When I was asked to test a product, I first learn about the product. Unless I understand about the product, I don't start testing. If I have a short time for test, some how I will manage my time for learning(quick learning) about the product. There is no use in testing a product by just clicking on few links or buttons and saying "yeah, it's working fine" or running a passed test-cases again to make it pass.
How I test a product?
I am not a great expert in the testing domain. I just have 1+ year of work experience in the relevant field. But I have formed my own style of learning and working .When the product is ready for test I just make sure few things like
1. Learn about the product
2. Know the end users for that product
3. Choose what test to perform either Automation or Hands-on
The above are the most important to be known to start testing.
When you know about the product you could make a check on product quality based on
1.Functionality
2.Logical and other testing activities
Logical thinking:
When you know about the product flow, only then you could work on logical part. Unless you learn completely about the product you can't provide a better solution for a logical problems. Even you find some logical issue, you can't confirm its a problem. Because you are not sure about the entire product concept. I have experienced such problem. When I tested for one product, I was confused whether to report this or not. Few things I made it in assumption(assuming that it is correct) which is not a good practice. I realized by fault then I promised my self for not repeating the same.
Raising a question is good but not good always. When I started my testing journey( during my training), I was asked to test one e-commerce sites. Its a UK based product. Once I got that product I just started clicking on few links to check whether the links are working fine and made some other test also. I ordered one product entered an address for shipping, I entered Indian address, but I got an error message. It never allowed me to order a product for such location. Because there was a zip-code it is a mandatory field and only a valid zip-code are accepted .So when I entered a zip-code like "656788" I got an error message . I raised a question like how the people in India could get this product. The person( lead) just laughed and asked me to go through(learn) about the product before you test, After going through I just came to know that the shipping is for that specific country only not for other countries. If I have learned about the product before I started I haven't asked such unwanted questions. Questioning is good. It is a basic need a tester should have. But not always.The question should be raised when it is suppose to be raised. If I keep questioning without knowing anything it will irritate other people.
How far BPO experience will help in testing work:
I was fired from my first company and I was looking for the next job. Searched for the job but couldn't able to find. So, I decided to find my job in BPO sector just for time being. So, I consulted my teacher(my guru) regarding joining in BPO. He encouraged my to join in BPO and asked my to work for the product support. He said this will help in your testing career. I was wondering how this experience will add a value to the testing work. He said you will come to know about customers issue on such product .This will help you to know what customer is actually looking for. So when you work as a tester this will help you a lot. But I didn't join in any BPO I got a job in one concern for a testing role.
I am working in a product based company. When I was testing a product in my current company I realized what my teacher told about the value of BPO experience( in handling customers). I felt little difficult to analyse the customers expectation over this product.
Unless you learn about the product scope, you can't do a better testing. Compare the product with your competitors product and see what makes your product different from your competitors product. This will help you to give a better suggestion. Learn about the end users for that product. If it is a job portal and dedicated only for the engineering students and the professionals then you need not worry much about certain things like, if there is an option like settings it is shown up with symbol but no names. Here the user could understand easily what that symbol is meant for.Because most of the end users for this product will have good enough knowledge in using websites and some symbols.So there is no harm for them in playing with these products. So, they could easily understand few things and there is no need to educate much about the product features.
Suppose if the product contains different kind of users like shopkeeper, etc.. and some users will use the computer very rarely may not have much knowledge about web. So, in such case it is necessary to provide a name along with the symbol for setting options. Otherwise it is tough for few users to understand about the product features. We need to educate them in a better way. The products should be made based on the end users.
If the product contains small font size and light color. So in such case we need to consider few things like the user with low vision, good vision. A good vision user could some how manage to learn the content but in the case of low vision user it is quite hard. it will lead to an accessibility issue
Message: The content either in error message or in any option if it is in high level English it is of no use. No more it will add a value to the product just by providing the high level contents. So, the content that are shown could be understandable with normal English word and without spelling mistake. The sentence should not contain any grammar mistake.
Choosing which test to perform:
The most important one is what testing to perform either Hands-on or Automation. If it is an automation need to plan according to time constraints, other resources. If it is a hands-on then how to test (with test case or without test cases).
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