What is the Role of a Tester?
What is the Role of a Tester?
Since the basis of testing is, in fact, the scientific method and because testing requires many aspects of the scientific mind, part of the scientific mind is having a very literal joy at exploring, investigating, discovering and, ultimately, understanding.
Here I would like to give the reference of the book “How to Find a Higgs Boson”, which likens the search for nature’s mysteries as a staircase.
The author, Ivo Van Vulpen, then says:
“For the past hundred years, we have slowly been making our way down that spiral
staircase, like archaeologists unearthing ever deeper structures. And each new
level we discover is like a new country, with a wealth of knowledge and
insights that offer us revolutionary perspectives on nature and answers to
age-old questions. But our new discoveries also raise new questions,
exposing mysteries and dreams from still deeper levels of reality. It is clear that we
have not yet reached the bottom.”
This is exactly what testing is like. And what it should feel like to you if you are truly experiencing the joy of testing. Ivo also makes the following point:
“But we will have to proceed with caution. It is a world invisible to human eyes, dominated by seemingly magical behaviours …”
Dominated by seemingly magical behaviours? Sure sounds like the software world to me! And while what we test is often not “invisible to human eyes” at one level, there is a great deal of opacity and uncertainty in terms of how what we do see is impacted by what we do not see. Much of what we might be testing is, in fact, “invisible,” at least so far as we are concerned. It really depends where on that staircase you happen to be.
As testers of applications running on a variety of platforms, we ultimately delve into a world that is made up of bits and bytes. But along that path we encounter things like libraries, architectures, infrastructure, and so on. And these things wrap and intertwine and work with each other in sometimes very complex ways.
Here I can give you a little deep dive into Manual testing and its types and Strategies.
Manual Testing is software testing in which test cases are executed manually by a tester without using any automated tools. Manual Testing aims to identify the bugs, issues, and defects in the software application. Manual software testing is the most primitive technique of all testing types and helps find critical bugs in the software application.
Any new application must be manually tested before its testing can be automated. Manual Software Testing requires more effort but is necessary to check automation feasibility. Manual Testing concepts do not require knowledge of any testing tool. One of the Software Testing Fundamental is “100% Automation is not possible“. This makes Manual Testing imperative.
Steps to perform Manual Testing
Read and understand the software project documentation/guides. Also, study the Application Under Test (AUT) if available.
Draft Test cases that cover all the requirements mentioned in the documentation.
Review and baseline the test cases with Team Lead, Client (as applicable).
Execute the test cases on the AUT.
Report bugs.
Once bugs are fixed, again execute the failing test cases to verify they pass.
Types of Manual Testing
Manual Testing Concepts
Below given diagram depicts Manual Testing Types. In fact, any type of software testing type can be executed both manually as well using an automation tool.
Black Box Testing
White Box Testing
Unit Testing
System Testing
Integration Testing
Acceptance Testing
We learn from our mistakes , setting a test process is highly precise with the requirements.
It usually includes following steps:
Analyse Requirements
Test Planning
Test Designs
Executing test to identify defects
Re-run tests or regression for changes
Run release tests before deliveries
We need to spend more quality time in
- requirement analysis
- Create Test Data
- Designs should be ready before starting sprint items
- Estimate USs with the help of team (dev & Testing)
Once USs build and Sprint starts as a Test Specialist we need to groom USs then start writing test cases and simultaneously start understanding which we need to perform manually and which we are going to automate? We need to be prepared for each testing (unit, integration, functional, performance, automation etc) to be performed when and by whom and everything must be documented somewhere. And all it needs is a Planning! That planning comes with the testing document called “ Test Plan ”. (Next blog All About the Test plan).