What differentiates SDET from a tester?

What differentiates SDET from a tester?

SDET is short for Software Development/Design Engineer in Testing and nowadays many organizations search for SDET professionals for the development and testing processes of their software. A tester can be a manual tester or a quality analyzer who is not involved in the software development process. However, SDET participates in the development of high-quality and high-performance code for the automation of test scenarios. He/she may also design the test framework that can be used as a testing tool.

Read the following to better understand the differences between SDET and a Tester;

• SDET is a very competent resource with both development and testing skills, while a tester is a part of the preparation and execution of test cases by hand or by automation.
• Testers have limited programming skills and focus on black box or functional testing. On the other hand, SDETs have good programming skills and they are capable of white box testing.
• With their efficiency in software development, SDETs can participate in the development of test automation tools and use them in general. Developing test automation tools is not something that is expected from a tester, they are only required to use the automation tool to automate test cases.
• SDETs can be responsible for more tasks such as performance test, security test, automatic test data creation, test environment setup and so on.
• In addition to all the duties of a tester, SDET is also expected to have domain information so that he/she can participate in the design of test scenarios.

Job description for SDET:

• First of all, SDET is an Engineer. They know how to program and they participate in the product design process.
• SDETs need to know how to test a product that meets the expectations of the user. It is necessary to understand the code of the software to test it efficiently.
• SDETs can automate the acceptance test using their coding skills.

A tester’s or a Quality Analyst’s job begins after the development phase is over. They prepare and execute test cases to ensure the high-quality of the software product released. On the other hand, SDET participates in the development phase to understand the underlying code. This comprehensive job description and skill set make SDETs the heart and the brain of the software development process.

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