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The new key trends in the field of software testing are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
- AI development and software testing
- Agile and DevOps
- automated test
- Environment and data
- Cost and efficiency
Under this trend, what changes have been made in the career development path of testers? Let's first take a look at the technical development direction of testers.
Technical direction
Based on the new trends mentioned above, the responsibilities of testers have become more diversified from a single test of whether the software system is working and whether it meets business needs. Testers can participate in software development throughout the entire process, allowing testing activities to run through the entire life cycle of software development. Therefore, the professional development technical directions of testers are:
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Agile testing expert
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Senior Test Development Expert
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Special test expert
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QAOps expert
1. Agile Testing Expert
Agile testing emphasizes early and frequent testing. Testers need to be able to intervene from the requirements analysis stage, participate in the entire process, and work with the entire team to realize that the team is responsible for quality. The skill requirements for agile testing experts are:
Domain testing capabilities: Testers need rich business knowledge, strong business sensitivity and business understanding capabilities, familiar with various types of business models, including emerging business IoT, smart services, blockchain, etc., and be able to formulate corresponding tests Strategies to effectively assist the team to build in quality and maximize the value of delivery.
Automated testing ability: Automated testing is a necessary condition for agile development, and automated testing skills are necessary skills for testers. Becoming agile testing experts requires testers to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different automated testing frameworks, and be able to guide the selection of project automation tools; understand the idea of testing layering, can help the team formulate appropriate automated testing strategies; be able to achieve business function layer Automated testing, able to participate in the review of the underlying automated testing (interface testing, unit testing, etc.) with developers; understand continuous integration tools, and be able to configure and run automated tests on the continuous integration pipeline.
Communication and coordination ability: Agile testing requires the team to be responsible for quality. As the main force, testers need to assume the role of quality analyst and coordinator. It requires a good ability to communicate with different roles and coordinate teamwork.
2. Senior Test Development Expert
The necessary skills of senior test development experts require advanced automated testing, white box testing, development and platform construction capabilities, and strong test code writing capabilities, capable of developing automated testing tools, building automated testing frameworks, and building automated testing platforms. and service.
At the same time, it is best to have basic algorithm application capabilities and natural language processing skills for AI applications. It is necessary to understand and master AI-related knowledge and the application of AI knowledge in testing to help realize the intelligence of automated testing.
3. Special test experts
The special testing skill set includes cross-functional testing skills such as security and performance. It requires a solid basic computer knowledge, understanding the types of security problems, the advantages and disadvantages of security testing tools, and being able to provide security testing solutions; familiar with performance influencing factors and performance testing concerns Point and provide performance tuning programs.
Special test skills also include the management of test data and test environment, requiring familiarity with data processing technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing technology, and data anonymization, and being able to provide test data and environmental management solutions.
4. QAOps Expert
More and more attention has been paid to shifting testing to the right, which means that testing activities need to be shifted to the production environment, requiring closer cooperation between testers and Ops personnel, and QAOps experts have also emerged. QAOps experts need to understand infrastructure-related technologies and practices, understand log management, log monitoring, and log analysis technologies, as well as user behavior analysis capabilities, and through cooperation with Ops, make full use of various types of information in the production environment to optimize software Develop and test processes to achieve the ultimate goal of optimizing business value.
Management direction
Under the new trend, some management positions will no longer exist, generally only under the relatively traditional organizational structure, but at present, there are still quite a few companies that are suitable, and I will also briefly talk about it here. According to the situation of each company, the management positions directly related to the testers will be somewhat different, generally as follows:
- Test leader
- Test manager
- Project test leader
- Test Director
1. Test leader
The test team leader usually brings several test engineers to be responsible for task assignment and personnel management. In addition to the necessary test skills, the management skills required by the test team leader are:
Task priority recognition ability: It is necessary to be able to recognize the priority of the task and assign it to different people according to the current work.
Cultivating the abilities of team members: Leading the team needs to train and develop the corresponding abilities of team members, and need to be able to identify the characteristics of different people and cultivate corresponding skills in a targeted manner.
Communication and coordination ability: To lead a good team, a strong communication and coordination ability must be able to get twice the result with half the effort and make the team work smoother.
