I completely agree with the sentiment of this article: It is a big problem that being a "software tester" is not at all as prestigious as being a software engin

I completely agree with the sentiment of this article: It is a big problem that being a "software tester" is not at all as prestigious as being a software engineer. Having someone who really understands how the users interact with the software and systematically covers all behavior in test cases is very valuable. I experienced both worlds: I worked in an organization where 4 QA engineers tested each release that was built by 6 software engineers. Now I'm in a situation where 0 QA engineers test the work of 8 software engineers. In the second case the software engineers actually do all the testing, but not that systematically because it's not their job to optimize the testing process. Having someone with the capabilities of a software engineer who's daily work is uncovering defects and verifying functionality is important. Paying someone who owns the testing process is more than justified commercially. The problem is: You don't find those people. For various reasons. Therefor you are stuck with making the software engineers do the testing. But there is hope. There is a new standard released for my industry that requires organizations to have a QA department that is independent of the software engineering department. If they don't have that, they are not allowed to role out there software product complaint to the standard. Maybe this will help to reintroduce the QA Engineer as an important and prestigious role.