What are some of the Skills a tester needs in addition to testing knowledge?
A Software Tester needs knowledge of Manual Testing – how to test an application optimally, ability to prioritize and work under time crunch and Testing Tools – Quality Center, Defect Tools, Databases, Sql, Xml, Unix etc. Domain knowledge comes in really handy.
In addition, does a Software Test Engineer need any special skills? In this blog, we try to answer this question.
Communication Skills:
As Testers, we are finding something that does not work. So communication with Developers is key. Diplomacy and tact go a long way. Ultimately bugs need to be fixed, so being firm but polite is necessary.
In addition, the ability to work under pressure and prioritize, ability to get the required support when things go wrong(formally and informally) are important.
It is best not to make assumptions about priorities. Straight forward communication, E-mail etiquette, keeping the relevant members of the team informed helps everyone.
Understanding the nuances of the product, thinking like the customer and being pro-active lead you to a path of excellence and growth.
MS Office:
Software Testers quite often are creating Test Plans and other documents using MS Word, using MS Excel for various reports and MS Project for Project Plans. Often, many struggle with formatting in documents. It pays to learn these software.
Some of the know-how that comes in handy in MS Word are:
1. Using Styles for formatting
2. Table of Contents, Table of Figures
3. Track Changes
4. Margins, Header, Footer, Spell check
5. Page breaks
6. Print Previews
7. Personalizing – adding your Username
8. Versions
Some of the know-how that comes in handy in MS Excel are:
1. Formatting Cells, Merge, Cell Styles
2. Drag & Continue, Sort & Filter, Sizing the columns
3. Adding additional sheets, deleting sheets, naming sheets
4. Creating Graphs, Charts
5. Adding a Header & Footer
6. Setting the Print Area, Orientation (Portrait, Landscape), Print Preview
7. Using Formulas
8. Remove Duplicates, Sort, Filter
9. Freeze Panes
MS Project:
MS Project is a Project Management tool and is used for creating, modifying Project Plans.
Some of the know-how that comes in handy:
1. Create a Project Plan
2. Add Tasks, Modify tasks
3. Add, remove Resources
4. Add dependancies between tasks
5. Versioning
6. How the plan compares to the original
7. Printing parts of the Plan
