How to grow from a junior tester into a good tester? Continuation
Where beginner testers learn more or less is clear to everyone: there are many articles, courses, books and manuals. But what to do for those who have grown from June to the middle is not clear. In anticipation of the DUMP conference , we asked experienced testers what they would recommend to juniors who want to grow.
The first to answer our questions was the “grandfather of Russian testing” Alexander Alexandrov. In this post, they shared their opinions: the head of the testing department at SKB Kontur Maxim Zakharov, Senior QA Engineer at Exadel, RSTQB participant Ilya Vakhrushev, tester at Badoo Arseniy Batyrov and expert in test automation and engineering practice trainer at Alpha Laboratory Anastasia Aseeva.
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
In the standard "Tester in the Circuit" I described as follows: "Without control with the required quality, it performs all the standard tasks of the tester in the project. The team trusts the results of the work. Rechecking is not required. With senior comrades, he formulated his plan for the year. ”
For myself, I formulate: at the moment when it ceases to do what they say, and begins to do what is needed.
But this question is far from being as interesting as “After what event does the middle become senior?”
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
I already wrote about it. The decisive role in who I am and what I do is played not so much by the team as by specific people who are worth working with and for which it is sometimes worth changing the team and even the company. These were not always testers.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
If you are a beginner, then you managed to attend one or several conferences. If you want to become continuing - something hooked you on them and in the profession. Go to the conference as a speaker and then as an organizer. I liked this road. In Yekaterinburg, you can either directly contact the organizers of the entire DAMP, or get on the DAMP through the community that creates the testing section at this conference.
You are a tester, you trade information, which means you know how to search. Who are you studying from? Who do you want to work with? Where and with whom do these people communicate? A conference is more than a list of reports.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
Fierce devotion and interest in the profession, greed for new information and willingness to argue and prove, agree and seek new things. In the general case, this is not indifferent to the business you serve.
What would you do if not testing?
He would have made a career in the army, they say that you can kill people there.
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
It is difficult to single out a specific event, but at the same time, the changes are quite dramatic. A man presses buttons, finds errors, asks himself why he missed one or another. And soon a click occurs in the head, after which a certain idea of “quality” is formed and the question is what influences it. The emergence of this awareness, I would call a turning point.
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
My first team did a lot so that I would not get bored in testing - for which I am very grateful to her. It made it possible to apply critical thinking in a wide variety of situations, and did not drown tasks in a routine. With the rest of my colleagues, I was just as lucky - someone helps solve problems, someone points to new ones.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
A great way to learn how to figure it out is to take part yourself. Lack of organizational skills or lack of any competencies is not a hindrance. One has only to try and there are a lot of people who want to help - it is tested on their own experience.
In general, the training of “leading” specialists should be proactive and versatile. Even if you want to develop in a specific area, you should occasionally be interested in what your colleagues are doing. A good help in this will be the delivery of ISTQB - you will develop a common vocabulary for communicating with colleagues, you will find gaps in your knowledge or topics that you should work on.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
We accidentally cross at a conference and will discuss the topic of the most dull report, until the organizers begin to kick us out.
What would you do if not testing?
I would go to science. Or maybe he would become a joiner or street artist.
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
Junior is, of course, also a tester. Moreover, the middle of a small company may be a June in a more serious place. This, if anything, is a personal experience. I do not think that there is any event that turns a junior into a middle. Rather, it is a lengthy process in which a person learns the basics of testing, understands the product and learns to work in a team. Conditionally, June becomes a middle, when it can independently and without outside help solve problems within its competencies.
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
I have never identified the team as an important quantity, but I understand perfectly that all my skills and abilities were formed only thanks to the people around me. Moreover, I took something new from every company I worked for: in Akvelon I was taught to test from scratch and gave me passion for my business, at HF Labs I peered at the little details with everyone, studied responsibility for the tasks and worked with customers, and at Badoo I found out what true efficiency is.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
This is a natural course of things. Beginners are a wider and more grateful audience, it is easier and more profitable for her to write educational materials. I think that with the development of the industry there will be more conferences, courses and meetings for those who continue - you just need to create demand for it.
To choose a conference, I always ask myself the same question: what problem does my visit to this event solve? If not, then I'm not going.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
Should I hire him? Complex issue. I conducted more than a dozen interviews, but I interviewed cool specialists just a couple of times. In addition to testing knowledge, such a specialist should be well-versed in the market, possess systemic thinking and understand the value of the product for the client. I think a conversation of one and a half to two hours will be enough to make sure that a person is viable.
What would you do if not testing?
What I already do is business. True, he is still associated with testing. A good approach is to integrate your expertise from two different areas of life. For example, I know how to speak well and I know something about IT. Much can already be learned from this. So far, I’ve learned courses on testing mobile applications. But I don’t want to stop there, in the near future I will launch other projects.
