James Bach has an excellent post on his blog about test automation with developer and tester collaboration. Be sure to check out his presentation on Agile Test Automation. It is well worth the read. A collaborative approach in test development is important if the tests are to be useful to the entire team. Tests should not just be useful to the testing team, or specialists who know how to use a proprietary testing tool.

Borrowing from Bret Pettichord’s article “Testers and Developers Think Differently“, pairing good developers who are effective problem solvers and software creators with testers who are effective problem presenters and test idea generators can be a powerful combination. In my own experience working with developers in this way, solutions that the testers need can be quickly developed to meet the unique needs of a project or testing department.