Starting out as a tester. What to do, what not to do.

Starting out as a tester you maybe left wondering that there nothing to it and testing software is a no brainer. That certainly is not the case and a software test professional needs to have a certain set of skills to be able to perform well and help in delivering quality software.Well, I am no expert software tester, so you'd probably find more of what not to do. Anyways here are some pointers for freshers who want to become software testers or someone who just started out as a software tester:-

* Read about and understand the basics of testing like test case preparation, test life cycle, bug life cycle.
* Try to figure out how testing fits into the software development life cycle and what your role as a tester will or ought to be.
* Follow some blogs, read testing related articles like on Testing Circus to know  the views of people in the testing community. These help in improving your thought process while testing software and you may pick up different ways in which to approach testing a software.
* Don't go overboard with automation by trying to learn all possible tools. Get started with learning one automation tool/scripting language and try to implement it in your project/day to day activities.
* Work on your written and verbal communication skills. These skills are crucial for a tester to communicate a bug properly, in creating test cases to be used by other testers, effective e-mail correspondence and meetings with developers and clients.

Testing as a profession is not really an option that's on the mind of graduates. They would be busy brushing up on their coding before attending interviews. Corporates too mostly do not hire fresh graduates saying that they are hiring for a testing role. So we have people like yours truly, who end up testing software even though it may not be exactly what they had in mind. Having said that, testing software is a critical aspect in the software development life cycle and plays a huge role in deliverance of quality software. Working towards improving skills which enhance your ability to test software will help your professional endeavors as well as help your organization in delivering quality software.

"Why Testing?" - How I stumbled into the testing profession!

The first question I was asked during an interview was "Why Testing?"! I was taken aback. I was lazy enough not to have enquired thoroughly or read the job description completely. I was under the impression that all you needed to do to develop software is write code. I mean, what else could people be doing in a software company?! Being an engineering graduate (well almost..) without an offer letter in hand, I supposed at that time any job was good enough. So, after a moments hesitation which was probably just in my head, I played along as if I had know it all along and managed to answer most of the questions satisfactorily.

Later I had another round of interview. Someway through the interview, another guy was called in to ask me more coding related questions and I thought "Now that’s more like it". Coming out from the place I thought I had impressed them enough so that they'd hire me for a junior developer position or something.
Who'd want to be just testing if a software works alright? I'm better than that!

Well, that was about 3 years ago, and I have been testing software ever since. My views about software testing and software companies of course have changed considerably since then. All along I've had doubts as to whether a testing career was the right option and should I be moving to development and so on. I have been reading blogs of well experienced testing professionals and there seems to be a lot of progress on how testing is being perceived by IT companies, students (maybe I just wasn’t paying attention in college ) and people in general.

I've seen from experience that as long as there is software to be developed you cannot do away with testing. Testing software is just as demanding as developing it, What with all the new technologies and delivery deadlines and business implications, the developers need the testers to ensure that they/we are going in the right direction and that quality software is delivered. How much of a guidance/help a tester provides does depend on his/her involvement in the overall project life-cycle and I feel a tester can make a huge difference in delivering quality software.

So how did you get into testing software?