This article provides you with a list of features that any tester must possess to become a good tester. And with these characteristics, in turn, helps a lot in determining the quality criteria of a tester.
Why do I only mention Tester? And why don’t I mention Developer or any other position?
I just found that all SDLC related work in the release of a software is quite simple when compared to the responsibility of a Tester.
The scope of the developer work is clearly defined in a framework, where there are no boundaries for effort, value added for the customer and the scope of work done by the tester.
Meanwhile, the ability, efficiency, and concentration of the tester directly affect product behavior throughout the manufacturing process.
So, what makes a person a Good Software Tester?
P / s: Please understand that I do not intend to assign a developer or any other position less important than the Tester position in a project. Here I just took it as a reference.
Quality criteria of a Tester
This is a detailed article covering all aspects of the topic. So sit down, relax and have a cup of coffee to read.
All positions except tester, are related to the skills available outside the market, and they just need to learn and use it when doing their work in software development. But for a tester, it is the personal characteristics and thoughtfulness that each person possesses.
That is, you can become a developer if you learn some coding language. But, the tester cannot just learn a technology, or a tool, or gain knowledge of the domain, and then clap his chest and say: “I have studied Python or Selenium or Security Testing in the financial field, or the FMCG field, and Now I’m a Good tester “. So learning is never ending with a tester.
As a Developer, he can simply start writing code with the knowledge he has. But a tester cannot start work unless you have a certain amount of skill knowledge. Therefore, unless and until he retains all of those skills, you cannot perform your work effectively.
A tester must work in a specific technical or domain field along with the tool used for the specific project he / she is assigned. But it will not be the same as the next assignment. It is something else. It will be quite new, a new technology, a new tool, and especially a new method.
Over a period of time, it has been proven that Tester can always gather the knowledge of the domain needed for the project, the tools and technologies used in the project. And also within a specified period of time, Tester was able to perform effective tests and provide software.
Good tester:
Usually people will ask: “What is the quality of good tester ?? How can I become a good tester ?? How can I introduce me as a good tester ??”
Not only based on Test Method, Test Design Process, Test Execution, Automation or Performance testing, but a Tester needs to know all so that he / she is a good tester.
It is the culture or basic quality that a tester should own, then reinforce it by learning more outside, and it will make a person stronger and become a good tester.
People are also interested in: “*** What do you feel better than a Tester? What did you bring from testing? ***” Yes, it is nothing but quality satisfaction. , perfection, neat, v … v …, make sure you have done some good things for your customers.
I’m not just talking about project-specific technical skills that one should own to become a good tester. Possessing these skills and knowledge is a must. Although it alone can’t make an individual an expert tester, but it will make him / her become one of the Tester who can understand the project and perform the test.
Therefore, more than learning, certain qualities or characteristics should be built into an individual to become a good tester. And of course these are not learned, or cannot be certified from the available institutes. It is the possession of each person. And then these qualities will be strengthened when there is more experience.
So, what do you think I’m trying to write about?
I am talking about certain personality traits that I will call “Core Strength” to become a good tester.
In my opinion, any skills that you add to yourself such as test technology, processes, tools, and any certificates like ISTQB, CSM, Agile Tester, … that you attach to your name, Never turn you into a better tester unless you have all the core values explained below.
“Core strength” to be a Good Tester
#first. Passion for the work you are doing:
The first and most important feature to own to become a good tester is: Passion for the work at hand. I wonder how many testers have chosen roles and careers as a Tester ??
Unless there is passion for Testing, he / she certainly cannot find motivation to do repetitive work daily, irrespective of projects, technology, complexity and people involved. Passion is a feature that will make the tester discover more in identifying software issues.
Passion is the only thing that makes him / her never content with the knowledge he has and the amount of work he completes. So passion makes them do or learn more.
I think this is the best comparison I can make. It’s like a doctor’s job. Not everyone who scores high in the subjects and has the highest rankings can encroach on the medical field. But Passion is what makes this career possible.
Imagine what it would be like for patients to see a doctor without passion? Similarly, until and unless there’s a passion for Testing, he / she can’t become a good tester.
I will give you an example showing the passion for the work they do.
A friend of mine became a doctor under the pressure of his family. To maintain family happiness, he studied medicine with a lot of struggles, and finally completed his medical program.
When he started practicing, he didn’t have any passion for his daily work, and found it boring after a while. He loves doing business. Although he struggled (with the patient) for a while to get inspired, he couldn’t continue doing this work. After that, he quit his job, switched to doing business as his passion.
