Software Testers: “Testers need to be able to pick up any hat depending on what they need to do to get the current sprint done”.

          Think about the job responsibilities of “Software Tester”. First thing which occurs in mind is to just “Test Software”. But is this is it? Is there is nothing more which a software tester does? Is only testing a software is enough by a tester to complete a project successfully. There are also numbers of other questions which can be pointed and be asked. A misconception which people have in their mind about software testers are that they are just some bunch of monkeys eating bananas and only pointing if it is sweet or not. But this is not what as a Tester we do. As a professional career we will come across defensive situation from developers regarding finding a defect in their work and most of the time the answer was “I have just followed what the requirement says”.

           In above case as a Tester we misunderstood the requirement or the Developer. Is there anything which the Business Analyst missed or the system is not performing logically as it should? So as testers we are not only interested in bananas but also ask questions, raise issues, concerns, do try to learn the system beyond the scope and argue with valid points. Despite all this there are number of challenges which testers face when they are working in a team or alone.

a)  Relationship with developers

            This is one of the big challenges which a tester faces. To handle this situation it requires a positive attitude and good communication skills with valid justifications as developers can come up with dozens of excuses to not agree with some points.

 b)   Testing under tight deadlines

             On number of occasions when testers comes across a situation to test something which is handed over to them a day before the final release. As there are number of tasks which you need to complete to test something effectively and to cover maximum you can. Under this situation because of a time constraint it can affect the quality of the work as there is a good chance that the tester will only focus on task completion and not on the quality of the work.

 c)  Understanding the given requirements

            In the scenario discussed above tester should understand the given requirements and any issues or concerns should be discussed with Business Analyst or relevant person. Because as a team member this is your responsibility to point anything which you believe is not correct and should be questioned. Think about if a tester fails to understand the requirement, then the test cases written will they be effective or the tester will be able to test the application properly. Testers not only require knowing how to test but also should have good listening and understanding capabilities.

 d)  When to stop testing

           This is a very important decision and a very common question which is asked by other people and also in the in job interviews. To come to a decision that when to stop testing, it requires very good understanding and judgement of the core system and testing process. As there are number of factors which require considering like time constraints, business requirements, nature of project etc.

 e)  What to test and when 

            A good analytical eye is necessary to handle this challenge. As there are number of factors which can affect your decision like time constraints, priority of the project and the important areas to cover.