The Role of Testers as Requirements Dealers

Those of us in the business analyst role are encouraged to communicate with clients, while other roles in an organization may not have the same opportunity. However, talking to clients must not be limited to business analysts. Jyothi Rangaiah believes that testers need to talk to the clients, too, because by the time the product information trickles down from a business analyst to a programmer to a tester, valuable information has been lost. Testers are often blamed for defects in the product, but this can be avoided by fostering effective communication between the tester and the client. Testers can ask for and receive clarification of how the client envisions the features. Questions such as Who are we building this for? and How do I test this feature? can help. The clarifications received are often enlightening—not just for the team building the feature but also for the client. Providing clients with a framework of questions to answer better equips the client to communicate and make feature suggestions—and improves everyone’s understanding.