Now he is working very well and feels happier. So unless you are passionate about your work, you can do the best.
Thereby, I would like to say that, in order to implement testing, especially quality testing, it is certain that people must be passionate about their career and daily work.
How passionate are you?
Passionate about testing and the attitude towards quality should be deep into nerves, blood and DNA of each Tester. Passionate about “Excellence” will make each individual Tester become stronger.
Passion helps them stay alert and open their eyes to the details. Passion helps them stay active and involved. Passionate about testing makes tester test every time and everything they see, it is very necessary for their career.
#2. Creation and innovation:
Creativity and innovation often called “thinking out of the box” is another important personality trait that a tester should own.
What is the purpose of testing if a person only tests what is code? What will qualitative defect be if he / she only tests what has been taken care of?
So, the character of creativity and innovation is to make the tester think further and collect ideas to design more vivid tests and scenarios, which are often not covered when the code is.
Creativity helps testers provide feedback on product enhancement, and helps the product get a better position in the market by making it stand out from other similar products.
A tester can think and visualize the product only with the details provided through the request. So they are quite creative. They can also rip the product by identifying product deficiencies, indicating the effectiveness of the product, even proving it by identifying incorrect uses.
The innovative thinking of the tester is to best use the combination of different tools and technologies available in the market to customize their requirements, to achieve test objectives at a reduced cost, from there. Can speed up the market.
With changes in the scope of a tester’s job, the tester’s responsibility is not only to search for defect but also to increase the value of the product, increasing the value of its customers and businesses. To do that, the tester needs to be quite innovative, creative, always thinking further and more unique.
A tester can think of something that exceeds the level of thought of ordinary people. Must overcome common thoughts, imagine possible scenarios, and ask questions, like: What if it is like this? What will happen to Nnu if that happens? …. based on the specific situation.
# 3. Ability to put yourself in the customer’s position:
The next important factor in Tester’s role is the ability to place yourself in the customer’s position.
I know it’s easy to say, but it’s quite difficult to experience feelings and developments by putting yourself in someone else’s situation, especially as an end user or customer.
Standing in the customer’s position, thinking how customers will use our products in practice, understanding their desire as a final customer is really a big challenge.
Understanding what runs through other people’s minds is impossible. It is always normal to feel our product, creativity, contribution, and work are good and hard to find bugs. Therefore, in order to imagine that the software is in line with the customer’s expectations, thinking according to their thinking and acting as a customer is important for the tester.
Always thinking about customers, thinking that if I can actually test the way customers use in fact the biggest task with a tester, and simulate similar scenarios is the best of a good. tester.
There are many different users in different geographical territories, and they use our products together. In such cases, using a “personal-based test” technique is the best option to simulate customer behavior, and thus the goal of ensuring that the end-user perspective is tested.
It is always necessary to think about many different scenarios in real time and in regards to lab testing with daily developments, which can be based on geographic location and many different people. And we call it “Scenario-based test” and “Use case-based test”.
Therefore, Tester needs to interact with end users and income as many scenarios and use cases as possible to incorporate in their tests.
# 4. Visualization skills
A tester should always have good visualization skills.
The tester needs to visualize the end state of the project not being created, during its development. He / she needs to visualize the features and start thinking about its behavior in production, and how the end user will use it, thus relying on it to create scenarios.
He / she needs to put everything that has been gathered from different stakeholders, and from different sources into mind, thereby creating a visual image of the product. Therefore, Tester needs to get a big picture of the product, and it relies on their visualization skills.
# 5. Analysis skills:
Not only is it important to have a big picture, but it is also essential to delve into the details of the product and carefully observe and absorb the content and put that information into proper use while testing.
So as a Tester, you need to observe, think and analyze deeply.
# 6. Over vision
Keeping an eye on every detail is another important feature of the tester.
I believe that, unless people learn more and discover more about the product, they cannot understand the product thoroughly and can thoroughly test it. Therefore, ” keeping an eye on every detail ” is very important for Tester to exploit all product vulnerabilities and identify defect deficiencies.
I should also add “Listen to every detail” and say: “Keep your eyes and listen to every detail”.
Keeping an eye on every detail will bring more clarity to the subject. Every detail of the product is important to the customer. If anyone thinks it doesn’t matter and they don’t pay attention, they’re wrong. Therefore, attention and respect for each and every detail of the product is quite important.