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
From my own experience I can say that June became a tester when he was not afraid to leave him alone with the team. That is, as a leader, I was sure that he was able to qualitatively test the software and the team trusts his opinion. And as long as I doubt his ability to design a test model, to understand the tested software - for me he will remain a June.
If the review of the test model is successful for a couple of months, and a positive feedback comes from the team regarding the quality of the work, then the person has pumped well and it is incorrect to consider him as June.
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
My first tester experience happened in a wonderful team where there were many developers, and I was the only tester. And my team believed in me so much that it pumped me in all directions: I began to understand web development, managed to conduct my first stress testing in my life, and even began to write autotests. In fact, they became the drivers of my professional development.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
I am of the opinion that all engineers should be able to program. And sooner or later, but there will come a time when 90% of all testing will be automated. And as manual work, only UX testing and user interface testing will remain. Therefore, all the "continuing" need to study the YP and learn to write autotests. And if they already do this, then you can develop your developer skills. After all, the position of SDET (Software Developer in Test) will soon be in great demand.
Use Google to find good conferences. And I have some good news: I launched a channel in Telegram , where I add all the IT events that caught my eye. In the future I plan to write for the bot channel, through which events will be added automatically.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
An inquisitive, constantly evolving person. He is constantly studying something, in his spare time he often “jerks” because he is interested in it. Keep up to date with industry trends.
What would you do if not testing?
Would become a developer. Or a pianist.
April 13 in Yekaterinburg will host a conference of developers DUMP , which traditionally will be a section on testing. In the program of the section: Arseny Batyrov (Badoo) will hold a master class on automation of mobile applications, Anastasia Aseeva (Alpha Laboratory) will talk about team responsibility for quality, Maria Glukhova (Targem Games) about working with volunteers, Ivan Rumak (SKB Kontur) will explain what security testing can offer the tester, and Vladimir Likhtansky (Plesk) will teach how to test applications if they are not written by you.
Thanks to our partners who make the conference possible: the general partner - Sberbank-Technology , the conference partners: SKB Kontur , Naumen, Tinkoff.ru , ProSoft Sistems , Very Interesting , Skb_Lab .
The first to answer our questions was the “grandfather of Russian testing” Alexander Alexandrov. In this post, they shared their opinions: the head of the testing department at SKB Kontur Maxim Zakharov, Senior QA Engineer at Exadel, RSTQB participant Ilya Vakhrushev, tester at Badoo Arseniy Batyrov and expert in test automation and engineering practice trainer at Alpha Laboratory Anastasia Aseeva.
Maxim Zakharov, Head of Testing at SKB Kontur
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
In the standard "Tester in the Circuit" I described as follows: "Without control with the required quality, it performs all the standard tasks of the tester in the project. The team trusts the results of the work. Rechecking is not required. With senior comrades, he formulated his plan for the year. ”
For myself, I formulate: at the moment when it ceases to do what they say, and begins to do what is needed.
But this question is far from being as interesting as “After what event does the middle become senior?”
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
I already wrote about it. The decisive role in who I am and what I do is played not so much by the team as by specific people who are worth working with and for which it is sometimes worth changing the team and even the company. These were not always testers.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
If you are a beginner, then you managed to attend one or several conferences. If you want to become continuing - something hooked you on them and in the profession. Go to the conference as a speaker and then as an organizer. I liked this road. In Yekaterinburg, you can either directly contact the organizers of the entire DAMP, or get on the DAMP through the community that creates the testing section at this conference.
You are a tester, you trade information, which means you know how to search. Who are you studying from? Who do you want to work with? Where and with whom do these people communicate? A conference is more than a list of reports.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
Fierce devotion and interest in the profession, greed for new information and willingness to argue and prove, agree and seek new things. In the general case, this is not indifferent to the business you serve.
What would you do if not testing?
He would have made a career in the army, they say that you can kill people there.
Ilya Vakhrushev, Senior QA Engineer at Exadel, RSTQB Member
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
It is difficult to single out a specific event, but at the same time, the changes are quite dramatic. A man presses buttons, finds errors, asks himself why he missed one or another. And soon a click occurs in the head, after which a certain idea of “quality” is formed and the question is what influences it. The emergence of this awareness, I would call a turning point.
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
My first team did a lot so that I would not get bored in testing - for which I am very grateful to her. It made it possible to apply critical thinking in a wide variety of situations, and did not drown tasks in a routine. With the rest of my colleagues, I was just as lucky - someone helps solve problems, someone points to new ones.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
A great way to learn how to figure it out is to take part yourself. Lack of organizational skills or lack of any competencies is not a hindrance. One has only to try and there are a lot of people who want to help - it is tested on their own experience.
