The necessary soft skills for testers

In addition to completing test tasks independently, testers need to collaborate with different stakeholders in the software development lifecycle, including project managers, developers, or users. The tester needs to provide feedback to the project Manager/Test Manager on the progress of the test, the quality of the product, and the progress and status of the project from the project Manager/Test Manager, for example: changes to the content or schedule of the project. In the testing process, whether the submission of defects or document review, testers can not be separated from the developer and the cooperation and communication. Testers may also need to know from the customer how the user is using the product, or because of the quality of the product, get feedback from the user or even complain. Therefore, in the complex test work environment, testers in addition to the necessary professional knowledge and testing skills, but also need to have some soft skills.

Soft skills are actually those "unseen skills", the sum of a person's ability to "inspire their own potential and magnify their resources by gaining recognition and cooperation from others to gain greater success beyond their own independence."

Soft skill is actually a sociological term for EQ (emotional intelligency quotient), which consists of a series of elements that reflect individual traits, including personality traits, social skills, communication skills, language skills, personal behavior habits, friendliness, Positive and optimistic. Soft skills and hard skills (those that work hard and can partly reflect a person's IQ) are complementary. Soft Skills (EQ) can play a very important role in the success of an organization. On the one hand, soft skills are embodied in the ability to solve problems and deal with problems in work and life, on the other hand, by gaining recognition and cooperation from others to enlarge my resources to achieve greater success.

In addition to completing test tasks independently, testers need to collaborate with different stakeholders in the software development lifecycle, including project managers, developers, or users. The tester needs to provide feedback to the project Manager/Test Manager on the progress of the test, the quality of the product, and the progress and status of the project from the project Manager/Test Manager, for example: changes to the content or schedule of the project. In the testing process, whether the submission of defects or document review, testers can not be separated from the developer and the cooperation and communication. Testers may also need to know from the customer how the user is using the product, or because of the quality of the product, get feedback from the user or even complain. Therefore, in the complex test work environment, testers in addition to the necessary professional knowledge and testing skills, but also need to have some soft skills. The following describes the soft skills that testers need to have in the process of testing.

Skeptical Spirit

Detection of defects is one of the main purposes of the test process, so the tester is skeptical about the product being tested, that is, the test object is suspected of being defective or not working properly. It is hard to imagine that a tester with a lack of skepticism can effectively detect defects in software products to achieve the goal of finding as many defects as possible. In the static testing process (for example: review), whether the requirements of the system specifications or design specifications, testers should be suspicious to analyze and evaluate them, in the dynamic testing process, the same need for skepticism, so as to more effectively detect defects. At the same time, skepticism applies not only to the deliverables of development activities, the same applies to the deliverables of the Test team, for example: for test cases designed by the Test team, it is not possible to blindly believe that they do not have bugs and flaws, and these test cases also need to be reviewed by project stakeholders, such as developers or customers, At the time of the test execution, when you find that the actual and expected results are inconsistent, you first need to ensure that the test case is correct, while ensuring that the test execution process, data, operations, and so on is not a problem, and then confirm whether the test object does not implement the required functionality or inconsistency in the specification, which requires the tester's skepticism Figure 1: A framework chart of professional competencies for software testers.

Figure 1. Software Tester Professional Competency Framework Chart