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Are you wondering how to learn QA testing and can it be a value addition to your career? You must be having some of the common questions which every beginner who is trying to build their job profile in QA, needs to know. Read below points and see if you had any of the similar questions; and then it's worth reading this entire career guide to build a successful career as a QA Tester.
Need of Testing each Softwares or Applications
Either it is the Web Applications, Mobile Applications, or Software Products; every company is trying to optimize their software development and testing efforts so that they can compete in today's fast paced IT world. Similar domains or industries have similar applications but with slightly different features to differentiate their products & services, and the way their consumers can use their applications. So, how is it possible? It definitely needs a latest trending application development process such as the ‘Agile & Scrum’ process and a good core project team. You definitely need to make your own place into this competitive team either you are a developer, business analysts, project manager, or a Software tester.
Yahoo reported a major data leak issue on Sep, 22nd in the year of 2016 where 500+ Million user’s information was compromised because of hacking into their software systems. The information included people’s personal information, and also their bank information etc. This happened because their internal systems were not properly tested and cybersecurity systems were compromised. Source: Yahoo News and CNN Business News
A very critical alert was issued calling the Airbus Aircraft - A400M because of a bug/issue which came from a poorly tested software in the year May-2015. A similar issue caused the fatal crash in Spain Just before this incident happened. The Airbus A400M was Europe's largest defence project at that time, costing €20bn (£14.3bn) which was developed by European Nato governments. Source: The Guardian News
In the UK, Amazon third party sellers noticed that their products were placed on the amazon website for just the price of 1P each. Customers were able to place the orders and receive the same too. Later these resellers had to request customers to return their products or adjust the pricing. Source: The Guardian News
This is why every project needs to have strong and smart quality team members who need to test the softwares end to end by following the best testing practices to ensure the software application is bug or issue free.
In each and every project, companies need to place at least 1 to 2 Software Testers depending on the project size to ensure they perform various testing activities to find out every possible issues or bugs. Once these issues are identified, the software testers work with development teams to get them fixed and retest the applications. So, now we know that quality assurance testers are required in almost every single project, and you can plan to build your software tester career in iT industry.
Which One I Need to Learn?
Initially QA testers used to test every application manually, which means they need to review and perform the verification or test validation steps for every use case or requirements to be tested.
Once the various automation testing tools got identified in the IT market, a lot of companies started using them to streamline their testing process to increase their efficiency, and improve productivity. You simply can use these automation tools and use their pre-built features or write custom scripts to automate the manual test cases written.
Overall, both Manual & Automation testing is required depending on type and scenario of testing being performed. So companies always prefer to hire someone who has got both the testing experiences and the tools knowledge. In order to compete in the current QA job market, it's always a good decision to learn both the manual testing, and the automation testing.
What do I do as a Software Tester?
Before you can learn more about software tester career paths, you also need to understand the testing process, which will help you build the confidence in your decision making process to choose QA tester as your career option.
Business analysts work with business teams or stakeholders to gather the project requirements or user stories (in Agile Terminology) and document them in tools like Jira, or word document called the ‘Business requirement document’.
Developers & Technical Architects use these business requirements & Use Cases to analyze them, and prepare the technica design model before they can start development activity. After the data model, and the technical design is completed, the development team initiates and completes the coding activity.
QA Software Testers review these same requirements, respective use cases and then prepare the high level Test Plan document.
After the Test Planning is done, the testers start working on preparing all possible test cases which can be used to test the software applications or products.
Testers document these test cases in different tools like Jira, HP-ALM, or Excel. They also track the Test results in this document which could be marked as ‘Pass or Fail’.
If the test case is ‘Passed’ - we are good, but if the Test Case is Failed, then the testers report the issue found (Which is also called ‘Bug’) to the developers.
The developers analyze the issue, and fix the bug reported. After fixing the bug, they report this back to the Testers.
The QA Testers test the same test case again to ensure that the issue no more persists.
If there are any automation tools used such as ‘Selenium’ or ‘QTP/UFT’; the testers also write the scripts to automate all the test cases written and manually executed.
This was a very high level explanation of the tester’s real life scenario in a way to handle a simple requirement, and develop the test case. With this, now you can understand what will be the real time life cycle of identifying an issue to fixing it.
Manual Testing
Manually analyze various use cases and requirements and prepare the test cases to test the application.
Read: How to Become a Successful Software QA Tester?
Regression Testing
Whenever there is any change or new addition to the functionality, re-test the application to ensure everything is in sync and working fine.
Automation Testing
Analyze all the test cases written, and then script them so that we can run them to automate those test cases to save time and improve performance.
Database Testing
Analyze end to end dataflow, and data transactions in place and use SQL queries and test the required functionality.
Performance Testing
Analyze the end to end application or system performance to ensure the application is not slow and can handle bulk data transactions.
Integration Testing
Analyze how two systems are integrated and test the handshake and successful data exchange between the two systems using various tools.
Smoke Testing
Smoke Testing: You can perform the smoke testing which is a very high level testing to ensure all the important features and functionalities of the system are working properly.
Penetration Testing
This is to perform the security testing on the software application to ensure hackers can not inject malicious code into the system.
Million
As per the latest reports by Gartner - 10 Million new QA software tester jobs would be created worldwide by the year 2022.
Annual Growth
Positively; By 2021, 40% annual growth would be seen for automation engineers
Software
Interestingly, Quality Assurance can be associated with every possible field of activity, from banking and education to software and consulting.
Future
Certainly, As per indeed.com, qa software tester jobs are expected to grow by 30% in the near future.
Testing
The software testing market size is expected to grow at CAGR above 6% between 2020-2026.
