Are you a programmer, fresh graduate, or worked as an IT personnel and planning to shift to Software Testing? This article may help you decide if you are a fit candidate for Software Testing.
First, know the responsibilities of a Software Tester.
Though Software Testing varies from organization to organization, below are the common responsibilities of a Software tester:
- Analyzing business requirements based on specifications and requirements provided by the organization and/or by the clients.
- Thinking of possible and applicable test scenarios and test conditions. Creating test cases, and test scripts.
- Test or Test run the test cases or test scripts, and documenting the result of testing. On this part, testers verify if software meet the specification, validate if business requirements are met. Begin with core functionality and reliability of the software deep to the simplest detail of the software.
- Reporting to the Software System Lead or to the software developer for any bug or issue found. When reporting, rate the category of the defect found, e.g. is it Show Stopper, Critical, Major Issue, Critical Issue, Medium Issue, Minor Issue or Cosmetic Issue. You also must know how to replicate or defend the issue or be sure of the issue raised as it may affect the development phase of the software.
- Maintenance for the software after installation and re-testing or do regression testing for any defects or bugs found after release then update the document for new defects and result of testing.
Testing is a challenging work as it tests your creativity and capability as you create test cases and test scenarios, and other tasks. Testing also needs patience, as sometimes, you have to repeatedly do the testing for different reasons. For example: If you encounter an error , you may need to verify if developer successfully solved the issue without affecting other areas of the software, and the like.
Software Testers must be curious, cautious, and knows how to communicate well. Positive working attitude and fairness will also be applied on Testing as you will work with other people e.g. Software Tester Lead, team mates in testing, and software developers. These are just some of the key characteristics of a Software Tester.
Now, assess if you are fit for the job. Software Testing can be fun and challenging work if you put your heart into it. As they say –
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. – Albert Schweitzer