Chapter 3. How XP Teams Benefit from Having Testers

Anyone who has participated in a major software project knows that it takes a village to get a software release out the door. Lots of people with many different job titles contribute. Although much of the published material on Extreme Programming focuses on the roles of customers and programmers, most XP projects still depend on multiple players to succeed: testers, quality assurance engineers, requirements analysts, project managers, product managers, technical writers, marketing professionals, and (yes) salespeople. In XP projects, the lines between most of these roles blur: every programmer is also a requirements analyst and a tester, for example.

We all need someone to keep the books and write the checks, and the practices of Extreme Programming should not be limited to just customers and programmers. Many aspects of business can benefit from ideas such as "the simplest thing that could possibly work," even those peripheral to the main activity of software development.

Testing, however, is not a peripheral activity in XP. Four of the twelve practices, fully one-third, involve testing as a major component. With a savvy professional in the tester role, an XP team will produce a better product, more efficiently, and with a better quality of life for all concerned.