The reputation of QA has plummeted in UK in the last few years - and finally realising why. What I have seen as tets manager is a huge influx of testers, that have simply shoehorned into the business by taking the ISEB Testing Foundation Certificate. The joke with this qualification is that you can pass it with no IT knowledge, as people can simply learn the coursework verbatim, and take the exam an inifinite number of times. This had led to numerous forums discussing previous tests, boasting of how many times the test was taken, and eventually passing by a mixture of fluke and dman persistence.

One of the testers I had the misfortune to have experience wrote defects up as a child would. It could have been written in crayon. Obviously he only lasted a few days, but I am sure he could get away with longer on another less demanding project. These people have created the perception problem, that people like me have to repair, and tediously often. Managers should be on the lookout for “ISEB Qualified” testers - you could be hiring someone that could cost you more than you thought possible.