The evolving role of software testers is marked by questions of visibility, confidence, and influence within modern development teams. Testers often grapple with impostor syndrome, partly because their achievements—like the absence of bugs—are less tangible than those of other team members, yet their impact extends far beyond executing tests. Advising on process quality, educating peers, and proactively addressing pain points, testers drive improvements throughout projects. The emphasis on developing core skills such as communication, empathy, and adaptability highlights the need for a broader and more visible contribution. Reconsidering how value is demonstrated and appreciated could redefine what it means to champion software quality.
In this episode, I talk with Cassandra H. Leung about why testers still feel unseen and what we can do about it. We unpack impostor syndrome, the shy voice that says keep quiet, and how it holds many of us back. Cassandra shares a simple frame: show, share, shine. Put testing work on the board, share notes and dashboards, and keep a brag board for wins. We explore the wider role of testers across product talks, pipelines, and coaching the team.
"Some of the really basic things that people can do straight away, is to just make your work visible on the boards, just like anybody else's work." - Cassandra H. Leung
Cassandra H. Leung is a trained Quality Engineer, certified Scrum Master, and UX enthusiast. She specialises in exploratory testing and test strategy, and enjoys supporting teams towards better quality products and processes. Cassandra has spoken at events around the world, writes about topics relevant to the technology industry, and creates content to educate future generations of testing specialists. She's active in the online testing community, and hopes to inspire others to share their stories and learnings.
Software testers have always played a crucial—yet often underappreciated—role in delivering quality software products. As Richie and Cassandra H. Leung discussed on the Software Testing Unleashed podcast, testers frequently find themselves struggling to make their work and their impact visible. This lack of visibility can not only limit career growth, but also affect team effectiveness, software quality, and testers' own sense of confidence.
Cassandra H. Leung highlighted a recurring sentiment in the testing community: although testers are integral to building great products, their achievements (and even their day-to-day contributions) often go unnoticed. “A lot of people, although they might have worked with testers before, they don’t really understand what testing is all about, what we do,” she remarked. This “invisibility” issue is deepened by outdated stereotypes about testing as a less technical or “fallback” career, even though the role has grown to encompass quality engineering, advocacy, and process coaching.
Invisibility isn’t just about the testers themselves being too humble or quiet—though modesty and imposter syndrome certainly play a role. Testers, Cassandra H. Leung explained, often enter the field through non-traditional paths and may have less formal computer science background. This reality can feed self-doubt and hesitation to speak up about their work.
But structural issues also contribute. Testing tasks are sometimes added as an afterthought in project planning, and many teams have not updated their views to recognize how much broader a tester’s role can be. Software testers can end up “starting from a further back position than our peers,” making it harder to claim credit or demonstrate impact.
Imposter syndrome came up as a central barrier faced by testers. As Cassandra H. Leung described it, “With imposter syndrome, you feel as if you are somehow lying… that you’re not really as good at testing as you think you are, that you don’t really know what you’re talking about.” This can lead to keeping quiet or declining to share insights and wins.
Recognizing that this feeling is common—especially among those without traditional backgrounds—can help testers start to address it. “It’s part of our role to teach people,” said Cassandra H. Leung, especially about the value of things like risk mitigation, testing artifacts, and the “absence of bugs.” Even if the artifacts of testing aren’t always as flashy as shipping a new feature, they matter.
So, how can testers make their work more seen? Cassandra H. Leung introduced the idea of “show, share, shine”:
Show: Explicitly demonstrate your work. For example, if developers’ tasks get trackable tickets in JIRA, so should testers’ exploratory sessions, automated checks, or testing reports. Visual dashboards, like test status “subway maps,” can grab attention and spark curiosity.
Share: Make resources and results available to the team. Sharing notes, test dashboards, or summaries of testing activities invites collaboration and underscores impact.
Shine: Celebrate achievements. Creating a “brag board” or highlighting milestones helps both internal team recognition and personal confidence.
These steps encourage meaningful conversation and invite others—not just testers—to get involved. Visible testing also opens doors to cross-functional learning and team ownership of quality.
Modern testers can (and should) contribute far beyond verifying code. As teams adopt whole-team approaches to quality, testers can influence processes, CI/CD pipelines, team learning, and more. Cassandra H. Leung noted the importance of being involved in “the process, the quality of those processes, the way that teams are set up,” and even facilitating sessions like “three amigos.”
Crucially, testers should empower others: “A big part of our role is also to… offer training and advice and coaching so that other people can develop their own testing skills,” she stressed. In a world where AI tools are emerging, human skills—collaboration, empathy, critical thinking—will remain pivotal.
For testers looking to boost their value and visibility, start by observing team needs and identifying pain points. “You can really bring value and you can show that you are paying attention to what the team needs,” Cassandra H. Leung advised. Developing communication, adaptability, and relationship-building ranks as highly as learning new tools or automation frameworks.
By making testing visible—showing your work, sharing resources, shining a light on achievements—and by supporting and coaching others in quality, testers can transform not just their own careers, but the entire software development process.
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: the future of quality depends on proactive testers ready to step into the spotlight and help their teams deliver better software—together.