The basic idea behind Software testing is to work towards the assurance of the software quality. A major time of a tester is invested in testing which involves various people: users, developers, testers, etc. Testers have to be sure that the end-user is content with the final product as per his requirement. Here is a complete guideline to build your career in software testing:
- Important aspects of becoming a software tester
- Qualification
- Skill requirement
- Roadmap to become a Software Test Engineer
- Salary Aspect of a Software test Engineer
- Challenges faced by a software tester
Important aspect of becoming a software tester
There are three important aspects of software testing that we are going to discuss.
Software Testing tools:
One should learn to use several software testing tools for different purposes, for instance, Test Management, Test Automation, Performance Testing, Security Testing, etc. The tester should be able to tackle multiple tools across various areas since we have an era of ever changing technology but the fundamentals of these various tools still remain the same. Testers should be able to write code to implement these tools. Software testing requires a deep technical frame of mind to identify and provide solutions to software defects encountered.
Moving on with the next aspect of becoming a software tester
Software testing techniques:
The understanding of the fundamental techniques of software testing and becoming proficient at these techniques is what software testing demands. One can learn the basics of software testing through certifications like ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) or CSTE (Certified Software Tester). Testers need to perform white box testing which means reviewing the code to understand the workflow of software and identifying the defects even before the entire system is built. Testers do perform black-box testing which is working with software to identify defects.
Moving on with the next aspect of becoming a software tester
Domain:
You need to learn the domains as well. Domains are of two types:
Vertical domains: Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, or
Horizontal domains: used across multiple industries like Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, etc.
For example, you need an understanding of banking processes to test Banking software.
Hence, you should be well acquainted with these two factors.
Moving towards the next segment. Let us discuss the qualifications required for being a software tester.
Qualification
In order to qualify for the eligibility of becoming a software tester, you should possess an academic background in Computer Science.
A BTech/ B.E., MCA, BCA, BSc- Computers, will help you to hop onto a job.
No worries if you do not possess these degrees, there is always another way! You can obtain a software testing certification like ISTQB and CSTE which will help you in learning Software Development/ Test Life Cycle and other methodologies related to software testing.
After grasping the qualification needed, the next topic is to understand the skill set required.
Skill Requirement
This factor is bifurcated into two categories:
Moving on with the first category
Technical skills:
Knowledge of a Test Management Tool: Test Management is an important aspect of Software testing. Test management techniques are important so that the software doesn’t fail. Test management manages your testing related artifacts.
Basic knowledge of Linux commands: You’ll see that mostly all of the software applications, databases work on Linux machines. Hence, you need to possess a good knowledge of Linux commands.
Knowledge of any Defect Tracking tool- Defect Tracking and Defect life cycle are key aspects of software testing. Defect tracking becomes important because the entire team should know about the defect including managers, developers, and testers. Several tools are used to lock defects including QC, Jira, etc.
Knowledge of Automation tool:If you want to be an “Automation tester” working on manual testing, then you must master a tool and get in-depth, hands-on knowledge of automation tools.
Ability to analyse the requirements of different software
Project life cycle
Moving on with the second category
Non-technical skills
Communication: Written communication, customer communication both is necessary.
Leadership Quality: To assess different situations and handle them
Analytical skills: A good software tester should possess sharp analytical skills. It will help in breaking up a complex software system into smaller units to gain a better understanding.
Time management: A software tester must efficiently manage the workload, should have high productivity, should exhibit optimal time management, and organization skills.
Now let’s move further and have a look at the Roadmap to become a software test engineer.
Roadmap to become a Software Test Engineer
In order to become a software tester, you need to have a bachelor’s degree. You’ll likely need to earn a bachelor’s of engineering degree related to the field in which you want to work. For example, if you want to become a software testing engineer, you will need a bachelor’s degree in software engineering.
To become a test engineer, you should determine if the work will suit your skills, traits, ambitions, and desired lifestyle (such as work-life balance, schedule, etc.).
Individuals who have a natural aptitude in mathematics and science, and enjoy working with computers and electronics are typically well suited for this work, To work in this field, you must be comfortable working closely with other professionals, such as design engineers and managers, and sharing your opinions with them.
Next, we will need to know about the basic principles of software testing such as finding the presence of any sort of defects, how to determine the risk without exhaustive testing, early testing, defect clustering and how to make a product fulfil business requirements without error.
If you are new to the testing industry, one needs to have knowledge of these programming languages:
Along with this, if you have a master’s degree in computer science machine learning statistics or any certifications related to software testing, it is just an added advantage.
Some of the best certifications for a software test engineer are CAST – Certified Associate In Software Testing
CSTE- Certified Software Test Engineer etc.
Software testing as a career focuses not on the short term but on long-term goals for improving the satisfaction and security of software users and developers. After keeping every factor in mind, now you can better judge if you want to pursue a career in software testing or not!
Salary aspect of a Software Test Engineer
The most interesting part of every Job profile is its salary. On an average Software test engineer earns about $55,000/year.
Above snapshots depict the top companies and the salary aspect of a software tester.
A career in software testing comes up with certain challenges. Enumerating them below.
Challenges faced by a software tester
Handling time pressures
Dealing with the end-users
Adapting to new technologies
Grasping the requirements of the end-users
With this, I have reached towards the end of my blog. I hope the content added value to your Software Testing knowledge. Stay tuned!
Now that you have understood what is the Career in Software Testing, check out the Software Testing Fundamentals Course by Edureka. This course is designed to introduce you to the complete software testing life-cycle. You will be learning different levels of testing, test environment setup, test case design technique, test data creation, test execution, bug reporting, CI/CD pipeline in DevOps, and other essential concepts of software testing. Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of “What is Software Testing” and we will get back to you.
Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of this “Career in Software Testing” blog and we will get back to you as soon as possible.