Interpersonal Conflict between Developers and Testers in Software Development

Software development is a complex process that necessitates interaction between diverse individuals playing differentiated roles. These include users, business analysts, system analysts, designers, programmers, and testers. The trend in software development methodologies is towards those that require more frequent and sophisticated interaction between developers (a category that includes system analysts, designers and programmers) and testers. Given the inherent differences between developers and testers and their differentiated roles, the increased interaction is likely to lead to a greater level of interpersonal conflict between them. This research explores the theoretical and pragmatic nature of such developer-tester conflict in terms of both task and relationship elements as well as its impact on software development outcomes. The effectiveness of various conflict management styles that can help regulate the level of developer-tester conflict is also explored. Based on an extensive literature review, this paper advances a theory-driven research model for conflict in developer-tester relations and presents a set of hypotheses that are to serve as the basis for empirical studies of this critical phenomenon.