Software Tester’s Career Path
As the emphasize on software quality is growing, the career options for testing too are increasing. With this increasing market, many people aspire to build a career in software testing. However, due lack of industry exposure, they are unable to understand the software market, what roles to take up, and what is the hierarchy involved in the testing profession. This article will provide an overview of the tester’s career path, the roles and responsibilities involved, and the skills required. Hope this helps!
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What does a tester’s career path look like?
There are essentially three levels to a tester’s journey, and how one progresses to each level depends on the individual’s skills and hard work.
Junior Test Engineer/Test Engineer: This is the entry-level or the junior-most position in the team. A test lead or QA manager assigns tasks that are to be completed in a given timeframe. These tasks range from manual testing to writing automated scripts. In this phase, one is expected to undergo testing in the test automation framework and other technologies. There are various exams and certifications available to help testers in their careers.
Senior Test Engineer/ Test Lead: This position demands more experience; hence, the responsibilities also increase. The tester is expected to write automation scripts or configure the automation framework. The lead is also responsible for the team. It is the lead’s responsibility to ensure that the team delivers all tasks on time. The lead should suggest new technologies/frameworks that increase the ROI of the company. There are various certifications at this level as well.
QA Manager: This is the highest level in the journey of a tester. After this, an individual can move up to the management level. The main responsibility of a QA manager is to ensure that product meets the client’s expectations and acceptance criteria. The QA manager is also expected to oversee the functioning of the team and motivate the team members to learn new technologies and perform their best.
What are the responsibilities of a Tester?
Following are the responsibilities of a tester, step-by-step:
Analyzing the requirements: To understand the business requirements provided by the customer. This helps in prioritizing various tasks and estimating the efforts & resources required, time taken, etc.
Estimating Efforts: Once the objectives of the project are clear, it is time to estimate the efforts. The tester must jot down all the tasks to be performed, the time taken for each, and the resources available. This helps maintain efficiency throughout the project.
Documentation of Test cases: It is very important to document the test cases and scenarios. Every company/client has its own format for these documents. The tester must document all the test cases and test scenarios accordingly.
Finding and reporting bugs: Tester must know various tools to be used to execute the test scripts and run test cases. It is a tester’s responsibility to ensure that there are no bugs in the code after Beta testing. The tester must always keep an eye out for unusual errors and bugs.
What are the skills required for testing?
After understanding the responsibilities of the tester, we will now look at the desired skills for this role:
Understanding priorities: A tester must always adhere to timelines. In order to do so, one must prioritize various tasks at hand. The tester must know which test cases are critical, which are independent, and which ones are dependent on the output of other test cases. The tester must then accordingly allocate time and resources to these tasks. It is essential to understand which modules require manual testing and where automated tools can be used.
Analyzing Data and Test Environment: In addition to regular testing, the tester is also responsible for gathering and analyzing data for product behavior. Apart from analyzing this collected data, the tester must also analyze the test environment. This is done to understand the interruptions caused while testing and get to the root cause of the bugs or problems.
Correlating testing with real-time scenarios: Software testing should be done keeping the user experience in mind. The tester must design their test cases according to the requirements of the end-user. To do this, one must relate testing to practical applications. This approach helps a tester generate new ideas and make their job interesting.
Team player: A tester has to work with a larger team that consists of developers, stakeholders and teammates. The tester must maintain team spirit, clarity and transparency in communication to ensure efficiency and productivity.
What are the key factors to determine a tester/QA’s growth?
There are four essential factors to QA and testing career growth:
Picking a path: There are various paths in a testing career. A tester may choose to start with manual testing and after a few years of experience, they may explore a technical or test management path. To grow in the technical path, one must keep up with the latest technology.
Professionalism: Professionalism is the most important trait in any role. In order to be considered a trusted advisor, it is important, to be honest, dependable and transparent. To gain your stakeholder’s trust in Quality Assurance, managing by facts, transparency, and consistent metrics rather than opinions is the key.
Choose assignments wisely: One must always choose assignments that challenge them — volunteer for projects where there is an opportunity of learning new technology and better professional growth.
Put customers first: Testers are always balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders. The objectives of business owners and product managers aren’t always the same and can conflict with one another, especially on a critical software project. Your job is to view software applications from the perspective of the end-user and use your training and skills to improve that user experience.
Hope the above-mentioned helped you to understand the various critical skills and certifications required for building a career in software testing.
