Gone are the days when tester’s had limited scope to prove themselves. The current trend has so much importance towards tester’s due to increase in customer expectations and emergence of new technologies. In order to catch up with the ever increasing demand of new skill set, you got to be ready with all weapons. Let us look at the most important skills a Tester should have?

Keep Learning:

A software professional should always be a learning student. With something new coming everyday, it’s our own responsibility to keep updating in this fast paced industry. Don’t ever think “I have learnt enough “. The more you know, the more demand and of course, High pay check 🙂 For E.g. It’s like the difference between jawed habib salon and your street end salon. which one is most famous? who charges a bomb and Why? You know it better, He updates regularly with all the hair styles. So do not stop. Just keep learning!

Move out of comfort zones:

The only thing that stands between you and your success is the bull shit story you keep saying about ‘Why you can’t do that’. Its pretty much true. We start our career as a manual tester and then manual testing and then its the same manual testing. When someone questions- Why don’t you learn automation? The story starts: No time, No tutor, No Classes, No interest NO NO NO… and No. My dear sweethearts, you live in a world where even a small mistake will cost you big. Move out of your comfort zone and keep fighting until you grab it.

Become an Asset to the Developer:

Learning programming or knowledge about development will do no harm to you. In-fact, It will add weight to your skills. Suppose, a developer is struck with some strange issue and as a tester you have given him inputs to fix the problem. How does that feel? what does that mean for the testing team? A big achievement. Isn’t It? What are you waiting then, start coding.

Keep innovating:

How does a typical tester’s day would be? Test case design, test execution, defect logging, documentation and so on. Does every day work routine bore you? yes! Try something new in the workplace which not only gives you a satisfied feeling but a good image among your colleagues and managers for the idea. Innovation does not necessarily mean complex solutions, It can be as small as possible. For example connect all teams in the organisation through a ‘Corporate Social Network’ which can be accessed only within your company. Remember one thing, For implementing different things, the Management may or may not be approve for reasons better known to them. Do not get disappointed, Try your best.

Master Communication skills:

There is a belief in software industry ‘If you have good communication, 70% job guaranteed’. It’s indeed, very true. As tester’s you need to communicate with various people in the organisation like team leads, developers, Business Analysts, Onshore team etc. Finding a defect is not enough, You need to explain it better and able to provide inputs for resolution. Your biggest weapon is ‘Communication’, Talk without hesitation, Email without errors and become a master.

Feel like Owners:

The ‘back to college’ season started and Catherine bought a macbook air with a 30 days replacement guarantee. Now, how does she test the features of the macbook? like black and blue, End to End, to the minute pieces as well. WHY? Does she test the same way if the macbook was of her friend’s ? Obviously NO, Right. The reason is she the owner of the product in the first case. Similarly, It applies to the product or project you are testing. Feel like the owners. Own the product and test. The results would be faaannnnn—taaassstiiicc.

Ask Questions:

Single line says it all – More Questions, More Issues, More Answers, More Fixes, and More Quality. Tester’s attitude is to break things and that is done by asking questions to yourself and others. why this, that, there, can’t. What say?

Accept your Mistakes:

Committing mistakes is quite a human thing. Everyone of us make mistakes. But, The biggest thing is to accept them. At times, you might miss some of the critical defects or log invalid defects. Instead of argument and discussions, accept the mistakes and try to never repeat them. It’s a good quality to add to your list

Product knowledge is not Domain knowledge:

Charuseela, QA analyst has very good knowledge about the projects she has worked in her domain. One Day, She attended an interview in one the biggest eCommerce company. After completion of the interview, she realised that what she knows is just limited to the specific projects only and recalled the famous saying “known is a drop and unknown is an ocean”. This happens to most of us. Isn’t it? Focus on learning the domain knowledge which is most essential skill of tester.

Get Social:

Social networking sites are a waste of time as many of you think. Correct? But there are advantages too. Participate in forums, Be active in various Discussions, Become a member of software testing groups, follow great personalities both on and off software testing. All these will keep you updated with the current trends, latest technologies, problems associated and so on. What are looking for? Get social.

Tester’s ruled the industry to certain extent in the past, We are continuing to do so to the maximum. To celebrate as a party, master all these skills and for sure you would be reaching the greater heights of your career. Try hard and keep moving!! Good Luck Tester’s

For Motivation we have ‘Tester’s Energy Drink’ as well. Refresh your self here.Energy drink