Humans are imperfect creatures. They learn from their own experiences and practices. No one is born an expert in a particular field. When it comes to the software development and software testing field or industry, there are millions of students who graduate every year with an aim to pursue their career in the same field yet working in this field is not a child’s play, even novice or beginners must have some prior knowledge about basics of the industry, software development, and software testing.
Initially, a novice tester has a series of questions in his/her mind pertaining to the software testing and the actual work they have to perform. A newbie tester is always a bit confused about his/her role and a single thought always rolls over mind i.e how to become an expert tester in limited time. Many independent software testing companies usually hire testers with an assumption that they may have a clear cut knowledge about testing. However, the best practice of an organization is to provide training before they ask newbies to perform testing. In this way, testers would be motivated and the organization will have desired testing outcomes.
In this article, we have come up with some suggestions for new or novice testers, in case they may not have been provided with specific training yet they must be self-prepared. So let’s get started;
Must have your domain knowledge – As a tester, you must have a comprehensive understanding of the field you are working in. Knowing the domain will help you come up with good error solutions. If you have enough points, the test manager will appreciate your suggestions.
Do not limit your operations with error recording instead provide solutions to all the errors you record. Good domain knowledge can also help you design better test cases to maximize the coverage of the test.
Always learn what’s trending in tech – Always keep up with the latest testing industry trends and try to incorporate new testing methods and techniques in your operations that must be able to provide benefits to you and your organization as well. Never ever limit your working capabilities with old and ancient technologies. Also, think beyond bookish knowledge. Be a man of practicalities. Your new testing ideas may do wonders for your career growth.
Think like a user instead of a tester – One of the highest recommendations. Don’t just think of technicians. Think like a customer or end-user. In addition, always consider issues beyond the end-user. Test your application as an end-user. Consider how end users will use your application.
The consideration of technicians and end-users will ensure that your application is easy to use and easy to pass acceptance tests. This was the first suggestion the test manager gave me when I was a novice tester.
Always learn from your mistakes – As a newbie to the testing world, obviously, you’ll make some mistakes. If you are not making mistakes then you are definitely not testing by heart and hard. A person becomes an expert when he/she learns from experience either a good one or a bad one. Try hard not to repeat the same mistake again and again. It can be painful when the client submits any bugs in the application you are testing.
For you, this is definitely an incredible situation and cannot be avoided. But don’t hit yourself. Find the root cause of the failure. Try to figure out why the error was not found, and avoid the same error in the future. If needed, change some of the testing procedures you want to follow.
Do not lose your morale if you are unable to fix some errors – Some testers think that all errors they have logged should be fixed. To a certain extent, this is a good idea, but you must be flexible depending on the situation. All errors may or may not have been fixed.
Since some errors have low priority, low severity, or no time to fix, management can postpone fixing them. Over time, you will also learn what bugs can be postponed to the next release.
Conclusion
For the sake of becoming a first-class tester, you must start to build your testing skills from scratch. Testing is an uninterrupted learning process involving domain knowledge, end-user perspectives, technical and personal skills. Cultivate positive ideas and pay attention to test pitfalls. With these, your testing career will have more opportunities and more glamorous in the future.
