I'm working on an article for Software Test & Performance magazine (stpmag.com), and I'm interested in getting your input.

Some stages of quality testing definitely belong in the QA Department's hands: the professional testers know how to read (and write!) functional descriptions, they know how to use the fancy testing tools, and they know how to exercise the features of an application.

Some stages, on the other hand, aren't quite as clear. One of them is unit testing -- the step in which the developer makes sure that each "chunk" of code works as designed. (I wrote about "how big is a unit?" in the September 2005 issue; you can download the PDF -- of the entire issue, be warned! -- at http://stpmag.com/issues/stp-2005-09.pdf).

In your shop, who does the unit testing? Is that the responsibility of the individual developer? Or is QA responsible for that part of the testing cycle?

Whichever answer you choose: is that the way you prefer it to be? Why? If the answer is "It depends," what does it depend upon? Do software methodologies change the answer?

Please let me know how I can refer to you in the article. If necessary, send me a private e-mail message ([email protected]) to let me know your real name, company affiliation, and geography.

Esther Schindler
Contributing editor, Software Test & Performance magazine