QA Software Tester Career Path
Industries Leveraging Software Testing market the most
The Software Testing market is leveraged by industries - IT & Telecom, Manufacturing, BFSI, Retail, Healthcare, Transportation & Logistics, Insurance, etc.
Read: 20+ Best Bug Tracking Tools in 2024!
Top Countries Exploring the QA Testing Technology the most
The software testing market is segmented based on components into application testing and services with job opportunities in top countries like the US, UK, Canada, India, Australia, China, Spain, France, Italy, etc.
Driving for Software testing
Efficient cost-effective mechanisms to detect software errors in IT organizations is driving demand for software testing globally
Find different QA Testing Opportunities in different countries, industries throughout the world!
These are just a handful of names, but today, almost every company leverages QA Testing to identify any gaps, errors, or missing requirements contrary to the actual requirements.
The below 7 types of Testing roles are simply the variation of a typical software tester. They are more or less very similar.
QA Manual Tester
If you are interested in planning test cases, developing test cases, strategies, scripts, conducting manual tests, reporting & troubleshooting bugs, and ensuring the product meets the standards --- You can become a QA Manual Tester.
QA Automation Tester
If you are interested in or have knowledge about software automation testing tools such as Selenium Webdriver or HP UFT (QTP), writing SQL queries, end to end Software development life cycle, Software testing life cycle Then you may plan a career as an QA Automation Tester.
Selenium Automation Tester
If you are interested in understanding user test requirements, analyzing the AUT (application under test), creating test cases using WebDriver API commands & Selenium element locators, debugging test cases You can be that Selenium Automation Tester!
Performance Tester
If you are interested in doing test planning, writing tests, scripts, cases, conducting test case automation, performance test execution, and analyzing the performance test results --- You can become a Performance Tester!
QTP/UFT Automation Tester
If you are interested in leading the QA testing tasks during the development & implementation stages by creating, executing & managing the automation scripts via HP UFT, and performing test case reviews in coordination with developers & Business Analysts, you can be a QTP/UFT Automation Tester!
Software Test Engineer
If you are passionate about developing & maintaining Test plans, manual and automated test scripts for user interface, functionality, system and "ad-hoc testing". Execute regression tests, functional tests and data tests. Document quality assurance practices. Provide analysis of test results and deliver solutions to problem areas. You can make a career in Software Test Engineer’s role.
QA Analyst
If you work with open source automation tools, Selenium, JMeter, Performance testing, Load Runner, Handling iFrames, Dropdown, Handling buttons, Handling checkbox,and preparing Test Plan & related documents. Then you may opt for a career as a QA Analyst
To uplift your career in the QA testing field:
With our real industry scenarios & market researched software testing materials, and within a few weeks, you would have the right skills & expertise that are required to be the core IT to non-IT company's leading resource.
Check out the annual average salaries of QA Professionals in 4 major countries:
Note: One point to keep in mind: These are the estimated Software Testing career packages or salaries compiled from several job portals. Your real package depends on the location you are in, the certifications you hold, the level of skills you possess , and the knowledge you have gathered.
Relocation of cities:
You can plan to move to countries that prefer paying high as per your skills like US, India, UK, Canada, and begin your career from there.
Read: Ranorex Tutorial – A Powerful Test Automation you Need to Learn
Highlight your start skills and knowledge:
If you possess and showcase your best skills and perfect knowledge about QA testing during your interviews, there are high chances of you getting selected for a better position with higher salaries.
Learning never stops:
You need to see to it that you continue learning and enhancing your knowledge so that you are paid well in the initial years of your career.
Strong communication and personality skills:
Work hard to have effective communication skills and groom your personality that would work in your favour by letting you grow.
What are QA Testing Certifications?
Why must you own QA Testing Certifications?
QA Testing certifications are important to have as they help with:
What QA Certifications you can qualify for?
Let’s look at the steps on “How to Start Career in Software Testing” from start to finish.
Step 1 - Do an extensive research about the technology
Carry out complete research and understand QA software testing career growth
Have answers to all these questions before you finally say “yes”.
Step 2 - Get the QA Software testing career advice/counseling
Step 3 - Take a decision
After the above two steps, don't wait any longer and quickly take a decision to begin an amazing career!
Step 4 - Enroll for a formal QA Software Testing Training
Step 5 - “Certification” is important...
Prepare yourself for the to qualify for the certification exam, qualify the “QA Software Testing Certifications”..
To get into your dream companies QA testing Certifications are the best that would help you validate your skills & knowledge by the authorities.
Step 6 - Application for the jobs
QA Testing is all about how the company runs and delivers value to its clients. QA is a perfect perch from which to see how, who, and what gets done." So if you have a passion to get well positioned and tackle new challenges then just go for it.
The industry demanding job roles in the QA Testing field that you aim for and see yourself placed well in 2-6 years are:
QA Software tester career helps you earn an annual average salary of between $50,000-$1,60,000. ForQA Analyst you may earn an annual average salary of between $600,000-$1,65,000.Quality Assurance Engineer earns an annual average salary of between $80,000-$1,75000, Automation Tester earns an annual average salary of between $82000 - $1,75,000 annually.
QA Software Testing is a desirable career in terms of pay, job satisfaction, learning, growth & whatever else conditions you often look for. And with this skillset’s crazy demand (today & in years to come) in software solutions making entities, you won’t have to be worried about your QA Software Testing career growth. With this software testing career growth path explained, we hope we helped you find answers to your endless queries regarding:
Don’t remain undecided about the exciting career opportunities in software testing. If we have left some of your doubts still unanswered, we would love to hear from you in the comments down below. Or if you are interested in more detailed QA Software Testing career advice, how about scheduling your free QA Software Tester career counseling with us?
Read: How to Improve Test Case Writing Skills?
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