1. Test engineer:
1. Domestic positioning and development prospects: Test engineers, the gatekeepers of software quality, have a high starting point and large room for development. The software testing profession in our country is still in a stage of development, so test engineers have great development prospects. At present, the traditional software industry is still dominated by software testing engineers, but in the emerging Internet industry, most of the positions are named after QA, which is quality assurance.
2. Job responsibilities:
①. Write test plan, plan detailed test plan, write test force
②. Build and maintain the test environment according to the test plan;
③. Carry out testing work and submit test reports. Including writing automatic test scripts for testing, completely recording test results, writing complete test reports and other related technical documents;
④. Conduct detailed analysis and accurate location of problems discovered during testing, and discuss defect solutions with developers.
⑤. Put forward suggestions for further improvement of the product, and evaluate whether the improvement plan is reasonable; summarize and statistically analyze the test results, track the test, and provide feedback.
⑥. Provide corresponding technical support to business departments to ensure software quality indicators.
3. Career characteristics: Entering a large or medium-sized software company as soon as you start working, and it is easy to change careers later.
4. Career remuneration: Talents for software quality gatekeepers are rare, and the room for salary increase is very large. Quality is the lifeline of an enterprise. As the gatekeeper of software quality, it is natural for test engineers to receive higher remuneration due to the importance of their positions.
In addition, the market rule of "rare things are more valuable" also makes the current extremely tight demand for test engineers "good money prospects." Moreover, my country's software testing profession is still in a stage of development. As the software industry attaches greater importance to product quality, the salary of software testing practitioners who have received systematic training and mastered advanced testing technology has a large space for salary increase. From the perspective of enterprise talent demand and salary levels, the annual salary of software test engineers has a clear trend of increasing year by year. Some more classic opinions: Software testing engineers must understand industry norms, corporate norms, customer needs, and business processes in order to conduct calm tests and find problems.
2. Software testing engineer:
1. Definition and responsibilities: Software Testing Engineer refers to understanding the functional requirements of the product, testing it, checking whether the software has errors (Bugs), testing whether the software has stability (Robustness), and writing the corresponding Dedicated staff for testing specifications and test cases. In short, software test engineers play the role of "quality management" in a software company, discovering software problems in a timely manner and urging corrections in a timely manner to ensure the normal operation of the product. They are divided into three categories according to their levels and positions.
2. Classification: According to their different levels and positions, they can be divided into three categories:
①. Senior software testing engineer: Proficient in software testing and development technology, and very familiar with the corresponding industry of the software being tested, and able to analyze and evaluate possible problems.
② Intermediate software testing engineer: Write software testing plans and testing documents, work with the project team to formulate work plans for the software testing phase, and be able to reasonably use testing tools to complete testing tasks during project operation;
③. Junior software testing engineer: Their job is usually to conduct functional tests on products according to software testing plans and processes to check whether the products are defective.
3. Keys to improving test quality:
Another noteworthy aspect is work efficiency and quality. Perhaps the main difference between senior test engineers and ordinary test engineers is that senior test engineers can find more serious errors in software faster. Are there any tips we can learn from this? Please try the following methods and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. Test the program's core functionality first, then test accessibility features. Test functionality first, then performance. Test common cases first, then test exceptions. Test the changed parts first, then the unchanged parts. Test high-impact issues first, then low-impact issues. Test the required parts first, then test the optional or not required parts.
4. Waiter: The third-party evaluation emphasizes that no matter how advanced a test engineer you are, you must understand that no matter how complex the tools required for testing are and how lengthy the testing steps are, test engineers always play the role of waiters in software project development. Role, which is determined by the characteristics of the testing job. Any service has its service recipients—customers. Who are the service recipients of test engineers? The most important customer is the user of the software. Test engineers need to test the software from the perspective of customer usage and needs and report problems. Project managers are also customers. Test engineers need to report on the progress of testing work and problems found, especially serious problems. Programmers are the customers we deal with most often. In order to facilitate programmers to repeat reported errors, try to provide good software problem reports so that programmers can fix software errors faster. Technical documentation engineers, market developers and technical support engineers are also the service targets of test engineers.
