One of the current theory about testing is that programmers take care of the unit tests and QA people manage the higher levels of the testing pyramid. In his blog post, Kenny Cruden discusses the fact that this theoretical approach can work in practice.
When you split the testing efforts between two group of people, Kenny Cruden writes that this rises two questions for the software development team: “Do we have duplication of test coverage?” and “Is our test suite structured in a cohesive manner throughout the whole stack?”.
Two practical issues are created:
1) the fact that QA people spend too much time writing automated tests and neglect their other activities, like shaping stories for instance.
2) QA people are writing tests without knowledge of the lower levels tests
Kenny Cruden proposes four rules for a successful test automation effort:
1. Only work on test automation if you have the skills to work on production code if required.
2. Only work on production code if you have the skills to work on test automation if required.
3. In case of 1) or 2) not being true, pair with someone who meets the requirements of 1) and 2) until it is.
4. The team must own and contribute to test code, not certain individuals or disciplines within it.
Read the complete blog post on http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/test-automation-who-should-be-involved?