The title for the SDET that is increasingly gaining popularity is “Software development engineer in test.” The professionals in the domain of quality assurance are essential for developing software with quality.
Software development engineers in tests add a layer to the quality assurance process. Traditionally the role of quality assurance and software development engineers in tests is different. SDET Professionals have the skills to test the tasks with programming knowledge technically.
Quality assurance engineers manually test the applications and software with written and planned testing plans and metrics. SDETs test the application through automation by writing codes to test the applications or software. SDETs prepare test automation frameworks to make the testing of specific applications easier. The frameworks designed by SDET Professionals make the testing more reliable. SDETs are professionals in the domain of IT with a strong background in programming and software testing. They know to understand the applications under the test and use the best testing patterns and practices. In easier words, SDETs are the technical lead of a Quality Assurance team having the ability to utilize programming knowledge to test the tasks technically.
The skills and abilities of SDET Professionals strengthen the development teams. The development teams can be balanced with the technical tasks majorly assigned to SDETs. This allows the testers to focus on testing and development. SDETs focus on testing from the perspective of completeness so that the application can be completed in all aspects. SDETs and Quality Assurance engineers both know software testing and basic testing principles. However, quality assurance engineers have expertise in traditional testing practices, while SDETs have more technical expertise. Quality assurance engineers and SDET Professionals could write codes, but SDETs could design and develop complex testing software.
The ability of SDET:
Automation Addition:
SDETs play a role in organizations that want to improve the existing automation of tests and intend to automate more tests. SDET role is highly in demand that helps the development team solve problems and makes testers more effective.
Test Data Generation:
SDET works to create the process for the generation of test data. The QAs work to put the output of testing data. The generation of automated test data is complex, but the availability of this test data makes the whole testing process more reliable. The test coverage becomes better since various inputs of diverse nature could be used.
Testing beyond Front-end:
Organizations that realize the importance of testing do more than UI front-end testing. SDET knows load testing, security testing, and performance testing. Depending on the use of CI/CD, these tests may not be performed on regular schedules. SDETs choose and design tests to improve the quality of software.
CI/CD Pipelines:
Continuous integration and continuous deployment are based on extensive testing with different optimized test suites to balance the test coverage and provide quick feedback for the deployment. These testing stages are prepared by the SDETs having technical knowledge. The consideration of reporting in continuous integration and continuous development should be addressed. If a test fails in the pipeline, the test failure should be readable, brief, and workable.The proper configuration of the CI/CD pipeline and tests saves time in reporting the test failures to the developer that is lost in debugging. It also enables the developers to resolve the issues without calling QA professionals on different tasks. SDETs should be able to configure the tests to ensure effective reporting so that working with CI/CD pipelines becomes comfortable.