5. Avoid mistakes: As mentioned above, test engineers should clarify their roles, tasks and responsibilities. Know what is your responsibility and what is not yours. You must try your best to complete what you are assigned to do, and don't do things that are not yours to avoid self-defeating. In order to better play the role of software testing engineer, try to avoid making the following mistakes:
①. Promise that the tested software has no quality problems. Software testing is only a method to ensure quality. The work of software testing engineers will not directly improve software quality, because most software errors need to be fixed by programmers. Software testing can only prove that there are errors in the software, but cannot guarantee that the software is error-free. It is impossible to find all software errors. Individual abilities and their impact on quality are very small. The improvement of software quality depends on the joint efforts of all members of the software project team.
②. Assume the right to release the software. Do not try to propose changes to the software release plan because there are bugs in the software that have not been fixed. Don't assume that you've completed the testing plan and decided to release the software yourself. Because changing the software release plan may cause the loss of good opportunities to enter the market and many customers, the economic and company market losses caused by this will not be borne by test engineers. In addition, after the software is released, if users discover new software errors, company leaders or project managers may place the blame on the software testers because they agreed to release the software. Usually the right to release software is decided by collective discussions among product managers, project managers, test managers, and marketing managers.
③ Playing the role of process improvement members Software test engineers must report errors and sometimes analyze the type, characteristics and causes of errors. However, do not take the initiative to propose specific improvement measures to improve the software process, and do not directly interfere with the programmer's working methods, so as not to be thankless and affect future pleasant cooperation. Software process improvement methods are a matter for the software quality control department, which is their job.
6. Job responsibilities: Software testing is the process of running or testing a system using manual or automatic means. Its purpose is to test whether it meets specified needs or to clarify the difference between expected and actual results. The fundamental of development work is to try to realize the needs of software users, and the fundamental of testing work is to check whether the software system meets the needs of software users. Simply put, software testing engineers are quality inspectors and guarantors in the software development process, and are responsible for checking software quality. The specific tasks of software testing engineers include:
①. Use various testing techniques and methods to test and discover software defects in the software. Testing technology is mainly divided into two categories: black box testing and white box testing. Among them, black box testing techniques mainly include equivalence class division method, boundary value method, cause and effect diagram method, state diagram method, test outline method and various typical software fault models; the main techniques of white box testing include statement coverage and branch coverage. , determination coverage, basic path coverage, etc.;
②. Testing work needs to run through the entire software development life cycle. Complete software testing includes unit testing, integration testing, validation testing and system testing. Unit testing work is mainly completed during the coding phase, and is completed jointly by developers and software testing engineers. The main basis is detailed testing. The main task of integration testing is to test whether the interfaces between software modules are implemented correctly, based on the software architecture design. Confirmation testing and system testing are to verify the consistency of the software's functions and requirements after the software development is completed, and to verify whether the system functions of the software under corresponding hardware conditions meet user needs. The main basis is user needs. ③. The tester compiles the discovered defects into a formal defect report and submits it to the developer for confirmation and repair of defects. The most important requirement for writing a defect report is to ensure that the defect can be reproduced. Testers are required to have good writing skills and language organization skills.
④. Testers need to analyze software quality. After the test is completed, testers need to analyze the software quality based on the test results, including defect rate, defect distribution, defect repair trends, etc. Specific measures of various quality characteristics of software are given, including functionality, reliability, ease of use, security, time and resource characteristics, etc. Finally, a conclusion is given as to whether the software can be released or submitted for use by users.
⑤. During the testing process, in order to better organize and implement the testing work, the testing leader needs to formulate a testing plan, including testing resources, testing progress, testing strategies, testing methods, testing tools, testing risks, etc.
⑥. In order to conduct testing better and more effectively and ensure the quality of testing work, testers need to first design test cases and form a test case report before performing testing work. Designing test cases is the core work to ensure test quality, and many testing techniques can be used to guide the design of test cases. In order to improve the efficiency of test case design, BTEST training courses have specially opened a course on efficient test case design to teach various design use case technologies and methods.
⑦. In order to improve work efficiency or improve testing level, testing work needs to introduce automated testing tools. Testers need to learn to use automated testing tools, write test scripts, conduct performance testing, etc. (What is an automated testing tool?) Note: What is an automated testing tool? Some basic automated testing tools provided by online partners: Open source functional automated testing tools: Watir, Selenium, MaxQ, WebInject Open source performance automated testing tools: Jmeter, OpenSTA, DBMonster, TPTEST, Web Application Load Simulator However, the one that everyone uses the most is QTP and LR ⑧. During the testing work, the test leader also needs to continuously improve the testing process according to the actual situation, improve the testing level, and build the testing team.
