Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've actually found that most QA people I've worked with were good at deciding what to test but were awful at writing automated tests. Of course that's purely anecdotal and based on a very small sample size. I like to believe that I sometimes will forget to test for edge cases, but have mastered how to write tests. I don't think that how to write tests is easily acquired by any descend programmer. However, you need t…
The real strength of QA people can be manual testing. There's a local maximum of "meets the stated requirements but horrid to actually use", and a singular focus on test automation seems to push projects in that direction.
Totally agree. I think they are great for what some people refer to as "exploratory testing".