In general, the training of “leading” specialists should be proactive and versatile. Even if you want to develop in a specific area, you should occasionally be interested in what your colleagues are doing. A good help in this will be the delivery of ISTQB - you will develop a common vocabulary for communicating with colleagues, you will find gaps in your knowledge or topics that you should work on.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
We accidentally cross at a conference and will discuss the topic of the most dull report, until the organizers begin to kick us out.
What would you do if not testing?
I would go to science. Or maybe he would become a joiner or street artist.
Arseny Batyrov, tester at Badoo
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
Junior is, of course, also a tester. Moreover, the middle of a small company may be a June in a more serious place. This, if anything, is a personal experience. I do not think that there is any event that turns a junior into a middle. Rather, it is a lengthy process in which a person learns the basics of testing, understands the product and learns to work in a team. Conditionally, June becomes a middle, when it can independently and without outside help solve problems within its competencies.
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
I have never identified the team as an important quantity, but I understand perfectly that all my skills and abilities were formed only thanks to the people around me. Moreover, I took something new from every company I worked for: in Akvelon I was taught to test from scratch and gave me passion for my business, at HF Labs I peered at the little details with everyone, studied responsibility for the tasks and worked with customers, and at Badoo I found out what true efficiency is.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
This is a natural course of things. Beginners are a wider and more grateful audience, it is easier and more profitable for her to write educational materials. I think that with the development of the industry there will be more conferences, courses and meetings for those who continue - you just need to create demand for it.
To choose a conference, I always ask myself the same question: what problem does my visit to this event solve? If not, then I'm not going.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
Should I hire him? Complex issue. I conducted more than a dozen interviews, but I interviewed cool specialists just a couple of times. In addition to testing knowledge, such a specialist should be well-versed in the market, possess systemic thinking and understand the value of the product for the client. I think a conversation of one and a half to two hours will be enough to make sure that a person is viable.
What would you do if not testing?
What I already do is business. True, he is still associated with testing. A good approach is to integrate your expertise from two different areas of life. For example, I know how to speak well and I know something about IT. Much can already be learned from this. So far, I’ve learned courses on testing mobile applications. But I don’t want to stop there, in the near future I will launch other projects.
Anastasia Aseeva, an expert in test automation and a trainer in engineering practice at Alpha Laboratory
After what event does the june cease to be a june and becomes a tester?
From my own experience I can say that June became a tester when he was not afraid to leave him alone with the team. That is, as a leader, I was sure that he was able to qualitatively test the software and the team trusts his opinion. And as long as I doubt his ability to design a test model, to understand the tested software - for me he will remain a June.
If the review of the test model is successful for a couple of months, and a positive feedback comes from the team regarding the quality of the work, then the person has pumped well and it is incorrect to consider him as June.
How much has the team influenced your development as a tester?
My first tester experience happened in a wonderful team where there were many developers, and I was the only tester. And my team believed in me so much that it pumped me in all directions: I began to understand web development, managed to conduct my first stress testing in my life, and even began to write autotests. In fact, they became the drivers of my professional development.
There are a lot of courses and materials for beginner testers, but what to do “continuing?” How to find really good conferences and events?
I am of the opinion that all engineers should be able to program. And sooner or later, but there will come a time when 90% of all testing will be automated. And as manual work, only UX testing and user interface testing will remain. Therefore, all the "continuing" need to study the YP and learn to write autotests. And if they already do this, then you can develop your developer skills. After all, the position of SDET (Software Developer in Test) will soon be in great demand.
Use Google to find good conferences. And I have some good news: I launched a channel in Telegram , where I add all the IT events that caught my eye. In the future I plan to write for the bot channel, through which events will be added automatically.
An experienced cool tester of your dreams. How do you know him from a thousand?
An inquisitive, constantly evolving person. He is constantly studying something, in his spare time he often “jerks” because he is interested in it. Keep up to date with industry trends.
What would you do if not testing?
Would become a developer. Or a pianist.
April 13 in Yekaterinburg will host a conference of developers DUMP , which traditionally will be a section on testing. In the program of the section: Arseny Batyrov (Badoo) will hold a master class on automation of mobile applications, Anastasia Aseeva (Alpha Laboratory) will talk about team responsibility for quality, Maria Glukhova (Targem Games) about working with volunteers, Ivan Rumak (SKB Kontur) will explain what security testing can offer the tester, and Vladimir Likhtansky (Plesk) will teach how to test applications if they are not written by you.
Thanks to our partners who make the conference possible: the general partner - Sberbank-Technology , the conference partners: SKB Kontur , Naumen, Tinkoff.ru , ProSoft Sistems , Very Interesting , Skb_Lab .