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February 05, 2005
Job Descriptions as Cubby Holes
One of my big beefs about standard job descriptions at software companies is that they tend to place people in professional cubby holes. The classic examples are the "developer" and "tester" job descriptions. The developer is supposed to write software while the tester is supposed to test the software. But what if you're a developer that happens to test a lot of their own software? What if you're a developer that believes that testing is just as important as the creation of new software? To me, these job descriptions just perpetuate the myth that developers aren't responsible for testing and instead can pass this responsibility to someone else. After all, that someone else is officially referred to as the "tester" so it's their responsibility to make sure that my code works properly, right? I disagree.
My profession involves developing automated testing systems for companies and help them adopt automated testing into their development process. So I happen to be a developer that likes to develop software that automates the testing of other software. This throws a monkey wrench into the normal HR job title process because I don't fit nicely into the developer or tester cubby hole.
Posted by Misha Rybalov at February 5, 2005 05:56 PM