🧠 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬?

A recurring theme in job descriptions and technical requests - and one that often misses the bigger picture.

The usual reasoning?
"𝘚𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘶𝘯, 𝘧𝘪𝘹, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥."

But let's talk real-world scenarios. As someone who's been in QA automation architecture for years, here's what I've consistently seen:
🔍 1. 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
 Even when it's in the same language - Java, JS, TS, etc. - they rarely investigate failing tests. They don't have time, or it's not a priority. QA owns quality - let's be honest.
🔧 2. 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡.
Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, Appium, RestAssured, JMeter - these require their own learning curve. Knowing Java doesn't mean knowing how to debug flaky WebDriver tests.
📉 3. 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 ≠ 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲.
Saying "use Java because our backend is in Java" ignores that writing scalable, maintainable, async-capable tests in Java requires real skill - not basic syntax. Same with JS/TS.
📱 4. 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐉𝐚𝐯𝐚?
Yes, Appium supports Java - but building an effective mobile framework is still a unique challenge. Language choice doesn't eliminate complexity.

🎯 So what's the real goal?
 It should be:
 ✔️ Stability
 ✔️ Scalability
 ✔️ Visibility in CI
 ✔️ Clean architecture
 ✔️ Maintainability - by QA engineers

If developers really want to run tests - they need documentation, CI access, and a culture of collaboration more than they need matching syntax.

💬 I'm curious:
Are you enforcing the same language between dev and test?
Has it helped or hurt your QA velocity?
Let's talk real engineering, not theoretical convenience.

automationtesting #qaleadership #playwright #cypress #softwarequality #qaarchitecture #devops #mobiletesting #testautomation #qualityengineering