How can you avoid being overworked as a software tester?

:= Clarify your role by understanding the expected deliverables, timelines, and available resources as a software tester. := Ensure effective communication of your testing goals to stakeholders, fostering collaboration and alignment. := Engage in negotiations with stakeholders to define realistic scope and quality standards for your testing tasks.

1.First thing starts by clearly defining what you aim to achieve through testing. 2.Understand the project constraints. 3.Break down testing activities into manageable iteration or phase. 4.Collaboration between development, testing and other stakeholders ensures alignment of goals and expectations. 5.Regularly review the testing goals and progress against.

We always set goals which we can't achieve in a quarter. Adding relevant or achievable goals helps you to grow and move further in your career

Delegation can indeed be challenging, especially for perfectionists who take pride in their work and that was the case in my initial years of career. I couldn't delegate easily because I was expecting certain level of quality in their work. Building trust with team members is essential for effective delegation, as it requires confidence that tasks will be completed to the desired standard. It's a process that takes time but can significantly improve efficiency and productivity in the long run. Prioritization ensures that the most valuable tasks are addressed first, allowing for the delivery of value early in the development process. Can't force enough on both of these aspects.

In my experience, delegation of any task is a very important skill to be honed. In fact I personally find it to be the most difficult of the skills. For example let's say you are building an automation for a particular functionality in an application and you need to delegate that task as there is a P1 production incident that needs to be tested, so the only option remains for you is to delegate the automation task to a peer/ colleague working in your team.Now, you are intrigued by a very basic question: does your peer have the same level of thought process that you had while creating the script, and will your thoughts be manifested in the form of the script through your peer?

As an author of the book continuous testing ?? it is clear that software testing is an iterative process which can burnout testers and cause overload. It is important or acknowledge it and plan the testing activities beforehand and leave gaps in the schedule for ad-hoc and unexpected tasks that usually comes up. Using tools that you feel comfortable with are also a good aid for such outcome

To avoid being overworked as a software tester, it's essential to automate and optimize testing processes. By leveraging automation tools for repetitive tasks like regression testing, I can save time and focus on more challenging aspects of testing. Additionally, optimizing testing workflows ensures efficiency, such as prioritizing test cases based on risk and impact. Clear communication with the team about realistic timelines and workload distribution also helps in managing workload effectively. By automating and optimizing, I can maintain a healthy balance between thorough testing and avoiding burnout.