3 Must-Have Software Testing Skills to Become a Professional QA Engineer!
- By Janani / Last updated : Sep 29, 2020 / Software Testing
Software Testing is not what you have thought a decade ago. In the last few years, it has evolved completely and has opened a gate to face new challenges. Therefore, it is essential to have the below Software testing skills to name yourself as a professional QA engineer.
30-second summary:
- Today, software testing is one of the fastest-growing markets. Particularly at the back of COVID-19, this is likely to grow further as companies look to cut costs.
- According to the recent study, it is also predicted that the software testing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% from 2020 to 2026.
- Hence, in this rapidly changing tech world, it is important to have the below software testing skills to stay on top of the market.
- Therefore, in this article, you will get acquainted with the basic skills, technical skills, and non-technical skills that help you to become a professional QA engineer in today’s software testing job market.
But, before developing the software testing skills, if you’re a newbie into the field and thought of starting a career as a professional QA engineer after COVID-19. It is important to understand exactly what is software testing and whether you can grow in it.
What is Software Testing?
It is the process of identifying the bugs, errors, or missing requirements in the software before it goes live into the market.
In simple terms, software testing can also be defined as the process of verifying an Application Under Test (AUT).
So, if you’re the kind of person, who loves to find errors and replace them properly, then you are going to love and grow in this field.
Let’s get started.
3 Important Software Testing Skills to become a Professional QA Engineer:
Reading this article you will come to Know,
1. The Basic Software Testing Skills Needed for a Fresher
- Documentation Skill Set
- Test preparation
- Testing Process
- Bug Report Document
- Sign-off Process
2. Important Technical Skills For a Successful Software Tester
- DevOps & Agile Methodology
- Automation
- Web and Mobile Technologies
- Understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- Knowledge of Test Management Tools & Techniques
- Programming
3. The Essential Non-technical Skills to be a Good Software Tester
- Intellectuality & Creativity
- Communication Skill – Written & Oral
- Flexible
- Quick Learner
- Collaboration and Social Networking
- Time Management & Organization Skills
1. The Basic Software Testing Skills Needed for a Fresher
Here come the basic skills that every fresher must have to start a career as a QA engineer.
Documentation Skill:
When it comes to testing, documentation is an essential software testing skill for every newcomer. Here, you must have good vocabulary skills to draft a clear document that helps you to track your requirement changes, trace your test steps, log your work, etc.
Test Preparation, among the basic software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
Once, having all the documents and drafted it clearly, you cannot ignore the test preparation process that bridges client, developer, and tester understanding. The test preparation process has 3 steps.
1. Test Plan
It is the flow chart of the software testing process from start to finish. It shows the scope and activities of the testing phase.
2. Test Scenario
It is also known as Test Condition or Test Possibility. Here you need to put yourself in the end user’s shoes and figure out the real-world scenarios. It is generally documented and tracked through spreadsheets.
3. Test Case
It is a document that has a set of test data, preconditions, expected results, and postconditions especially created for a particular test scenario to verify compliance against a specific requirement. Furthermore, it is important for a tester to write effective test cases.
It is usually categorized into two types – positive and negative test cases. The positive test case is giving the right inputs and getting positive results. A negative test case is providing invalid inputs and receiving exact error messages.
Also Read: How to Build a Career in Software Testing
Test Process:
It is another basic skill for a software tester to have. It is a process of validating a system or its component(s) with the objective to find whether it meets the specified requirements or not.
Moreover, there are different types of testing such as black-box testing, white box testing, grey box testing, and so on. Therefore, based on the time, budget, nature of the business, nature of the application, and client’s interest, it is evaluated what test to be done on the application.
Bug Report Documenting, among the basic software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
It is one of the most essential software testing skills and critical QA documents you will ever be making.
The following are the fields a good bug report must have:
- Defect ID
- Defect Description
- Location
- Build number
- Steps to reproduce
- Severity
- Priority
- Assigned to
- Reported by
- Status
Sign-Off Process:
It is another basic software testing skill required for a QA lead/manager. It is the QA lead’s task to Sign off and send final documentation that comprises the Test scenario, Test case, and defect log document for final reviews and audits.
2. Important Technical Skills For a Successful Software Tester
To stand on the leading edge of the software testing profession, here are the technical skills every software tester should be mastered in.
DevOps & Agile Methodology, among the must-have technical software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
With the spread of technology, DevOps & Agile Methodology is one of the important software testing skills a software tester must learn to meet delivery deadlines.