# 7. Doubt
When it is necessary to identify “ product “ errors, defects, or defects, it helps the Tester achieve the purpose in testing. I have a lot of cases where when handing over the build to the tester, the developer says ” all the defect has been fixed and the product is working properly “.
But when Tester actually checks, sometimes, defect has not been fixed, or has just been partially fixed, or sometimes another error is generated from the original error. Here, I am not saying that Developer lies or cheats, but somehow, it happens in many situations.
Therefore, as mentioned, the characteristics of Tester are always suspicious and do not believe anything unless they test and prove that it works properly. So always in doubt. Never agree or solve something verbally. Doubt and curiosity always increase the value of testing products and reflect the best characteristics of Tester.
#8. Infer and ask questions
Inference and questioning is another important characteristic that Tester needs to prove to be an effective Tester.
Only those who truly understand the subject can ask questions, and those with better questions are considered smarter. Irrespective of reasoning and questioning, in this case, it allows the Tester to know if their deployment is the best option or not, or there is another better option.
Not only that, as mentioned earlier, ask questions to help clarify the product and to understand why that solution is implemented among many other options.
In such a case, Tester can further expand itself to think further and give better, cheaper ideas that no one has thought of. We all know “five principles why of finding root cause analysis”. It certainly helps Tester find the root cause of the problem and then determine if any similar problems exist in other areas of the product.
Tester must always deduce about anything they hear to better understand and detail. Sometimes self-questioning helps a lot. Why should design like this and why not like this? What is the detailed path? What is the best solution?
Actually, asking questions helps Tester have more knowledge.
Tester needs to be enthusiastic to learn both inside and outside the product, beyond the scope of testing to identify the real problems of the product.
Several times, I realized that Developer or Development Manager ordered the test team when there was a crisis, that the team had to fix the priority defect, now just running these test cases is enough.
Ask them why? Understand why those specific defect happened, and what they did to fix it. Honestly, a good Tester will not sleep well unless all doubts have been made clear from the root.
When I say this, I also want to mention that Tester should not be under pressure from Developer and Development Manager or anyone else on the team. Their responsibility is to thoroughly analyze and decide what needs to be tested, rather than ordering the tester.
# 9. Quality protection
Certainly, ‘quality protection’ is the best and most compelling quality of Tester.
We know there are many situations where the Tester is under pressure to compromise during testing, or is not provided with enough details when asking, or being cut off the scope of testing, compromising the use of the tool, …
In this case, it is better to stop everything, only focus on quality and without any compromise.
I’ve looked at several organizations, where people ignore the requirements of Test Manager or Test group and make their own testing decisions. But if that decision affects the quality of the software, it’s a good Tester, they never accept that.
Therefore, protecting the quality of the product becomes the responsibility of Tester, although it is formed and built by the whole team. This looks simple, but not compromising quality is a difficult task in practice.
Sometimes, when everything is complete, the team wants to make some last-minute changes, which often affects the overall quality. Therefore, quality protection with such last minute decisions to make code changes becomes the responsibility of Tester.
When we use the word “protection”, it has a lot of meanings. It is not only about testing and defect detection, but also ensuring the overall quality of the product, observing deeply if any incident occurs, or any stakeholder decision affecting quality, and fight such decisions throughout the testing process.
#ten. Determination
“Determination” in making decisions is another characteristic of Tester.
As explained in the above situations, where the tester must compromise in the test and cannot perform enough testing. I would say that Tester needs to be adamant in making a point of view, deciding, expressing thoughts, otherwise it will certainly be ignored and eventually lead to poor quality software.
When Tester tries to determine that defect is very serious, no one accepts it the first time. They always want to push it down or call a third party to decide whether it is serious or not. In such a case, the tester needs to actively put forward their thoughts.
Tester should not have the attitude of surrender to other decisions unless they assess the importance of that decision.
Sometimes, in the pressure of releasing or keeping up with the time schedule, stakeholders recommend reducing the scope of testing and recommend that you only test a specific area of the software in case of a bug fix, or just It is sufficient to run these test cases. It is always good to have input but should not be affected by other decisions.
Therefore, the tester needs to be very determined when making decisions.
In this article, I introduce you to the first 10 core strengths to become a Good Tester. The next 12 powers will be available in the next lesson. Please read it.
Link to reference: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/quality-quotient-of-tester/