Software testing

Software Testing – The profession I chose.

If you type in software testing and Google, you will come across different materials giving a wide spectrum of details related to this topic. One must have a good knowledge about the terms and definition of things related to testing before entering in quality testing. For computer science students, testing is very easy.

But what one should know is software testing is a career that is very easy but if you are not interested in this, this can easily become monotonous and annoying to oneself, and also because of the false tag attached to the field. When you say “I am a tester” the response is often “Oh”. It’s because even a middle school student can do test analysis. It’s that simple.

A person wanting to get into this career must know one thing. TEST ANALYST IS BORN WITH THIS SKILL. It is a gift. This involves critiquing developers or architects work.

There is a lot of work involved in this.

You should know what you are doing i.e. you should know the Business – if you are testing a piece of work, then you should have a good knowledge on what that piece stands on.

When you say there is an issue. You should be able to substantiate your findings with solid proof. Nobody likes being criticized. You should always consider your developer a friend and not a foe. You are there to enhance the work and not to put the developer down. But that does not mean that he is going to consider your criticisms as something that would help develop his code a better one. He is going to defend his stand tooth and nail. This is where your knowledge on Business would come in handy.

No one should expect a test analyst to be an expert at the code. But you should have a good knowledge on the language you are working on. Or at least you should know the logic. This would let you understand better what the developer is talking about. Or incase you see the code you will understand what that code is written for.

You should have some knowledge on the system and the platform you are using.

You must have a keen eye. When you are writing a test case or executing one you should know why you are doing it. I have come across people who say “that s what my test case says so that why I am doing that” or “that s external to my test case so I don’t have to bother about it”. These people are here only for the job and they have no interest in the career. Such people are dangerous for this field.

A good architect, developer, tester plus requirement together can create wonders. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to find. Especially that’s true for testers.
There is a lot of fuss on Automation. Automation is good for regression testing but that also not so much. It’s good to know about automation but that s not the main criteria for testing. This is to help the tester to rerun the function.

Take testing as this. A Singer. Every one of us can sing but to be a singer you need to be born with the ability to sing. You should have a sense of Taal and Sur. The Test plan and Test cases are like the musical instruments. Now let’s take automation. It’s like the microphone. Automation is very expensive and so an Organization must properly decide on whether they really need the tool or not. Whether they want the in-house tool built or they want a license to an outside tool.

When looking back at the interviews that I underwent they were in no way capable of finding out whether I am a good tester or not. They will ask you few questions as to basics of testing and may be SQL. This in no way to let them know, whether you are getting a good tester or not. Only on seeing the work one can understand whether you made the right choice in selection or not.

I enjoy testing so much and I don’t know how to word it. Software testing is a field where you need to keep upgrading yourself. You need to have a good knowledge on various programming languages, data warehousing and different tools in the market. Mind you, not an expert but there is no harm in it. This is especially a requirement if you are a consultant. Each company will be using different packages.

In brief, a software tester is a given talent. Also, just because you are a critique does not mean that you don’t need to improve on this skill. You need to practice the skill productively. You need to be ready to learn new technology that comes in. Several materials are available on the net. You need to be proactive.

All the best.