10 reasons why you are not a tester
Do you consider yourself a professional tester?
If you are reading this article, you are probably it. And I say this, not because I wrote it, I mean your attitude as a whole. If in your free time you read articles, various resources, portals, etc. related to testing, look for ways to improve your skills, you find yourself in a small (but fortunately it grows) group of engineers who can be called Professional Testers .
Searching for the perfect excuse
The popular social network LinkedIn once discussed the topic “Why is testing not perceived as a full-fledged profession?” By many people in our industry.
A lot of people answered something like "because testing is not taught at institutes" or "because testing is a relatively new area and people are still learning to conduct it correctly."
I kept waiting for at least someone to express an opinion that the blame lies with us. Testing is not perceived as a profession in society because people who are not professionals in our field work among us.
But, unfortunately, it is easier for people to feel sorry for themselves and play the role of a victim of an unfair set of circumstances than to try to find the roots of the problem in themselves.
Look for answers in the mirror.
Let's be honest with ourselves; people around us sometimes treat us not like professionals just because we don’t behave appropriately.
All the testers that I met on my life journey took their work seriously and constantly tried to improve the quality of the product being developed. I saw an appropriate attitude towards them from other team members - they were respected, appreciated their contribution to the success of the project and organization.
So, to the point:
What are these 10 reasons why you cannot call yourself a professional tester?
1. Do you think testing is not a technical profession. Therefore, do not even try to understand how your system works from the inside.
If you work in the field of software development, you should have at least a general idea of the process itself.
As a tester, you may need to review the code to analyze how changes and fixes can affect existing functionality and cause defects. The days when the concepts of “black box” and “white box” were relevant are behind.
You can still step back from writing code if you don't like this kind of activity, but in this case you risk losing one of the key elements of the entire testing process.
2. You are not involved in the process until the new build gets smacked on your head and the “Test!” Command arrives.
Ask yourself a question, only honestly - At what point do you connect to the development process?
In theory, we all know that it is better to start testing at the stage of collecting requirements and analyzing them. But in fact, it turns out that any intelligible result comes from us precisely when the first build falls.
Why it happens? Most testers will say that the notorious vicious circle is to blame. Testing is the last link in the development process chain, we are always too busy with our work to participate in the analysis along with the rest.
But in fact, if you can’t devote 2 hours a day to a meeting to discuss a new design, you are not a good time manager. It also means that the only reason you don’t take part in the early stages of development is because it has a low priority for you, in other words, you simply didn’t want to!
3. All your interaction with the customer comes down to reproducing defects from the “fields”.
An integral part of your work is the obligation to test the product as it will be used in actual use and look for bugs critical for business.
You can say that you are the lawyer of your customer and protect his interests in front of the development team. You must plan your tests and set up your environment to run them. Also, you are expected to receive adequate feedback on functionality when necessary.
But if this is really the case, then how can you reproduce the real situation in life and represent your customer if you are not even familiar with it? When was the last time you visited a user of your system and wondered how he or she uses it? Can you really rely on the fact that the system works correctly in the conditions in which customers use it?
I think the answer is no.
Go and visit your customer. Until you recognize the user of your system, you are worthless as a tester.
4. The phrase "risk management" for you is something from the sphere of life insurance.
There is a set of simple truths in testing. Perhaps the simplest one is that no tester will ever have enough time to test everything. This is where the basic principles of risk management begin, helping us prioritize our work in order to imagine what to test (and what will be first on this list) and what can be postponed.
But this is just a superficial look at the risk management process. A deeper approach is not really directly related to testing.
Every tester knows - there are areas in the product where it is more unstable; where there are always the most defects and where the work of the team is always delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.
Our duty as testers is to detect such areas and notify the team about them. Thus, we can determine where to add new features, we can plan more time to stabilize the system, etc.
You must shed light on all controversial situations, existing or potential, affecting your product. To help your team set real goals and achieve them on time and without going beyond the budget.
5. You do not have a plan to improve your testing. The
profession of a tester is a dark, shrouded road. There are many ways that will lead you to testing and there are also many ways to evolve as soon as you become part of this world.
Many of these “paths” are individual, they are made up of the abilities of one or another person, along with the needs and limitations of the current place of work, as well as of the information sources currently available to the tester.