2. Test Manager
The test manager generally manages a test department, and there may be multiple test teams under it. In addition to technology, test managers also need to pay attention to department development and performance. The corresponding skills required are:
Technical insight: Test managers need to have a better understanding of technology trends and advanced test tools, and they need to be able to help the team determine the research and use of test techniques and test tools to improve the team’s work effectiveness.
Risk identification ability: The test manager needs to be able to understand business needs, identify project risks, be responsible for formulating test strategies and specific implementation plans, and be able to summarize and report, and timely feedback on project quality status.
Cultivate the ability of team members : The ability of team members is very important, and the test manager needs this skill just like the test team leader.
Communication and coordination ability: The test manager not only needs to coordinate various situations within the testing department, but also needs to communicate and coordinate with other departments of the company horizontally. The communication and coordination ability is more important.
3. Project test leader
The project test leader is mainly responsible for the quality assurance of a project, and needs similar skills as the test manager: technical insight, risk identification, and communication and coordination capabilities.
4. Test Director
The test director is an extension of the test manager and belongs to the highest person in charge of the quality department. He is responsible for the quality activities of all projects of the company. The required skills are similar to those of the test manager.
Easy transition direction
In addition to testing directly related management positions, according to the professional characteristics of testers, the following two positions are more suitable for transformation:
- project manager
- Product manager
1. Project Manager
Testers, especially testers on agile teams, are involved in all aspects related to project quality and naturally have the opportunity to see the overall situation. Examples of successful transformation of project managers are very common. The corresponding skill requirements are:
Team management ability: To manage the team, including personnel risk identification, coordination and communication, etc., you need to master certain soft skills related to interpersonal relationships.
Customer Relationship Management Ability: In addition to managing the team, the project manager also has to handle the relationship with the customer. Customer relationship management skills are particularly important.
Decision-making ability: Decision-making ability is a comprehensive judgment ability, that is, being able to make correct judgments and take actions in the face of several plans or intricate situations.
2. Product Manager
Software testers need to be able to understand business requirements well, and generally have strong business capabilities. Transforming to be a product manager is a good direction. The corresponding skill requirements for product managers are:
User demand mining ability: Product managers need to have the ability to explore potential user needs, determine demand priority, and build user profiles.
Multi-dimensional thinking ability: Product managers need to be able to think from basic dimensions, external dimensions, core dimensions, and business value dimensions.
Abstract ability: Product managers must not only be able to abstract things themselves, but also need to be able to consider different levels of abstraction; after the abstraction, they also need to return abstract objects to the display level, and they need to have the ability to abstract back to concrete.
Three transformations
To develop the skills described above, testers first need to implement the following three changes:
1. Awareness of the test
Trial activities are not only to verify system functions, but also to be more diversified. For example, the test shift to the left includes clarification and verification of needs, and the test shift to the right includes the monitoring and information collection of the production environment.
Testers are not the gatekeepers of quality. Good quality means delivering more value, not as simple as being free from defects. Testers no longer have to find more defects, more achievements, but to think about how to be efficient with different roles Cooperation enables the delivered products to optimize business value.
2. Attention to technology
Due to the diversity of testing activities, we should not only care about testing related technologies. We must expand our horizons to the domain knowledge and different types of technologies that are exposed to all links in the software development process. Different business types, technical architectures, and infrastructures will all have an impact on testing. Different influences and requirements.
3. Tests cannot exist independently
Testing can no longer claim to be an independent department, and requires more communication and cooperation with different roles. For example, the requirements analysis stage requires close communication with demand personnel, pairing with developers or other in-depth cooperation in the process of implementing automated testing, and testing in a production environment requires close cooperation with Ops personnel.
At the same time, testers need to understand the technical architecture and design ideas of the technical solutions adopted by the system, so as to better understand the development work, understand the impact of the architecture evolution on the test, and better carry out the test work.
At last
Knowing the direction of development, how can I make my career more complete? More learning suggestions can refer to several aspects:
- Determine the direction, goal-driven
- Keep learning and turn knowledge into skills
- Have the courage to break through and think systematically
Tester's welfare
In the technology industry, you must improve your technical skills and enrich your practical experience in automation projects. This will be very helpful for your career planning in the next few years and the depth of your testing technology.
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