“Software Testers Do Not Make Software But They Make Them Better. Testers succeed where others failed.”
QA professionals are the unsung heroes of every Website, Gadget, Software, and Application that we use for our day to day comfort in this digital world. There are no specific rule books or guidelines to become a great Software tester. But there are definitely some qualities to become a world-class QA Professional.
There is no one particular ingredient to be used for a different set of people. Likewise, there is no single test which is less important than the other. A software tester will go through so many tests to find bugs in the quality assurance phase before it is available for the end-users.
“You should make time to improve your skills. Open your mind to explore and broader view of QA Systems.” – Magda Harmse
Here Are The Qualities That Every QA Should Have, To Be The Testing Ninja
1. Understand Priorities
The most important quality of a QA Professional is to prioritize the work. For instance, what is the most important test case or features that have to be tested and must always be a top priority? To put it in even simpler terms, a support request for fixing a laptop is a higher priority than trying to install new software. Alike, the requirement, testing environment, and deadlines change often. As a tester, you wish to know what ought to be tested and what ought to run less priority, what ought to be machine-controlled and what ought to be tested manually. Once you become a master of shaping priorities, testing will be very easy.
2. Ask Questions
Raising questions is the most important part of being a QA Professional. If you fail to do so, you may miss out on some of the most important sets of data. Always ask to understand the requirements, any changes made before, how the requirement has to be implemented, how a bug was fixed and its effects. Understand the product from the perspective of development and business needs.
3. Be a Master of your Own Creativity
Testing is all about innovation. Create multiple ideas to test the product. Do not be satisfied after writing an ordinary functional and performance test cases. The more you think about how the product can be used, the better you can write test cases. Always put yourself in the shoes of the end-user. This will enhance user satisfaction, the long term experience and most of all the product itself. Be innovative and wear your creative hat to write the ultimate test cases and become a great tester.
4. Relate with Real-Time Scenarios
Relate testing with real-life scenarios. You wouldn’t be testing a bike the same way you test a longboard. Put yourself in a loop mode to think about creating real-life test cases. This will help you create more relatable testing ideas, which will ultimately decrease in product usage.
5. Willingness and Flexible to Support All Time
The duty of a software tester does not end by just finding and reporting a bug. If the developer is not able to reproduce the bug, you are expected to support reproducing it because only then the developer will be able to fix it. Also, a tight deadline makes testers forget about the quality. The perfect way to master this is to execute strong commitment, perfection, and an eye for detail.
6. Also, Be a Programmer
A great software tester must possess a reasonable amount of programming skills. Programming skills are a must when you have to deal with testing through automation. In the case of manual testing, knowledge of programming languages can help a tester create tools and snippets of codes to quicken manual testing. In general, knowledge of coding and related concepts can help a great software tester understand the kind of bugs that can be injected during programming, as well as the places/instances where the presence of bugs is higher.
7. Be Intellectually Curious
Software testing is challenging because you need to learn new things constantly. It’s not about gaining the expertise of a specific scripting language; it’s about keeping up with the latest technology, about learning how to use automation tools, about learning how to create ideas, learning from experience, and ultimately about constantly thriving.
8. Understanding of Business Needs
A great software tester must understand the ultimate goal of the system being built from the business end. The tester, only when they know and understand the bigger picture, can help analyze the system’s strengths and weaknesses and go beyond the mere testing duty. A great software tester must have the utmost faith while going live. He/she must provide the business with competitively advantageous strategic inputs from a testing perspective.
For every problem, there is a solution. And for every QA team, there is a QA Touch. QA Touch is a smarter online test case management tool that simplifies your testing process. QA Touch is designed in line with the qualities and needs of a Software Tester. Its features are designed from the user’s perspective and not limited to test suites, in-built bug tracking, seamless dashboards, reports, custom fields, requirement mapping, stepwise executions, exports and attached PDFs for issues and requirements, and much more. QA Touch makes your testing experience more sophisticated by acting as a tool for planning, monitoring, delegating and executing.
For aspiring QA professionals, the suggestion is that you get trained and be prepared in both technical as well as interpersonal skills. Learn the fundamentals of testing and gain a good grip on at least one scripting language. There is a misconception that testing is an easy job and anyone can be a tester. Software testing is a challenging job and it demands traits like understanding testing methodologies, coding, creativity, problem-solving, planning, an eye for detail, patience, communication, and a lot more.
