Introduction to SDET

G C Reddy

2 years ago

Introduction to SDET, What is SDET?, Required skills for SDET, When do you need SDET?, Difference between SDET and Tester, and SDET Job Responsibilities.

Introduction to SDET

What is SDET?

SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test), nowadays it is a popular job role in the IT industry.

SDET role is a combination of a developer role and a tester role. SDETs are skilled professionals in both – Quality Engineering as well as Software Development.

SDETs work both in software development and software testing, but often works on the QA, or quality assurance, team. While technology professionals in this role can typically write code like developers, they often write code that can automate testing, allowing for quicker testing results throughout development.

The term SDET was first invented by Microsoft, which was then followed and used by big companies like Google, Amazon, Adobe, Expedia, etc.

Required skills for SDET position:

To be an SDET you must be equipped Programming, Designing, Testing methodology, Knowledge about Automation, and Agile + DevOps exposure.

Knowledge of C#, Java, Python or other programming languages.
Experience of working “AGILE + DevOps” process management methodology.
SDET should have knowledge about various test methods & corresponding tools like NUnit, TestNG, Selenium WebDriver, etc.
SDET should have exposure to Behaviour Driven Development.
Able to find bottlenecks and thresholds in existing code with the help of automation tools.
Understanding of Object-Oriented Design

When do you need SDET?

Today organizations are looking for a professional who can take part in software development. At the same time, he should also handle testing of the developed software. That’s why hiring SDET helps them as they can work for developing high-performance code or designing the testing framework.

Difference between SDET and Tester

SDETs do possess testing as well as development competencies; while testers are essentially responsible for executing test cases by automation or manually. SDETs are believed to be professionals with higher skills than those of testers.

Job Responsibilities of an SDET:

SDET must be capable to perform Test Automation and setting up systems on multiple application platforms like Desktop, Web, and Mobile.
SDET reviews customer queries referred to by the technical support members.
SDET further works with deployments teams and fixing any level of problems for the system.
SDET requires managing technical communications with associates to understand the systems or APIs of the clients.
He/She is proficient to create various test environments and acceptance tests.
SDET builds and controls bug reports and interact with the team.
An SDET must be able to note down all the testing actions which he operates over daily or weekly into a Report.
An SDET must comprehend the flow of the code, on how it interacts with every different component.
SDET must also be able to control, set up, and perform test automation frameworks.
An SDET must possess superior debugging abilities to discover out the causes behind the ineffective code, breakdown of test cases, memory leakages etc.
SDET should research developing test tools, methodologies, trends and upgrade existing practices and processes.
SDET has to take part in product design discussions to offer input on the testability of functional elements, product designs, and planning or estimating.
SDET is responsible for managing quality on the production release.
SDET should also interpret customer demands and product objectives for relevant tests.