Final answer:
Software testers are critical to the development process, identifying and documenting bugs, enhancing the design process, and providing essential communication to users. Even with unfixed bugs, their role is to ensure software quality and manage risks. The spiral design process and creation of user's manuals are key parts of their contributions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The need for testers in the software development process is multifaceted, even when software is known to have unfixed bugs. Testers play a crucial role in not just identifying bugs, but also in verifying that the software functions as intended in a variety of conditions and use cases. The reality of software development is that no product is ever perfect, and often products are released with known issues due to business decisions, such as meeting deadlines or budget constraints.
Poor design decisions made early in the software development process can sometimes lead to inherent flaws that are difficult to rectify. However, the work of testers is invaluable as it helps in identifying these issues early on. Through the process of testing, weaknesses in the design are found, which can feed back into the development cycle, often referred to as the spiral design process, to allow for iterative improvements.
Experts in testing and quality assurance often have an intuition for potential problems, leading to a strategic approach in testing where the likelihood of bug occurrence, even if low, is tested thoroughly. It's important to recognise that testing is not just about bug discovery; it's also about risk management and ensuring that the most critical issues are addressed prior to release. Even when bugs remain, testers provide essential documentation, like creating a user's manual, and contributing to the communication of processes and results, which helps manage expectations and facilitate the use of the software by customers.