The cultivation path for new users in software testing

I would like to share some of my thoughts on how new users who have just entered the software testing job can grow up quickly and healthily on their career path. You are welcome to discuss and develop ideas.

(1) interest is the best teacher

Software testing is usually boring. If you are not interested, it is difficult to achieve persistence.

I recently participated in a software testing project. Three of my testing teams are in-school students who work in the company as part-time students. They are both software-related undergraduates and graduate students, good Foundation. However, only one of them is the most outstanding, because he cherishes the job opportunities in social practice, does his work seriously, and finds many high-priority bugs.

The other two withdrew for various reasons after less than one month of participation in the project. In my communication with them, one of them said that the testing work was too boring and not challenging. He hoped to do software development work. Because he does not like software testing, he lacks basic understanding of software testing technology. So during his 7-day testing, he found only three bugs (normally, other testers can find five bugs every day ). Therefore, he has the lowest effect in performance appraisal.

Although another student is willing to do software testing, he thinks that black box testing is too simple to learn advanced testing techniques. He is more willing to learn white box testing, able to test the software source code by yourself. The current project does not have this part of content, so although he has a good job score, his enthusiasm is not high.

Therefore, it is recommended that you first understand whether you are willing to perform software testing, white-box testing, or functional black-box testing. Do not blindly participate in your work, otherwise, it is a waste of personal growth for employers.

(2) Testers should learn to think

Testing is a technical task that requires learning to think actively. If you meet a good test supervisor (team lead), he will take the initiative to solve the practical technical difficulties of your test. This is your luck. However, the test problem is complicated and the test supervisor is very busy. He does not have time to solve any technical problems you encounter. You need to analyze the nature of the problem and try various solutions on your own, search for articles on the Internet. It is best to ask the supervisor for help if the problem persists.

We are opposed to panic problems. Do not ask questions that are very "mentally retarded". Otherwise, the supervisor thinks that you are incapable of solving the problem and lack of learning ability, this will be detrimental to future development.

How do testers think? Think about the problem. The problem is caused by insufficient professional testing knowledge, fuzzy or incorrect testing documents such as test cases, and is a common phenomenon in some cases or other content of the test project. The test should be conducted from the perspective of simulated user usage. Therefore, we should analyze the problem severity from the final perspective.

Before asking about the final solution, make sure that you have tried a variety of solutions based on your own experience, and try to tell the Test director the problems and guesses you have found, it proves that you have taken the initiative to think about it, but you have not found a good solution, or are not sure whether the method is feasible.

(3) Select suitable test learning materials

The technology of software testing is profound and profound. Where should I start? You can learn from the following aspects:

The first is the training materials provided by the company. After testing new employees to the company, they generally have to go through short-term training. This is the best first-hand material for learning. Highly targeted, which is a summary of the testing knowledge used by the company in the future. It is highly targeted and practical. If you have any questions, you can ask them at any time, because you are a test newbie and don't know how to ask questions. No one will doubt your abilities.

The second is to learn from the test documents of the test project, including the test plan, test cases, and test the defect database. You can first check which bugs have been found and how these bugs have been discovered, learn how others write test defect reports based on their rules and features.

Third, read Test books and test websites and forums. There is a lot of content. It is recommended that you choose to test the books based on your knowledge and read the books based on your basic knowledge. The quality of officially published books is relatively high, while the articles on the test site and Forum are not good. Some of them are just a few words and many still have errors. Therefore, it is necessary to have a certain identification capability. Otherwise, it will be misleading and time-consuming.

(4) Consolidate the knowledge base for testing

To practice martial arts, you need to practice "squatting" first. Otherwise, you can learn 18 weapons like knives, guns, and sticks. You can only learn a few tricks and even hurt yourself. The martial arts masters have a solid foundation, internal strength is profound.

This is also the case for software testing. Many newcomers in and out of the testing industry want to take shortcuts. They often listen to the propaganda from various testing training institutions and think that they can step into the Hall of test experts after several days of capacity improvement. This is wrong, it is also a big loss.

Another mistake is that, without learning the basic concepts of testing, I blindly learned a variety of large commercial automated testing software. The results took a lot of time and money, but I learned the specific operations of tools. In the actual test project, the tool cannot be effectively used to solve the actual test problem.

As a beginner in testing, most of them started from manual functional testing. Large-scale automated testing can only be used as a testing master. In addition, the operation of the test tool is a very simple technical problem. The key is how to play the role of the test tool, which requires testing strategies.

Therefore, beginners must learn basic test knowledge, various test terms, test concepts, test categories, test processes, and test project execution processes. If you do not understand this, future career development will be limited.

Learning is a painful process, but learning is an inevitable way to enhance your skills. There is no shortcut to learning and testing knowledge. It takes a long time, hard work, thinking, and summary, from 1.1 drops.

(5) Continuously learn industry knowledge

In addition to learning and mastering the testing technology, testers also need to constantly learn the industry knowledge. This is the best way to distinguish normal testing technicians from testing industry experts.

What industry knowledge should I learn? Depends on the application field of the software you test. For example, if you are testing applications in the telecom industry, you need to learn about the telecom industry, including terms, services, and industry technologies. How to Learn? It can communicate with customers, developers, and professional books and articles.

Learning industry knowledge is a process of continuous progress. Every industry has a systematic knowledge architecture. First, we need to learn the most necessary theories and technologies in our work. Then, we will continue to refine and explore the opportunities and interests.

Senior testers must be proficient in testing technology and industry knowledge. They can provide testing and quality assurance solutions for industrial software. For beginners, they must realize that they can become testing industry experts after continuous efforts. A journey of thousands of miles begins with a single step. At present, the most important thing is to start with the testing basics.