Perform manual test, automate after - or never?

Question

In my current company, we have one tester. Having spoken to this tester, she says that in testing, before implementing any automation systems, the scripts (steps to take) are manually written and performed (performed at least once).

Is this the way things work in testing?

To make me laugh, this has been done in this case, yet no automation. It makes me laugh to see the lead tester perform loads of different combinations of usernames and passwords for a login form (which she is not overly keen on having automated) when I could easily automate that (but politics in the company won't allow that).

This doesn't seem like the environment where a junior tester (not me, I'm a SDET) cannot learn anything.

Thanks

Answer 1

Different testers work in different ways. Trying hundreds of username/password combinations is probably grounds for automation. However, if your releases come out once every one or two weeks then manually testing 10-20 username/password combinations isn't out of the question. My current group has 6 testers. 4 of them primarily do manual-exploratory testing while the other 2 work on automation tools.