It’s a every testers question. How to be a good tester? Apart from the technical knowledge, testing skills, tester should have some personal level skills which will help them to build a good rapport in the testing team.
What are these abilities , skills which make a tester as a good tester? Well, I was reading Dave Whalen’s article “Ugly Baby Syndrome!” and found it very interesting. Dave compared software developers with the parents who deliver a baby (software) with countless efforts. Naturally the product managers, architectures, developers spent their countless time on developing application for the customer. Then they show it to us (testers) and asks: “ How is the baby (Application)? “ And testers tell them often that they have and ugly baby. (Application with Bugs!)
Testers don’t want to tell them that they have ugly baby, but unfortunately its our job. So effectively tester can convey the message to the developers without hurting them. How can be this done? Ya that is the skill of a good tester!
Here are the tips sated by Dave to handle such a delicate situation:
Be honest and Responsive:
Tell developers what are your plans to attack their application.
Be open and available:
If any dev ask you to have a look at the application developed by him before the release, then politely give feedback on it and report any extra efforts needed. Don’t log the bug’s for these notes.
Let them review your tests:
If you have designed or wrote some test cases from the requirement specifications then just show them those test cases. Let them know your stuff as you are going to critic on developers work!
Use of Bug tracker:
Some testers have habit to report each and everything publicly. This attitude hurts the developers. So if you have logged any bug then let the bug tracking system report it to respective developers and managers. Also don’t each time rely on bug tracker, talk personally to developers what you logged and why you logged?
Finally some good personal points:
Don’t take it personally:
Do the job of messenger. You could be a close target always. So build a thick skin!
Be prepared:
A good message in the end, Be prepared for everything! If worst things might not happened till now but they can happen at any moment in your career. So be ready to face them.
[Thougt of the Day: When a virtually flawless application is delivered to a customer, no one says how well tested it was. Development teams will always get the credit. However, if it is delivered with bugs, everyone will wonder who tested it! - - Dave Whalen]
12 comments ↓
Statement given by Dave Whalen is very true if a software is flawless it’s credit always goes to Developers team,but it is not possible without RIGOROUS TESTING So don’t worry testing may be not get credit but when you see that software is working flawlessly then you should feel glad.
Maybe this atricle will interest you?
Evolution of software testing techniques
http://www.testingrelief.com/
Does a developer get more salary than a tester ?
For venus:
It depends on comapny to company,project to project & efficiency of a tester.
In some company pays more to testers as they mak the application flawless.
Hey really good article!!Keep writing…
Statement given by Dave Whalen is very true if a software is flawless it’s credit always goes to Developers team,but it is not possible without RIGOROUS TESTING So don’t worry testing may be not get credit but when you see that software is working flawlessly then you should feel glad.
Awesome Article!!!!!!!
Test Strategy is clear enough. Before went through this article sometime confusion occur.
Hi ,
U guys are correct…even i faced the situation where i handled pressure from dev team every time of release…i did overtime to track bugs & to deliever a quality product…but after that they overtake me & gain every credit….so i think everytime credit goes directly to dev not to testers ……..plz give me some suggestions to come out from this probl
U knw u deserve it, so be happy by seeing those who gets credits bec of u. Dont work 4 credits
Wonderful Article….Keep Writing.
hey ..i am a fresher and tommorow i am going for a testing interview….
i learnt a lot from your article.. impressed …
i was thinking that testing has a very small domain ..
but after reading your articles .. what actually testing mean…..
i loves all ur articles…
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