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Characteristics of A Great Software Tester

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42 views4 pages

Characteristics of A Great Software Tester

Uploaded by

harish
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Characteristics of a Great Software Tester

1. Be Skeptical Don’t believe that the build given by


developers is bug free or quality outcome. Question
everything. Accept the build only if you test and find it
defect free. Don’t believe anyone whatever be the
designation they hold, just apply your knowledge and try
to find errors. You need to follow this till the last testing
cycle.
2. Don’t Compromise on Quality Don’t compromise after
certain testing stages. There is no limit for testing until
you produce a quality product.  Quality is the word made
by software testers to achieve more effective testing.
Compromising at any level leads to defective product, so
don’t do that at any situation.
3.Ensure End User Satisfaction Always think what can
make end user happy. How they can use the product
with ease. Don’t stop by testing the standard
requirements. End user can be happy only when you
provide an error free product.
4. Think from Users Perspective Every product is
developed for customers. Customers may or may not be
technical persons. If you don’t consider the scenarios
from their perspective you will miss many important
bugs. So put yourself in their shoes. Know your end
users first. Their age, education even the location can
matter most while using the product. Make sure to
prepare your test scenarios and test data accordingly.
After all project is said to be successful only if end user
is able to use the application successfully.
5. Prioritize Tests First identify important tests and then
prioritize execution based on test importance. Never
ever execute test cases sequentially without deciding
priority. This will ensure all your important test cases get
executed early and you won’t cut down on these at the
last stage of release cycle due to time pressure. Also
consider the defect history while estimating test efforts.
In most cases defect count at the beginning is more and
goes on reducing at the end of the test cycle.
6. Never Promise 100% Coverage Saying 100%
coverage on paper is easy but practically it is
impossible. So never promise to anyone including
clients about total test coverage. In business there is a
philosophy – “Under promise and over deliver.” So don’t
goal for 100% coverage but focus on quality of your
tests.
7. Be Open to Suggestions Listen to everyone even
though you are an authority on the project having in
depth project knowledge. There is always scope for
improvements and getting suggestions from fellow
software testers is a good idea. Everyone’s feedback to
improve the quality of the project would certainly help to
release a bug free software.

8. Start Early Don’t wait until you get your first build for
testing. Start analyzing requirements, preparing test
cases, test plan and test strategy documents in early
design phase. Starting early to test helps to visualize
complete project scope and hence planning can be done
accordingly. Most of the defects can be detected in early
design and analysis phase saving huge time and
money. Early requirement analysis will also help you to
question the design decisions.
9. Identify and Manage Risks Risks are associated with
every project. Risk management is a three step process.
Risk identification, analysis and mitigation. Incorporate
risk driven testing process. Priorities software testing
based on risk evaluation.
10. Do Market Research Don’t think that your
responsibility is just to validate software against the set
of requirements. Be proactive, do your product market
research and provide suggestions to improve it. This
research will also help you understand your product and
its market.
11. Develop Good Analyzing Skill This is must for
requirement analysis but even further this could be
helpful for understanding customer feedback while
defining test strategy. Question everything around you.
This will trigger the analysis process and it will help you
resolve many complex problems.
12. Focus on Negative Side as Well Testers should
have test to break attitude. Concentrating on only
positive side will almost certainly create many security
issues in your application. You should be hacker of your
project to keep other hackers away from it. Negative
testing is equally important. So cover a good chunk of
your test cases based on negative scenarios.
13. Be a Good Judge of Your Product Judge usually
thinks whether it is right or wrong. Judge listens to both
the sides. Same is applicable for testing. As a software
tester if you think something as right, try to prove it why
it is not wrong and then only accept it. You must have
valid reason for all your decisions.
14. Learn to Negotiate Testers have to negotiate with
everyone in all stages of project life cycle. Especially
negotiation with developers is more important.
Developers can do anything to prove that their code is
correct and the defect logged by testers is not valid. It
requires great skills to convince developers about the
defect and get it resolved. Though some software
testers think this is not our task but explaining the true
impact of any issue is very helpful for developers to
quickly understand the overall scenario and its
implications. This requires years of practice but once
you learn to negotiate you will gain more respect.
15. Stop the Blame Game It’s common to blame others
for any defects which are not caught in testing. This is
even more common when the tester’s responsibilities
are not defined concretely. But in any situation never
blame anyone. If an error occurs, first try to resolve it
rather than finding someone to blame. As a human
everybody makes mistake, so try to avoid blaming
others. Work as a team to build team spirit.
16. Finally, Be a Good Observer Observe things
happening around you. Keep track of all major and
minor things on your project. Observe the way of
developing the code, types of testing and its objective.
Observe and understand test progress and make
necessary changes if it is off the track in terms of
schedule or testing activities. This skill will essential help
you to keep yourself updated and ready with course of
action for any situation.

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