When testing, you are the headlights of the project. ... Testing is done to find information. Critical decisions about the project or the product are made on th

When testing, you are the headlights of the project. ... Testing is done to find information. Critical decisions about the project or the product are made on the basis of that information." [1] I recently became a software tester, and I really didn't understand the role for quite a while. Is my primary responsibility finding bugs? Logging defects? Analysing requirements documents? Writing test scripts? Writing Status reports? Answer: Do enough of each to fulfill your goal of gathering and sharing information with your management and dev groups. If the software tester has problems testing, then the customer will have problems using it, and the company will have problems supporting it. 1. Kaner, Cem; James Bach; and Bret Pettichord. 2001. Lessons Learned in Software Testing. Wiley.