Software Testing Engineer career plan

Analysis on the development direction of software testing engineers in their career:

Due to the rapid development and strong demand of the software testing industry in China in the new era, domestic software testing jobs are generally promoted faster than foreign companies, but because the industry itself is too young, people do not know enough about the development of the software testing profession in software testing, which leads many young people who wish to develop here to move forward. The following describes the distribution of mature positions in the software testing industry of foreign companies. Some companies in China that are at the front end of the software testing industry are similar to each other, this can serve as a reference for career planning for software testing, and give new people a guide.

Phase 1: (Tester)Junior Test Engineer

Prerequisites: an individual with a computer degree or manual testing experience.

Specific work: Execute test cases, record bugs, and perform regression testing. Record the regression testing script through qtp and other testing tools, and execute the regression testing script.

Learning direction: Develop test scripts and get familiar with test lifecycles and technologies.

Stage 2: (Test Engineer)ProgramAnalyst

Condition: 1 ~ 2 years working experience as a testing engineer or programmer. Has preliminary automation testing capability and completes automation testing scripts.

Specific work: Design and write test cases, write automatic test scripts, and take the lead in the early stage of test programming.

Learning direction: ExpansionProgramming Language, Operating system, network and database skills.

Stage 3: (Senior Test Engineer)Program Analyst

Condition: 3 ~ 4 years of experience as a test engineer or programmer. Have certain industry business knowledge and reserve the ability of system analysts.

Specific work: helps develop or maintain testing or programming standards and processes, analyzes software requirements, and obtains testing requirements. Determine the test method for the test requirement and obtain the test policy plan. Participate in peer reviews (software requirements, software testing plans, etc.) and serve as consultants for other junior test engineers or programmers.

Learning direction: continue to expand programming language, operating system, network and database skills.

Stage 4:Test Group owner

Condition: 4 ~ 6 years of experience as a test engineer or programmer. Has a wealth of industry business knowledge, has the ability of system analysts, expertise in performance testing.

Specific work: responsible for management 1 ~ Three test engineers or programmers. Focus on skills and take on schedule and workload size/Cost Estimation responsibilities. Analyze the causes of performance bottlenecks and provide the development team with bug solutions.

Learning: Performance Testing and testing skills

Stage 5: (senior security or performance testing engineers)Test/Senior Programming Director

Condition: 6 ~ 10 years of experience as a testing engineer or programmer.

Specific work: responsible for managing 8 ~ 10 technicians. Overall performance testing solution design, software system performance problem locating and performance optimization, memory optimization and Analysis of Data overflow, and analysis of system security vulnerabilities. Responsible for schedule, workload/cost estimation, delivery of products by schedule and budget objectives. Responsible for the technical methods of the development project. Provide support and demonstration for some users.

Learning direction: develop technical expertise in some specific fields

Stage 6:Test/Quality assurance/Development(Project)Manager

Prerequisites: over 10 years of work experience.

Specific work: manage one or more projects attended by eight or more people. Responsible for the entire development lifecycle business in this field (testing/quality assurance/development. Provide some users with interaction and a large number of demonstrations. Responsible for project cost, schedule, plan and division of labor

Stage 7: (company-level quality Director) plan Manager

Prerequisites: over 15 years of experience in development and support (testing/Quality Assurance) activities.

Specific work: Manage the personnel engaged in a number of projects and the entire development lifecycle. Responsible for grasping the project direction and Profit and Loss responsibilities

Career planning is a major event in life. Let me talk about my point of view based on my personal experience:

Step 1: Campus (1 year before graduation ~ 1.5 years)

Many people begin their career planning only after work. In fact, doing so has great limitations. Every person who has worked has a meeting, that is, his first job, which will affect 5 to 5 ~ The 10-year development track may even have an impact on your life. Therefore, choosing a proper job as the starting point must be a clear question on campus.

Since China's education is basically theoretical education, most of the people's practical ability before work is relatively weak, although there are its shortcomings, but there is also a good side, that is, the plasticity is better. Good plasticity indicates that there is a lot of room for choice. Therefore, when choosing the first job, you should fully combine your educational background, personal abilities, interests and hobbies, and long-term goals, make rational decisions.

Software testing, especially black box software testing, is a kind of career with a low entry start point, rapid start, and a relatively large development space. Therefore, for many students, as a beginner in it employment, is very suitable.

The planning of the campus stage is mainly to select the major entry direction. Of course, you can also give yourself a long-term goal at this time, but you do not have to plan too much, because before you enter the industry, everything is unknown. Just grasp the route.

