I hate to say it...
...but I need to be a better marketer. Not with fellow front-end devs, but with those I sometimes avoid. Yes, the feared "Project Manager"*.
Okay, Project Managers are actually pretty cool, and a good one can be the difference between project success and failure. But too often I assume they can see what I see. I assume that because I find testing valuable, they do too.
I'm not saying they think testing is a waste of time. If you asked most project managers whether they want their product tested, you're likely to hear a resounding "Yes!".
The difference is in the implementation. It's easy to agree that testing is important and something we should to. It's much tougher to carve out time in a tight schedule to allow for the various layers of testing (and fixes) to occur. You have to convince non-technical stakeholders that we shouldn't just test functionality, but also accessibility, performance, usability, and maybe even write some test automation while we're at it.
It hurts to say, but I've had projects fail because I wasn't courageous enough to speak up about the criticality of testing. I've let projects skip testing layers because I thought "they should be smart enough to figure this out on their own, and if they're not, they don't deserve it." It feels really shameful to say that.
But if I/we really care about our craft, we've got to sell the importance of it. Non-developers can figure out the drawbacks of spending time on testing, but knowing the benefits can be trickier.
As a community, we should share our success (and failure) stories of Front-end Testing marketing. Selling doesn't always come natural, and sometimes just feels fake, but the importance of selling can't be overstated.
What ways have you succeeded or failed at marketing testing? What's your best advice to "convince your boss" why testing is crucial?
* AKA Product Owner, Product Lead, Tech Manager
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