What is Software Testing?
Due to the critical role it plays in detecting and decreasing defects during the development cycle, software testing is an essential component of any application or software development. This not only lowers the effort required to design an app, but also improves the software's or app's overall robustness.
Who is a Software Tester?
The participants in this process who carry out the actions necessary to lessen the consequences of defects and emerging faults during the development phases are called software testers. They are crucial to the entire process of developing applications. They can be generically categorized as quality assurance specialists, or QAs, who test the relevant apps to find the reasons of defects, poor performance, and any other interface problems. An professional software tester implements numerous test types, such as stress, functional, performance, user acceptability, and scalability tests, during the various stages of the software development life cycle to ensure the success of these tests.Including software testers during the planning and design phase becomes extremely vital throughout with the aid of post-release support as software testing plays a significant role in defining the quality and usability standards of the ultimately produced product.
Prerequisites for Becoming a Software Tester
A specific set of educational, technical, and fundamental abilities, as well as certifications, are undoubtedly necessary if one wishes to pursue a career in the field of software testing.
Mentioned below is a broadly defined classification of the same-
Educational Skills
- The majority of organizations favor software testing candidates who have a bachelor's degree in computer science, math, or even engineering, even though there is no set expert framework for becoming a test expert.
- If you have adequate work experience that shows a very consistent work history, your recommendation letters or references are sufficient to help you land a position with clear requirements even if you don't have a college degree.
- A minimum of three to six years of experience in the field of software testing and a modicum of schooling can work wonders for an intermediate-level job position.
Technical Skills
The software testing domain doesn’t need an expert programming or technically driven computer guru to begin your career in the software testing field, it requires your attitude to learn these technical skills.
- Basic to Intermediary level knowledge of Database/SQL is a mandatory
Software Systems require large scale storage of data and thus comes the need to be aware of the basic to intermediary level knowledge of databases such as-Oracle, MySQL, in order to perform operations relative to this using the different SQL queries.
- Basic to Intermediary level knowledge of Linux command
Linux knowledge is vital as mostly the applications such as- Application Servers, Databases and Web-Services work on the Linux machines.
- Practical Experience and Knowledge of Automation tools
A hands-on experience of the below mentioned tools for Automation testing is an added requirement
- Selenium
- QTP UFT
- Certain Performance testing tools such as- Jmeter, Loadrunner, etc.
- Certain ETL testing tools such as- Ab Initio, Informatica, etc.
Basic Skills
- Ability to create and documenting automated and manual testing plans and processes, test execution, performing result analysis and report generation on bugs and anomalies
- Ability to perform software tests during the different design-develop-test-release-maintain phases during the software development life cycle
- Understanding different development methodologies of Agile, Scrum, and other test platforms or environments
- Must have in-depth knowledge of different testing tools
- Well acquainted with UNIX, Linux and/or Windows scripting and language commands
- Should be a multi-task operator with excellent communication (both written and verbal) skills
- Should have familiarity with different programming languages like- Java, C#, JavaScript, C++, Python, SQL, Ruby on Rails and PHP
