skills/knowledge/experience to add value by doing it.

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