10 reasons why you are not a tester

Do you consider yourself a professional tester?

If you are reading this article - probably you are. And I say this, not because I wrote it, I mean your attitude in general. If in your free time you are reading articles, various resources, portals, etc. related to testing, looking for ways to improve your skills you find yourself in a small (but fortunately growing) group of engineers who can be called Professional Testers .



Looking for the perfect excuse

The popular social network LinkedIn once discussed the topic “Why testing is not perceived as a full-fledged profession?” By many people in our industry.

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Many people responded with something like “because testing does not teach at institutes” or “because testing is a relatively new field and people are still learning how to do it correctly”.



I kept waiting for, and at least someone would express the opinion that the blame lies with ourselves. Testing is not perceived as a profession in society because there are people among us who are not professionals in their field.



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, others sometimes treat us not as professionals just because we do not behave appropriately.



All testers I met on my life path approached my work seriously and constantly tried to improve the quality of the developed product. I saw a corresponding attitude towards them from other team members - they were respected, they appreciated their contribution to the success of the project and organization.



So, to the point:



What are these 10 reasons why you can’t call yourself a professional tester?



1. 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 understanding 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 generate defects. Days when the concepts of "black box" and "white box" were relevant - 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 whole testing process.



2. You are not involved in the process, until a new build shmyaknetsya on your head and do not receive the command "Test!"



Ask yourself the question, honestly - At what point do you connect to the development process?



In theory, we all know that it is better to begin testing at the stage of collecting requirements and analyzing them. But in fact, it turns out that any intelligible result from us comes exactly when the first build falls down.



Why it happens? Most testers will say - blame the notorious vicious circle. 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 spend 2 hours a day on a rally to discuss a new design, you’re not the best time manager. It also means that the only reason you don’t take part in the early stages of development is because it has low priority for you, in other words, you just don’t want to!



3. All your interaction with the customer is reduced to the reproduction of defects from the "fields"



An integral part of your work is the obligation to test the product as it will be used in actual operation and look for bugs that are critical for the business.



You can say that you are an attorney for your customer and protect his interests in front of the development team. You need to plan your tests and set up the environment to perform them. Also, you are expected to provide adequate feedback on functionality when necessary.



But if this is really the case, 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 used 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. As long as you do not recognize the user of your system, you are worthless as a tester.



4. The phrase "risk management" for you something from the field of life insurance.



In testing there is a set of simple truths. Perhaps the simplest of them is that no tester will ever have enough time to check everything. This is where the basic principles of risk management begin, helping us to prioritize our work, to present what to test (and what will be first on this list) and what can be postponed.



But this is only a superficial look at the risk management process. The deeper approach is not really directly related to testing.



Every tester knows that 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, to detect such areas and notify the team about them. Thus, we can determine where it is necessary to add new features, we can plan more time to stabilize the system, etc.



You have to shed light on all ambiguous situations, existing or potential, affecting your product. Help your team set realistic 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 also many ways to develop as soon as you become part of this world.



Many of these “ways” are individual, they consist of the abilities of this or that person, together with the needs and limitations of the current place of work, as well as from the sources of information available to the tester at the moment.



In short, there is no universal method for building your career and becoming a professional tester. Therefore, unless you yourself decide to engage in your self-education and do not understand how to achieve development, you will not be able to improve your skills and your contribution to the company's activities.



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 for sure - the process of professional growth will not be possible if you let everything go to chance.



6. Do you think that your work comes down to writing and running predefined test scenarios

In addition to running scripts, there is a whole bunch of everything:



- evaluation of the design of your application

- risk analysis of the current development plan

- providing feedback at all stages of the development process

- development of an automated framework that helps your developers maintain product stability

- run tests, but not only those that you wrote

- analysis of test run results, collection of statistics on the testing process

- etc.



In short, the essence of your work goes far beyond the limits of the passage along the steps in the test case and giving them the status of pass or fail.



7. Automation, this is something that requires academic knowledge, and you better take it up sometime in the future, in your free time.

Stop making excuses for yourself not to automate the process. This is another common mistake of many testers.

Automation is not a magic pill or antidote for all the problems confronting 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 do some of the “black” work more efficiently and save time.



The problem here is that some testers consider themselves insufficiently qualified to automate and decide to leave it at that. It is the same as trying to light a fire with stones and sticks, and refusing to light a lantern, because supposedly it's easier for you ...



8. You exaggerate your contribution to the overall 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 whatever reason, are surprised when developers give them testing tips or when they are asked to clarify a specific defect or test. In most cases, there are objective reasons for such questions, but some testers perceive them as a personal insult and respond in a raised voice without being embarrassed in expressions.

You need both to provide information on current product defects, and to receive feedback on your work.



No one expects your work to be done perfectly, but everyone means that you are first and foremost a 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 with whom I had the opportunity to work, liked to use the expression “virtual toolkit” to designate a set of skills, each of us, which we use as needed.



Do you know what tools are in your toolkit?

Which ones need to be replaced or improved?

Which ones will you need in the future?



Testing is, without a doubt, delicate work, and it requires mastering the right tools (both virtual and real). Without this, you will not be able to create a quality product.



10. Building a career means for you to either become a manager or go to another area.



Some people get into testing because they think it’s their way into programming. Others simply do not know the essence of testing, and they find it funny to play with applications all day. In the end, what's so complicated there, right?



Some of them, over time, will become good specialists. But most will wait for the end of testing, to finally take up 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 a manager.



Management can really give you the interesting tasks and decent rewards you are looking for. But there are also countless other professions that are not related to management, which are able to bring even more tests and more attractive "buns" (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, on your own place? Maybe you should look at other jobs ...?



Want to be a professional? Begin to treat testing like a profession.



If you look at this list from the outside, you manage to catch a general idea that unites them - this is a call to change the approach to testing.

The first step is to start testing as OUR profession.



Once the first step is over, 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 treat colleagues and customers? 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 will need to learn a lot of things.



The most important thing is that all changes must go from the inside, on our own initiative, and not by the will of God or from the position next to your name, in the signature to the e-mail.



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