I think this is a huge problem with the waterfall methodology of software development.  Hence newer and better software development like Agile software developement makes more sense.  Testing is not an afterthought.  It’s part of the development process itself.  Its not ‘he or she’ that tests the application, but it’s more like "we architect, we code and we test". Its a bad idea to create professional 'status' when QA is delegated to someone with lower status.  Wouldn’t the 'senior' or smart developer be passionate and responsible enough to 'bake' quality into the product he or she develops?  How can you call someone a good developer if they can’t make their code and architecture bullet proof to outliers and extreme cases?

QA is the collectively responsibility of everyone involved in the project including Project Manager.  The Project Manager also needs to smartly allocate time in the project time line to do some systematic testing.  This should happen not at the end of the development but regularly after the functionaly is built and integrated.

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