Rise of the Software Development Engineer in Test – SDET

Edsger Dijkstra, a Dutch systems scientist, programmer, software engineer, and pioneer in computing science says, “If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.”  

We have awakened to the fact that testing is actually more important than programming. Testing requires a bigger budget for tools and resources. With increasing Agile adoption and rising demands for faster responsiveness to the market, the traditional testers fall short. The typical ‘programmers write code, testers assess code quality’ scenario is changing. Now, testers are getting involved right from the stage of code development. From being a constraint, testers have evolved to become an asset to any organization. In fact, there is a steep rise in the demand for such talent who can both write as well as test the codes based on the requirements. Such professionals are known as Software Development Engineers in Test or SDETs. 

SDETs are skilled professionals who are adept in the arena of both Quality Engineering and software development. Though it’s great to have someone with skills and expertise that are high in demand, it also creates a bit of confusion as to what really comprises the duties and responsibilities of SDETs. A regularly–faced ambiguity is regarding the difference between an SDET and a QA Engineer. 

SDETs vs QA Engineers 

While the roles of SDETs may seem very similar to those of QA Automation Engineers, with even most of the tools and language expertise required being the same (Selenium, Java, and Jenkins), there are certain very obvious and clear differences between the two roles. 

An SDET, in layman terms, is a developer who instead of working in the product development team, works as part of the test team. In essence, SDETs are responsible not only for writing code but are required to test the code as well. SDETs are required to continuously write, test, and fix the written code. Their roles and responsibilities are based on the Agile lifecycle model. SDETs usually are professionals who have very strong analytical, technical, and problem–solving skills. 

On the other hand, QA Engineers are testers who do not need to have any programming experience as they usually are not exposed to the code. This clearly creates a demarcation between the roles and responsibilities of SDETs and QA Engineers. 

SDETs: The need 

With the need and importance of software testing accepted across the globe, what, when, and how to test are areas that have never stopped evolving. 

Most of the modern products and apps require end-to-end Test Automation – especially in the areas of functional, performance, and security testing. SDETs, with their dual abilities in the areas of code development as well as performing tests (such as those listed), are a great fit in this digital age. They help improve the code quality by performing strict and detailed source code reviews along with checking for the testability of the code. 

Armed with specialized testing knowledge of multiple tools, techniques, best practices, and processes, SDETs have become a crucial part of the development ecosystems. Based on their development experience, knowledge of technical architecture and design, and their programming skills, SDETs are required to write a code to test the code written by developers. In addition, they are also required to write unit tests and perform white–box testing. 

Following is a list of a few tasks that SDETs are usually responsible for: 

• Building robust, scalable, and high–quality test automation solutions for functional, regression and performance testing 

• Developing code for quality automation and ensuring extensive unit test coverage of the code 
• Building, customizing, deploying, and managing the environment/test automation frameworks 
• Checking for product scalability, reliability, consistency, and performance 
• Participating in design and architectural discussions 
• Performing high-class debugging 

• Preparing test reports 

In essence 

SDETs are customer advocates who influence product design by understanding end–user expectations. While functional and automation testers will always be required, SDETs may prove to be the all-rounder that most organizations are looking for. They are supposed to dive deep into the code and examine if it aligns with the overall objectives or not and the way it interacts with various components of an application. 

With an in-house pool of highly-skilled and efficient SDETs, Cigniti strives to provide state-of-the-art testing services. Connect with us to leverage our skill sets and infrastructure, and help your organization achieve quality excellence.