7. Career development: Testers such as test team leaders are usually the person in charge of testing projects. They must have high testing technical capabilities and certain management capabilities. The main responsibilities are to develop test plans, write test plans, monitor and manage the entire testing process. The test team leader can develop upward into a test department manager, quality manager, or horizontally into a project manager, and usually has a relatively high salary. The main responsibility of the test analyst is to conduct comprehensive analysis of the system's test results, such as defect analysis, performance Analysis etc. Test analysts not only have strong testing technical skills, but also have technical knowledge in databases, operating systems, etc. There is also good room for development in this type of position, and you can develop into a system designer, etc. The main responsibilities of test engineers are to write test programs and perform automated testing tasks. Testers in this type of position must have at least the ability of a junior programmer because they often work with programs. There is also good room for development, for example, you can develop into a programmer.
8. Test classification: Testing is divided into three stages: manual testing, automated testing, and performance testing. This is a gradual improvement process. The initial work may be manual testing, which is what most testers currently do. Automated testing is the development trend of testing, and there is a shortage of automated testers now, and their salaries are very high. The most scarce thing now is performance testers. The current salary of performance testers may be higher than that of developers with the same experience, because performance testers are now scarce.
(1) Manual testing: It is now more popular, and most testing is still in the manual testing stage.
(2) Automated testing: It is a trend, but currently there are relatively few automated tests, which requires appropriate code writing work. After doing a period of manual testing and accumulating some experience, you can slowly enter the automated testing stage. If you are more proficient in automated testing, you can earn a monthly salary of 10,000, which is similar to the development salary.
(3) Performance testing: Performance testers are now in short supply. They can generally do performance testing, and those who can do it generally have a monthly salary of more than 16,000.
9. Professional qualities: Professional skills: Professional skills in the computer field are an essential quality for test engineers and are a prerequisite for doing a good job in testing. Although people without any IT background can also engage in testing work, computer professional skills are essential for a test engineer who wants to gain greater development space or lasting competitiveness. Computer professional skills mainly include three aspects:
① Testing professional skills: There is a lot of testing professional knowledge. The content of this book mainly focuses on the basic professional skills that testers should master. Testing professional skills cover a wide range: including basic testing technologies such as black box testing, white box testing, and test case design, as well as testing methods such as unit testing, functional testing, integration testing, system testing, and performance testing, as well as basic Knowledge of test process management, defect management, automated testing technology, etc.
②. Software writing ability: Software programming skills should actually be one of the necessary skills for testers. At Microsoft, many testers have many years of development experience. Therefore, if testers want to get better career development, they must be able to write programs. Only by being able to write programs can you be competent in difficult testing tasks such as unit testing, integration testing, and performance testing. In addition, the programming skill requirements for software testers are also different from those of developers: the programs written by testers should focus on running correctly while taking into account high efficiency, especially in the writing of test code related to performance testing. Therefore, testers must have certain algorithm design capabilities. Based on the experience of senior test engineers, test engineers should master at least one language such as Java, C#, C++ and corresponding development tools.
③. Knowledge of networks, operating systems, databases, middleware, etc.: Compared with developers, the knowledge mastered by testers has the characteristics of "extensive but not refined". "Too many skills but not too overwhelmed" is a very vivid metaphor. Since various test environments often need to be configured and debugged during testing, and various system platforms must be analyzed and tuned during performance testing, testers need to master more knowledge about networks, operating systems, databases, etc. Compared with developers, the knowledge mastered by testers has the characteristics of "extensive but not refined". "There are many skills but not too much" is a very vivid metaphor. Since various test environments often need to be configured and debugged during testing, and various system platforms must be analyzed and tuned during performance testing, testers need to master more knowledge about networks, operating systems, databases, etc. In terms of network, testers should master basic network protocols and network working principles, especially some network environment configurations. These are common knowledge encountered in testing work. In terms of operating systems and middleware, you should master the basic usage, installation, and configuration. For example, many application systems run based on Unix and Linux, which requires testers to master basic operating commands and related tool software. The installation and configuration of middleware such as WebLogic and Websphere often require some mastery. Database knowledge is more important than skills. Today's application systems are almost inseparable from databases. Therefore, you must not only master basic installation and configuration, but also master SQL. Testers should at least master the use of common databases such as Mysql, MSSqlserver, Oracle, etc.
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