Becoming a Code Listener

NOTE: Originally Published on LinkedIn: March 11, 2026

By Mario Colina

What if you could walk into a code review without writing a single line of code and walk out with a list of test ideas your team hadn’t thought of?

In my experience, this is not only possible, it’s one of the most valuable skills I have developed over the years. Robert Sabourin and I call it Code Listening.

Code listening isn’t about becoming a developer. It’s about knowing where to look and what to ask. From sitting in a code walkthrough while a developer walks you through the logic of a complex feature, to poring over a Javadoc to understand what inputs a method really expects, these moments taught me that understanding the code, even without writing it, is one of the most powerful weapons in a tester’s arsenal.

The techniques in this co-written article with Robert Sabourin are practical, accessible, and grounded in real project stories from my work and his. We cover everything from requirement reviews and design walkthroughs, to static analysis variance, code coverage gaps, and collaborative debugging…all illustrated with hands-on experience reports.

If you’re a tester who’s ever felt locked out of the technical conversation, follow me on this short journey. I have found that the door was never locked, we just needed to know where to knock.

Published in 2022, and still a practical read for testers working close to the code.

👉 Read the full article “Becoming a Code Listener” here on Tea-Time with Testers

https://teatimewithtesters.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TTwT_November_2022.pdf#page=19