Five minutes before dismissal
---
Original
Danny R. faught
《
Five minutes ahead of the boot
"
--- Kiki
Translated on
2005/7/15
"This error is of the same type as I found last week. When can they realize this problem? When can I focus on prevention?
Bug
What about? Is that a more noble profession ?" A dissatisfied tester said. You may think that quality assurance is the next reasonable step for your testing career, but I once walked that path and did not agree with this idea. In this article, we can find that the author is not the only one with such feelings.
Fiona Charles was a tester. After six years of testing in her company, she moved to the path that many testers desire-she graduated and became a Quality Assurance personnel. Finally, she began to help prevent bugs, not just to point them out after errors are generated. By the way, the "QA" I mentioned here refers to the process of evaluating and influencing people to improve them, rather than the common usage. It is just a synonym for "testing. However, Fiona's story is not over yet. After several years of QA work, the senior manager who supported her work left the company, and the new manager did not share their gratitude to QA. The pressure on the schedule caused the process that everyone previously agreed to be thrown out of the window. People say that QA is interfering with them. Fiona said she might leave the company five minutes before the company fired her. Now she tries her best to avoid the QA role, which is a very painful experience. I was surprised when Fiona told me her story because she was so similar to my own QA story. When I was a tester, I was impressed that the tester should be properly transferred to the QA role after doing a good job in testing. So when I was frustrated when I found bugs, I became convinced that bug prevention was a higher profession and I insisted on creating a QA Team. I drew some flowcharts and started a formal inspection process. I am a master of quality assurance. But after a year, I don't know why everything collapsed on me. I really don't know why I started to receive complaints from the management about my not doing a good job, but I have the same suspicion as Fiona, I may leave the company five minutes before the company dismissed me.
Testing and
QA
Similarities
Let's look at whether QA is a higher profession for testers. First, find the similarities between the two roles. One thing is quite obvious-both testing and QA personnel need enthusiasm for quality. Both must have the ability to exercise and have a practical enthusiasm. When you cannot directly control products, soft skills are important to influence people. In addition, since testers often do QA-related work, they may already have some work experience.
On top of that, some of the problems that each tester encountered during his career seemed to be the biggest setback. They can't stand the same errors repeatedly because they know there are better ways to build products. Therefore, the QA team seems to be the most appropriate place to achieve that goal.
But what is the difference between them?
How can we differentiate test and QA? Testing focuses on the quality of products, while QA tends to move away from products and focus on the quality of processes, although QA also needs to view product-related metrics. QA requires more knowledge about the entire development lifecycle. QA personnel must be respected by managers, demanders, designers, program developers, configuration management personnel, and testers. Years of Experience from testers have helped them, but it is impossible for testers to become experts in all of these areas. QA even requires more soft skills than testing, because they need to gain the trust of people in the organization and convince people to change some of the core methods of their work.
Testers have specific deliverables, such as test cases and bug reports. QA work is relatively invisible, such as observation, advocacy, promotion and impact. When QA analysts feel that they are far away from the practical aspects of building a high-quality product, they may feel discouraged.
How can it be mistaken?
The following are some problems that may be encountered as a QA.
- You may not understand the value of a workflow for an organization that is not very mature. Organizations that require QA are the least likely to accept it. Therefore, you must find an organization that has experienced some hardships before you can make enough improvements to realize that there may be a better way. Different people have different preferences for the maturity and procedures of the companies they are working on.
- For the best practices themselves, we should be an advocate of best practices rather than helping people solve problems from their perspective. You cannot push a process to the throat of some people and expect it to stay there. The best way to approach change is to help others find solutions to problems they believe exist. It also means that you may not even be able to gain trust in your work.
- QA will get in the way. This is true-in the short term. From a long-term perspective, a better process will return, but only when you pass a new process and delay some of your favorite projects, will you feel resentful.
- It is extremely difficult to successfully create a major process change. The most reliable way is to make a lot of small improvements over time, which leads to a lot of patience. If you try to change the world quickly, you must first prepare for a complete failure.
- When the time is shortened or the attitude of the senior management changes, QA is usually the first to be placed on the chopping board. Don't worry about hanging a lot of pictures in your office. (Very touched !!)
Take you from
QA
Are the teams scared away?
I believe that in addition to QA, there are many career paths suitable for excellent testers:
- Management layer. Get some practices as test leader, try to be a test Manager, and look for lateral or upward management positions.
- Toolsmith ). If you want to keep the technology and stay in the testing field, become a testing tool expert.
- Consultant. Unfamiliar, But this is true. in this industry, many experienced testers are consultants.
- Many other things. Some technologies you also use when you are a tester-such as programming, writing technical documents, technical support, and marketing.
Maybe QA works for you too. I have heard of some people who are really very good at QA. If you have chosen this path, I hope you will be well prepared from now on. Otherwise, I hope you will have a brand new comment on QA work.
