Should a developer knows operational support work and testing basics

Question

Should a developer knows how to a give operational support for existing applications and also some testing basics?

I stared as a support engineer (first 3 months), moved to application testing (6 months) and also certified tester, then finally become a developer.

I think that kind of exposure is good for a developer.

Suthish Nair · Answer

A good developer is a good tester at his module by default. I will say no, you need to learn how to find bugs from you application. By default a developer is not a good tester. A developer should learn how testers finding defects from his/her application. Its good if Unit testing or manual testing or smoke testing is done. But when its coming to a big picture like Agile methodology is used for project development, the defects coming will in great speed. Developers needs to find and fix such kind of defects before the testing team finds. But, I don't think it is necessary to go through these phases to be a good developer. It is necessary because the expectations from the company is high. We cant say in future, the companies will look into those candidates which have both testing and development knowledge. But I don't think a developer should start his journey from support or testing field. I was not saying developers should go through these phases, but if they getting an opportunity then I will say, go for it. Because it would going to be a good experience for their future to handle critical situations.

Anil Kumar · Answer

A good developer is a good tester at his module by default. He is the who knows the measure loophole in his developed module/sub-module/page. If someone come from active support, he has a good understanding of end-user's view and chances are high to develop accordingly with very less bugs. The same thing happen with the person coming from his tester career into development as they have end-user like mindset. But, I don't think it is necessary to go through these phases to be a good developer. A programmer mindset should be analytical. Peoples coming from different phases like support & testing may be more sharp but its not the all time case. Myself started my career with education industry, then switch to s/w maintenance & support, played as tester as well and later on moved into core development. It helps me a lot in solution finding for problems, easy understanding of requirements and visualizing. But I don't think a developer should start his journey from support or testing field. A developer can make him sharp while developing by real visualization of problems with real world scenarios and treating himself as an end user.