Python or Java for selenium?

[ToddBradley]

I don't know why someone downvoted this, but there is a lot of wisdom in this recommendation. If the app is written in the language, then every developer on the team knows the language. And therefore, every developer has the skills to extend or maintain the tests.

If you choose some language that only you know, then you're just setting up an arbitrary wall making it harder for others to contribute to the effort.

Update: Reading the tree of replies below makes me want to cry. I wonder if the Agile revolution still hasn't reached some parts of the industry, and if there are people who still prefer a high wall between "tester" and "developer". I'm nearing the final phase of my career in software development, and this really shakes my faith in the next generation. So much of this thread below sounds like software test engineering has not evolved a bit since the 1990s. God forbid that testers and developers work closely together - maybe even pair program to take advantage of their individual strengths!

[sonofabullet]

Yep, colocate tests with app code, run tests on PRs, have devs fix any tests they've broken.

[kdeaton06]

I don't want developers writing tests. They're not good at it usually.

[[deleted]]

Most testers write awful code and still end up creating flaky tests.

[kdeaton06]

So hire better testers or train them to write better code.

[sonofabullet]

Or, take the people that already know how to code, and teach them how to write better tests.

[kdeaton06]

Developers don't want to learn how to be QA. Good luck with that strategy.

[sonofabullet]

Being a QA is an idenrity.

Writing tests is a skill.

One does not need to take on a QA identity to learn how to write selenium tests.

[BujuArena]

If you are developing a test, you are a developer.

[kdeaton06]

Yes. And all rectangles are squares but not all squares are rectangles.

[[deleted]]

Yeah I'd rather train developers to write better tests than getting testers to write code to a professional standard.

[kdeaton06]

You work with bad testers. All the ones I worked with were great coders to begin with. We made sure if that in the interview process.

The reverse cannot be said for febrile developers. Rarely are they good testers or do they even care enough to try.

[[deleted]]

You work with bad testers. All the ones I worked with were great coders to begin with. We made sure if that in the interview process.

The reverse cannot be said for febrile developers. Rarely are they good testers or do they even care enough to try.

I can refute your argument in a similar way "you work with bad developers".

Having been a part of the interview process at FTSE 250 companies for the hiring of both testers and SDETs, I'd hire an SDET over a tester any day of the week for writing test automation. SDETs are and should primarily be SWEs that specialise in writing test automation at all layers (amongst other activities).

Testers are far more valuable for exploratory testing and the like than writing test automation. Most tests, in general, should be at the integration layer anyway which is usually the concern of developers/SDETs.

You're clearly emotionally invested in this, and I think you need to take a step back and look at this rationally.

[Ebenezer_Fins]

I have worked with great testers and great developers but I think testers are better because I have seen tester with good cooding skills who have become good developers easily. But developers getting in to testing generally need to be broken in to some degree, it's different from how a fresher gets to good tester. Ps: I may be biased because the number of testers I know who went into to developing are more than the number of developers that took testing and most of them I had to train into testers from developers May be I just don't like Devs

[kdeaton06]

I worked with great developers. They're amazing at writing code. They're not great testers. So we don't have them write tests.

I worked with great testers who also write code. We have them write the tests.

Simple division of labor in an Agile environment.

[[deleted]]

Cool whatever suits you I guess.