What is a potential drawback of independent testing?

The potential drawback of independent testing highlighted in the selected answer revolves around the dynamics of responsibility and workflow within a development team. In instances where independent testers are responsible for testing, developers might not take full ownership of the quality of the product. This can lead to a situation where developers may rely too heavily on independent testers to identify and resolve issues, which in turn can create a bottleneck in the testing process.

This bottleneck occurs when independent testing becomes the sole gatekeeper for quality, potentially delaying the development cycle if issues arise or if the independent testing team is overwhelmed with tasks. Consequently, incident management can suffer as teams may face challenges in addressing defects discovered late in the cycle, leading to increased pressure to resolve issues quickly or deferring fixes to future releases.

The other choices touch on various aspects of independent testing but do not encapsulate the core challenge of responsibility shifts and workflow efficiency as effectively as this one. The introduction of independent testing should enhance quality assurance processes, but without proper coordination and shared accountability between developers and independent testers, it can create hurdles in both development and testing workflows.