People Relationships:
The word “testing” conjures up a variety of meanings depending upon an individual’s frame of reference. Some people view testing as a method or process by which they add value to the development cycle; they can even enjoy the challenges and creativity of testing.
Other people feel that testing tries a person’s patience, fairness, ambition, credibility, and capability. Testing can actually affect a person’s mental and emotional health if you consider the office politics and interpersonal conflicts that are often times present.
Some attitudes that have shaped a negative view of testing and testers are:
1 • Testers hold up implementation.
2 • Giving testers less time to test will reduce the chance that they will find defects.
3 • Letting the testers find problems is an appropriate way to debug.
4 • Defects found in production are the fault of the testers.
5 • Testers do not need training; only programmers need training.
Although testing is a process, it is very much a dynamic one in that the process will change somewhat with each application under test. There are several variables that affect the testing process including :
the development process itself, software risk, customer/user participation, the testing process, a tester’s skill set, use of tools, testing budget and resource constraints, management support, and morale and motivation of the testers. It is obvious that the people side of software testing has long been ignored for the more process-related issues of test planning, test tools, defect tracking, and so on.
Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing, the challenges have been identified as:
1 • Training in testing
2 • Relationship building with developers
3 • Using tools
4 • Getting managers to understand testing
5 • Communicating with users about testing
6 • Making the necessary time for testing
7 • Testing “over the wall” software
8 • Trying to hit a moving target
9 • Fighting a lose-lose situation
10 • Having to say “no”
Testers should perform a self-assessment to identify their own strengths and weaknesses as they relate to people-oriented skills. They should also learn how to improve the identified weaknesses, and build a master plan of action for future improvement.
Essential testing skills include test planning, using test tools (automated and manual), executing tests, managing defects, risk analysis, test measurement, designing a test environment, and designing effective test cases. Additionally, a solid vocabulary of testing is essential. A tester needs to understand what to test, who performs what type of test, when testing should be performed, how to actually perform the test, and when to stop testing.
91.8
RELATED POST
DEFECT REDUCTION IN SOFTWARE TESTING
The word “testing” conjures up a variety of meanings depending upon an individual’s frame of reference. Some people view testing as a method or process by which they add value to the development cycle; they can even enjoy the challenges and creativity of testing.
Other people feel that testing tries a person’s patience, fairness, ambition, credibility, and capability. Testing can actually affect a person’s mental and emotional health if you consider the office politics and interpersonal conflicts that are often times present.
Some attitudes that have shaped a negative view of testing and testers are:
1 • Testers hold up implementation.
2 • Giving testers less time to test will reduce the chance that they will find defects.
3 • Letting the testers find problems is an appropriate way to debug.
4 • Defects found in production are the fault of the testers.
5 • Testers do not need training; only programmers need training.
Although testing is a process, it is very much a dynamic one in that the process will change somewhat with each application under test. There are several variables that affect the testing process including :
the development process itself, software risk, customer/user participation, the testing process, a tester’s skill set, use of tools, testing budget and resource constraints, management support, and morale and motivation of the testers. It is obvious that the people side of software testing has long been ignored for the more process-related issues of test planning, test tools, defect tracking, and so on.
Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing, the challenges have been identified as:
1 • Training in testing
2 • Relationship building with developers
3 • Using tools
4 • Getting managers to understand testing
5 • Communicating with users about testing
6 • Making the necessary time for testing
7 • Testing “over the wall” software
8 • Trying to hit a moving target
9 • Fighting a lose-lose situation
10 • Having to say “no”
Testers should perform a self-assessment to identify their own strengths and weaknesses as they relate to people-oriented skills. They should also learn how to improve the identified weaknesses, and build a master plan of action for future improvement.
Essential testing skills include test planning, using test tools (automated and manual), executing tests, managing defects, risk analysis, test measurement, designing a test environment, and designing effective test cases. Additionally, a solid vocabulary of testing is essential. A tester needs to understand what to test, who performs what type of test, when testing should be performed, how to actually perform the test, and when to stop testing.
91.8
RELATED POST
DEFECT REDUCTION IN SOFTWARE TESTING
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