While Agile methodology helps in improving the speed of the test project, DevOps used for cross-functional teamwork right from the development, analysis, and QA which delivers high-quality end products at a faster time-to-market.
Automation:
It remains one of the top skills in software testing. It is because, with the increasing complexities and integrations in the application, completely depending on manual testing will not get the job done.
Therefore, to shorten the time period to market and to produce high-quality applications, testers should learn automation skills.
Furthermore, there are several test automation tools. For example, Currently, Selenium remains the most popular test automation framework that comes with rich features to get the tasks done quickly and efficiently.
Web and Mobile Technologies, among the important technical software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
Every application that is built going to run on the web or mobile devices. Therefore, every tester must get familiar with web and mobile technologies.
This would help you to understand the type of application, scalability, and apply a suitable course of action for its testing.
Understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC):
It is also recommended for every software tester to learn the software lifecycle management skills.
This, in turn, helps you to understand the entire application development life cycle process like planning, creating, testing, and deploying a software product easily.
Also Read: What Is Software Testing Life Cycle
Furthermore, having an in-depth knowledge of the SDLC cycle will also assist you in anticipating complexities in the application which can guide in taking the right measures beforehand.
Knowledge of Test Management Tools & Techniques, among the important technical software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
No matter, what is the domain and application type, it is necessary for every software tester to be aware of different testing techniques and usage of tools.
There are different types of testing like black-box testing, penetration testing, security testing, system testing, unit testing, etc.
So, if you want to land in a job and to work on any sort of project without difficulty, it is necessary to learn the different testing tools and strategies.
Moreover, with different types of tools that have been available in the marketing such as bug tracking tools, test management tools, GUI testing tools, automation tools, etc. it is also necessary for testers to get the knack of these tools to help different requirements and complexities of the project.
Programming:
As a tester, you don’t want to be an excellent programmer like a developer, but to understand the inside out of the application, it is important to know the basics of programming. This helps in creating tests accordingly.
Also Read: Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers 2020
Furthermore, developing programming skills helps in identifying possible errors in the application code which in turn reduces the chances of occurring bugs and application inefficiencies.
3. The Essential Non-technical Skills to be a Good Software Tester
Below are the non-tech skills that are essential to becoming a good software tester. Hence, compare your skillset against the following checklist to evaluate whether Software Testing is the right job for you-
Intellectuality & Creativity:
Software testing is not a routine task. It is a process that requires creativity and intellectual bend of mind to find errors.
However, intellectuality and creativity cannot be learned, it should in-built within yourself to think out-of-the-box by questioning the software application behavior and identify different sides of the application to understand it’s working.
Communication Skill – Written & Oral, among the important non-technical software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
Regardless of what position you are in the software testing field, you need to possess good communication and interpersonal skills to express your view effectively and handle difficult situations.
When saying good communication skills, I mean, you should be a good writer, speaker, listener, and reader to communicate effectively with stakeholders.
You need to communicate to update the status of the project to the clients, inform about requirements to the team members, communicate issues to the developers, translate requirement documents to test cases, and prepare reports for management.
Flexible, important non-technical software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
As QA testers, you must have the flexibility and comfortability to work in a changing environment, and with new tools and approaches emerging so quickly.
So, always be open to the new, and you’ll be the one in demand.
Quick Learner:
Apart from being flexible, you should also be a quick learner. It is one of the important software testing skills to grab with new skills and tools.
Hence, develop a great attitude that helps you in learning new skills with the changing technologies.
Collaboration and Social Networking, important non-technical software testing skills to become a QA Engineer:
It is one of the must-have skills for any professional in any industry. This is because collaboration and social networks will only help in providing instant access to engage with people.
Also Read: Why to choose Zuan Education to Learn Software Testing course in Chennai!
Moreover, this helps software testers to engage with counterparts, learn new things, and keep updated with the latest information.
Time Management & Organization Skills:
Testing at times could be a demanding job particularly during the release of code.
A software tester must effectively manage workload, have high productivity, show optimal time management, and organization skills.
Wrapping up
All the above-mentioned software testing skills to become a professional QA Engineer can be a mammoth task. But with consistent practice, passion, and hard work everything can be achieved.
So, don’t lose hope in yourself. Start developing your software testing skills by today with our Software testing institute in Chennai.
We have a team of professional and experienced software testing experts who help you to acquire the important software testing skills required for a successful career in Software testing.
Best of Luck!