The following assumes that you choose software testing ~~

Step 2: entry phase (3 months ~ 1 year)

For newcomers who just entered the industry, this period is a comprehensive period of familiarity. They can learn new knowledge and have the enthusiasm and motivation to work hard. We recommend that you take this momentum to understand the full picture of your field, the content, features, advantages, and limitations of each major branch, and evaluate your current working environment, adjust your plan based on the aforementioned content based on your individual matching degree and interests.
For the testing industry, there are several technical aspects: Black box testing, white box testing, automated testing, testing tools, dedicated business skills And other related management aspects: Test management, quality management, and Project Management .
In the face of all the above directions, we suggest you have a slight understanding of the meaning, and then determine 1 ~ Two, as the main direction for the long term, to meet this standard, the basic has been achieved, as to whether the hall can enter, it depends on the efforts of the later stage.
Step 3: Improve (3 years after getting started ~ 5 years)
After getting started, you can choose either management or technology. In fact, this problem is not an exception. The key is to find your long-term position. However, I personally recommend that you Technology-oriented Right. After all, in a technical environment, it is difficult to make good management without a solid foundation.
This stage is the easiest time for people to slack. After all, the enthusiasm for just entering the industry has been cool down by day-to-day complex work. With some work experience and competence, it is no problem for most people. Family and entertainment have become the mainstream of amateur life. However, after all, everyone is still very young, and most people are still in their twenties at this time. It is terrible to slack off. Therefore, it is especially critical to improve the core competitiveness with planning.
Improvement is to be improved, but for most people, there is no need to work hard. If you are in a relatively stable position, you can consider refining your mid-term plan. Develop a self-improvement plan based on the selected direction and define the milestones of self-check (for example, one phase per quarter or six months), every day or every week, learn more regularly. Setting a goal-"improving a little bit every day" is not a problem.
I am personally opposed to quick success and quick success, and tend to be steady. In this stage, do not"Wanjin Oil ", But efforts should be made One skill " Experts " .
For those who choose to be technical, generally, they must be familiar with the majority of technical details in the technical direction you have selected. The Details determine success or failure, although it is necessary to grasp the global capabilities, it is difficult for experts to master themselves if they cannot be drilled very carefully.
For those who choose to manage, I personally prefer to contact the management concept at this stage and be able to intervene in management, however, this stage should not be fully managed (unless you have a deeper level of consideration, you can leave it unsteadily ). Learning Management Concept is very important In fact, management is more of a way of thinking and doing things. This course of learning is not as profound as technology, will it be so significant? Therefore, we suggest Learn more and learn from each other , And strive Build your own style of work . Senior Software Testing engineers and test team leaders are all good management positions with technical characteristics. At this time, you should be competent.
After reaching this stage, you can also become a veteran and do not have to worry about job hunting. You should be able to easily change jobs or be harassed by headers from time to reach this stage, you need to make more in-depth planning.
Step 4: sublimation phase (5 years after veteran ~ 10 years)
At this time, you are about to enter the middle age. Whether you have been focusing on technology or preferred to manage, you are facing the dual pressure of family and society. You cannot work hard all day like a young man. You need to be stable, therefore, you cannot change jobs frequently, It is recommended that you consider more formal and potential enterprises and give yourself a long-term development plan. .
It is precisely because of the background of the preliminary details that you need to improve your macro grasp ability. Even if you are engaged in technology, you should also consider appropriate transformation management (with Chinese characteristics: it is very difficult for engineers over 35 years old. When the average person reaches the age of 30, it is not a conversion of management or business conversion ). Of course, the average person is better at technology. The more important the project is to be managed. However, for technical personnel, the key is to cultivate the ability to deal with people. At this stage, we need to gradually develop our own management style and be able to coordinate parallel transactions.
Of course, pure management is different from technical management. For Pure Management It is especially important to form your own style. Pure management test managers can not only manage the test, but also manage projects and other projects. In fact, no matter what the management objects are, their management concepts are still the same. Many experiences found in test management can be well applied to other management fields. ForTechnical Management People mainly bring technical teams together, and constantly add new technical knowledge to keep up with the technology trend. At this time, you have a strong technical background and do not need to study details too much. You only need to gain insight into the core and arrange your team members properly.
At this stage, a few people may choose to leave a specific company and start to engage in test Consulting. This is a new and challenging start, and they must have accumulated experience to be competent.
For most people, a major concern during this phase is whether to use testing as their own position for life. If so, they basically achieve the above goals and stay in the status, basically, you can retire. If not, it would be terrible. In fact, I do not recommend people transition at this stage unless there are good reasons and opportunities. After all, at this stage, you have already paid at least 5 Years of effort, but also the prime time of life, time is gone forever. Please be careful when forwarding the current status