In short, there is no universal method for building your career and becoming a professional tacker. Therefore, until you decide to engage in your self-education and understand how to achieve development, you will not be able to improve your skills and your contribution to the company.
How to achieve this, you ask?
Start by identifying your strengths and weaknesses as a tester, then identify areas in which you would like to develop and finally look for ways to improve these skills.
One thing is certain for sure - the process of professional growth will not be possible if you let it go.
6. Do you think that your work comes down to writing and running test scenarios defined in advance
Besides running scripts, there are a whole bunch of things:
- assessment of the design of your application
- risk analysis of the current development plan
- providing feedback at all stages of the development process
- development automated framework that helps your developers to support the stability of the product
- running tests, but not limited to those who wrote it is you
- the analysis of test run results, statistics collection process test tion
- etc.
In short, the essence of your work goes far beyond the steps of the test case and setting it to pass or fail.
7. Automation is something that requires academic knowledge, and you better do it sometime in the future, in your free time.
Stop making excuses for yourself so as not to automate the process. This is another common mistake made by many testers.
Automation is not a magic pill or antidote for all the problems faced by testers, it is, in fact, a competent marketing policy of vendor companies selling automation tools. But, nevertheless, there are times when using a certain tool or scripts will help you to do some of the “black” work more efficiently and will save time.
The problem here is that some testers consider themselves not qualified enough for automation and decide to leave things as they are. It’s the same as trying to light a fire with stones and sticks and refusing to light a lantern, because it’s supposedly easier for you ...
8. You exaggerate your contribution to the common work
A good tester is a modest tester! We need to understand how to share information with others, and more importantly, how to get information from colleagues.
Many testers, for some reason, are surprised when developers give them testing tips or when they are asked to explain a specific defect or test. In most cases, there are objective reasons for such questions, but some testing experts perceive them as a personal insult and answer in elevated tones, not embarrassed in expressions.
You need to provide information on current defects of the product, and receive feedback on your work.
No one expects that your work will be completed perfectly, but everyone implies that you, above all, are professional and will learn from your mistakes.
9. You do not follow the development of your skills and do not control areas in which you have something to learn.
One of the best managers I had a chance to work with, liked to use the expression “virtual tools” to refer to the totality of skills, each of us that we apply as necessary.
Do you know what tools are in your toolbox?
Which ones need to be replaced or improved?
Which ones will you need in the future?
Testing is, no doubt, a delicate job, and it requires mastering the right tools (both virtual and real). Without this, you cannot create a quality product.
10. For you, building a career means either becoming a manager or moving to another field.
Some people get tested because they think this is their way to programming. Others just don’t know what the testing is all about, and they find it fun to play with apps all day. In the end, what's so complicated, right?
Some of them, over time, will become good specialists. But most will wait for the end of testing in order to finally engage in those activities that bring them pleasure. There are still others - this category does not see the real value of the testing process, and they see further growth only in the position of manager.
Management can really give you the interesting tasks and decent rewards you are looking for. But there are also countless other professions unrelated to management that can bring even more challenges and more attractive “goodies” (and certainly much less headaches!).
In my opinion, if you are always looking for something to do, just not to test, you can never do it professionally. So think about whether you are in your place? Perhaps you should see other vacancies ...?
Want to be a professional? Start treating testing as a profession.
If you look at this list from the side, you can catch the general idea that unites them - this is a call to change the approach to testing.
The first step is to begin to perceive testing as OUR profession.
As soon as the first step is behind, it will be necessary to focus on what prevents us from becoming GOOD testers. What skills do we need to develop in ourselves? How should we relate to colleagues and the customer? And what can we do right now to improve the process?
Finally, the third, final, step is to look into the future and understand which way we should go in our development. After all, before becoming a guru or experts, we need to study a lot of things.
Most importantly, all changes must come from within, on our own initiative, and not by the will of God or from a position next to your name in the signature to the email.
Sources:
qablog.practitest.com/2011/11/10-reasons-why-you-are-not-a-professional-tester-part-1
qablog.practitest.com/2011/12/10-reasons-why-you-are -not-a-professional-tester-part-2