Once upon a time,
Manager: Let’s train QA team on Selenium Webdriver (Java). We have a dedicated Automation team, but would like other testers to contribute as well.
Exploratory QA: Sure. But we are already stretching for functional tests. How to make time for learning & implementing automation as well?
Manager: That you will have to manage. We cannot leave exploratory tests.
That was an opportunity in disguise, which I regret missing. We were too busy with exploratory tests and thought it also has a bright career around lead & management roles. Couldn’t gauge that industry was fast moving towards automation. Lesson learned – Current competencies are important, but we need to have a long-term vision. It’s important to be aware of the IT industry trends. The industry will change. Choice is yours – up-skill now (relatively easy) OR up-skill when you get stuck (it’s hard, believe me).
What do you think? Any suggestions/insights…
Learning in parallel to project work
In our regular projects, we definitely have stringent schedules and enough workload. So it’s very difficult to find time for self-learning.
However if given the opportunity like this ‘Manager asking/suggesting functional testing team to upgrade their skills’, then nobody should afford to lose it.
At times, it’s difficult to find time out of project work, but it’s good to arrange few days training sessions(2-3 hrs) from Automation team. In such projects, we can easily start implementing/assisting automation team in terms of scripts development/framework updates/code refactoring.
This is the best option for functional testers to move into automation ultimately. I was glad, this happened with me and I was into automation back then 🙂
Finally, only learning not going to help, the hands-on is must for any person.