A peculiar but prominent distinction – Technical vs Domain Tester. Yeah! We know both are necessary for a successful QA career, but after certain years of experience your resume tend to incline towards one or the other. We are not Rajinikanth after all Who wins the Technical vs Domain Tester battle? Nah! It’s not a comparison between Deepanshu and Kanchan (we are together after all ;-)) but comparison between two different kinds of resume!
Functional Testing
12 Small Changes = Big Impact to your Professional career!
Too much work, every day we stay late in office. Oh it just skipped my mind, sorry. Let’s discuss it tomorrow. His/her mail is always ambiguous, let’s discuss on call directly. They are discussing about the technical design, we (testers) need not attend. Hey developer – have mailed you the bug, please investigate. These are some of the common dialogues in our everyday IT life. Ever thought of changing something? Nah? Yes? Every one of us notices something errant but then forget about it the next moment. But we say – Small changes can make a big difference to your career.
The most effective Marketing tool which nobody is telling you | Do you know what?
Every other software (or product) development firm is facing a tough competition in getting new business. Millions are spent on the marketing strategy to lure customers into signing contracts. Every day new marketing ideas pop up, a new strategy is formulated, costs are brought down, processes are being automated, social media & optimization are being exploited, different tools like Marketing Cloud are implemented, and what not. Marketing has grown into a multi-million $ industry in order to bridge the gap between companies and the customers. In all this hunky-dory picture, we are neglecting the most effective marketing tool available to all. Let’s explore…
Preparing an Enterprise Mobility Strategy? Keep in mind these 20 Challenges & their Mitigation
Enterprise mobility solutions can present a number of challenges – Mobile governance, or the Management of people, policy, and process issues. At times it can seem like a minefield, but enterprises can quickly identify these challenges and overcome them in order to deploy an innovative enterprise mobility strategy. Companies need to bring all stakeholders into the fold to create truly productive and effective Enterprise Mobility. Here are the key challenges that organizations face as they define their Mobility strategy.
I’m stuck! How to move forward in Software Testing career?
Recently our article “Manual Testing Is NOT Dead, But Manual Testers Are!” got major traction on social channels and triggered a debate in the Testing community. Some say “I have been doing Manual Testing since a decade now, and I am alive” while others approve of the title. Whatever be the debate (or discussion), Manual testers are finding it really tough to cut through the current jobs market. Want a proof? Try an experiment by analyzing the humongous response to a job opportunity posted for Manual Testers with 3-8 years of experience. How to move forward in Software Testing career?
How do I know I’m a good Tester? Inspiring thoughts from James Bach!
James Bach. What comes to your mind when you hear the name? Disruptive & Controversial Tester. Founding member of the Context-Driven School of Software Testing. Creator of Rapid Software Testing™, Session-Based Test Management, and one of the progenitors and advocates of skilled exploratory software testing. The original buccaneer Tester. His thoughts are revolutionary & an inspiration to both entry-level & experienced testers. He is straight-forward & fearless in advancing the Software Testing technology. James Bach is synonymous with testing, and has been disrupting the industry and influencing and mentoring testers since he got his start in testing over 30 years ago.
Testing != Bugs | The real purpose of Software Testing
Purpose, noun, the reason for which something is done. Recently a discussion was started by one of the Testing co-blogger at LinkedIn “What drives Quality Assurance? What is the purpose of Software Testing?” A relevant discussion indeed. They say “If you’re not working with purpose, you’re doing it wrong.” This triggered me to put on the thinking hat and pen down my perspective of ‘Software Testing Goals’.
Missed Opportunities | Why are defects leaked to UAT?
Defect Leakage is natural. It’s common. If you build a software, bugs will be there. Similarly even if you Test a software, you cannot prove their absence. But we can do our best to eliminate maximum of them. Typically in most of the projects even if you complete functional testing (system testing) without any time & cost constraints, still UAT team (Business) manages to catch some more bugs. Any idea why? There has to be something missing in the system test coverage. What is it?
Sudden Thoughts of a Software Tester | About Testing
From the time I am blogging, it makes sense to me to pen down my sudden thoughts. Many a times you come up with an idea, memory, solution, problem, anything and it is lost since we don’t remember it in future. That’s when I started writing my sudden thoughts about Software Testing and guess what, the ‘Sudden Thoughts of a Software Tester’ is getting a lot of traction on my Social profiles. So thought of sharing it with you all. Here we go…
OMG! Cloud Testing is so different..!
Unless you took a refugee or voluntary retirement or moved to Himalayas, you must be aware of the ‘Virtualization’ and ‘Cloud Computing’ concept. Cloud computing has passed through the stage of hype to become a reality of modern enterprise infrastructure. Every other Tech giant has its cloud offerings, be it Amazon, Google, HPE, IBM, Microsoft or Salesforce. And how did it impact the Testing landscape? Yeah! Every big innovation in the technology space has its parallel influence on the Test processes & techniques. In no time testing evangelists started exploring the Clouds and came up with new Test approaches suited for the Cloud. Cloud Testing started trending in the town and I too jumped into this bandwagon. Yes, recently I have been working on a Salesforce Marketing Cloud project and OMG! Cloud Testing is so different..!
Crowdsourced Testing | Of the Software, By the Crowd, For the User
The concept has been around from a long time. The most famous example of Crowd Sourcing is “Wikipedia”. Wikipedia, the most comprehensive encyclopedia is the result of the information created by writers and editors from the crowd. The various Bug Bounty programs run by Tech giants is a wonderful practical application of crowdsourced testing which reward researchers and software hobbyists for finding software bugs. Beta testing (many apps have beta versions available in play store / app store including WhatsApp Beta program) is also a form of crowdsourced testing where a set of end-users can access the application & provide their feedback.
Pseudo-Agile is a slow poison to Software Quality
Today most of the organizations are moving or have already moved to agile development and testing. Or at least they think so. Sprints and daily stand-ups are common. Everybody is talking about Scrum & minimum viable product. We are tracking the team velocity & burndown. We have cut down on the documentation & invested in working software. Everyone is focused on customer satisfaction by accepting change. But wait a minute! This is too-happy a picture to be true.
Failing to plan is Planning to fail | What is a Test Plan in Software Testing?
How did you study when young? Ever prepared a time-table? Planned to study during early morning hours or late in the night? Researched about and collected the required books? Decided your approach to understand it or just mug it up? Focused on the main chapters which would yield maximum marks? What if you didn’t plan anything? Yeah! Chaos. You wouldn’t be here reading this in that case…That’s the importance of planning, in every sphere of life & software delivery too.
Manual Testing is NOT dead, but Manual Testers are!
Recently a lot has been written & talked about the future of Manual Testing. Manual Testing is indispensable part of ensuring a high quality software. On the other hand, Automation Tests help you cut down the release cycle time. But usability & human behavior cannot be automated. With reduced time-to-market there is an added pressure on enterprises to seek automation alternatives. With the rise & growth of new technologies, people are more interested in scripting. But Manual Testing is the input to Automation scripts. Unless AI technology matches a human brain, Manual tests are best kept ‘manual’. You cannot automate everything. Cut the crap! Whatever be the debate but still Manual testers are finding it hard to stay relevant in today’s job market. Why?