MY SECOND YEAR JOURNEY AS A SOFTWARE TESTER

The date April 12^th has turned as a special day in my life. Because, I started my career as a Software Tester on that date. Its 2 year completion now (12^th April 2014).Wow! What am amazing journey for me. I have published my first year journey experience in my previous blog post in the title “My one year journey as a Software Tester”. Here I wish to share my experience that I have come across in my second year journey.  I believe most of the people have come across some up’s and down’s in their career. I am no more special to say; hey I have not witnessed such experience. I too have faced more downs and little ups. I felt ups and downs are part of one’s life. So, I took all my downs as an experience and some of my up’s as an example. 

My Journey in Mindzpark

After I lost my job in September 2012, I was jobless for few months. In Jan 2013 I joined in one of the start-up company. I worked for that organization (Mindzpark technologies, Coimbatore) for about 13 months. I was the only tester and the first tester in that company. Being a solo tester I learned to manage the time in handling different projects. Working closely with the developers, interacting with the clients, etc. Being a growing child in the testing community, I felt it would be difficult. But somehow I managed to handle that task. And that gave a great confidence for me. After some days, I felt that I could work as an Independent Tester at any time. I would like to thank all my ex-colleagues for their support. And special thanks to my close buddy “Sakthi Vel, Developer  at Mindzpark”. Because without him I would have not got the opportunity to work as a solo tester.

One day I decided to quit my job for some reason. So, I quit my job in Jan 2014. First month of the year I was jobless again. I joined in Moolya Software in month of February. I was(&am) so much Excited! Because I am going to work(working) closely with my inspirations. I am discussing and sharing my thoughts by sitting in front of my teacher. My teachers are always special to me. Their guidance is like blessing rain to me .Do you want to know who are my inspirations &Teachers (Guru). Please look into my tweets, books and blogs.  I believe this year would be a great year in my career.

I also met a person with similar interest (few step more than me), its Ravi suriya, a passionate Exploratory Tester. I think I am blessed with something special and that’s why I could able to meet some people who really care for the people who walk with them.

Being a new born in testing community, I have faced some difficulties, pain and some appreciation too. Now, I have grown as a 2 year old child in the testing community. Now I could walk without supporting hands to some extent. I could able to see and understand certain things (Business related) that are happening in the world, in making decision, trust. But still I need a supporting hand. I am working for my dream to make it true. This could be possible if there is a blessing from my teachers.

Some of my colleagues, friends ask me this question. I see most of the time you are with dreaming or keep walking alone in office floor. What are you dreaming about? I am not dreaming about my girl friend, or planning to spend my time with my friends during weekends. My dream is about how to make my journey better. I love to walk alone when  my thinking becomes little deeper.  I talk to the people for a long time when I see a similar interest. I don’t know it is good or bad. But this is how I am. I don’t fake myself in sake of impressing someone.

My plans for 2014.

•  I am so much interested in doing some "Research" work. I am still working on that. All my experiment and experience will be shared in my blog post.  
• Planning to publish my second book on the topic “Mobile App Testing”.
• Learning programming language (Python).
• Participating in various contest like step in, 99test, etc…
• Sharing my knowledge through my blog.

I thank my parents for their support by allowing me to work on my dream. At-last my writing goes meaningless if I never thank my teachers. A sincere thank to my teacher for helping me to chase my dream. 

Thank You.

My Contact Details:

E-mail: ktg.pradeep@gmail.com

Skype id: pradeep.lingan

Phone:08748887074

IS TESTING A DOCUMENTATION WORK

Every Tester (even Non-Testers) has their own opinion on the term Testing. It cannot be compromised by all people with a one definition.

What testers actually do?

 It depends upon the role that the testers play and the organization standard they follow. But the two common things that most of us do are “Test and make a Report” of it. Here, I am not going to write about how to test and how to make a report. I just want to mention about how we see the job?

The Programmer spends most of his/her time in writing code. But how about a Testers who work on the same product?

As Testers someway we need to find out our time in making the documentation for 

Test strategy

Test scenarios

Test Ideas/Test cases

Bug Report

And what else….

Out of all we need to find a time to test.

It is always better to know, what people (whom we are writing for) need from us and how they want the document to be. If possible prepare the document based on it. Rather than assuming that people would love to read the document that we have prepared. Don’t make people panic to read by submitting the lengthy document which doesn't interest them. Be specific in sharing the information that you want to share and make it as simple as you could.

Always focus to make a report (any report) with clear and more informative. But not in the intention of impressive. Informative makes impressive.

Which part of the work (Testing or Documenting) playing a major role in the testers’ job?  

It’s your choice. To me both are a tester’s work. Our documentation speaks about our investigation. But which plays a high priority. Again Documenting or Testing?

To test we need those entire mentioned document. Because that play as a proof that we conducted a test. Also it pays a ways to do our test better and also to ensure our coverage.  It is Okay, when all those jobs are carried by a group of people. But it will not be fair if those jobs are supposed to be done by a minimum number of people. Whether the jobs are carried out by maximum or minimum number of people, spending more time in making a document is “WASTE OF TIME”. Spending the time in focusing the document to make it fancy would never give you a job satisfaction to a great extends.  Instead of spending more time on documentation it would be better to spend some of those times in testing a product. Always try to make the document as simple as possible rather than focusing to make it as a fancy. Writing some “X” number of test cases or “N” number of scenarios would impress the stake holders. But it doesn't make productive when the documentation that was prepared is a “BUGGY” one.

It is always good to know how to balance a time between a testing (investigating) and documenting. The most important is to know to make documentation as simple as possible with more informative.  Something I wish to say is that

Practice to make a document more effective in short time. Or create a template of your own that could cover the all the necessary information.

Spend more time on testing the product and make a work more productive.

So, documentation is a part of the tester’s job.

If you are already doing that “kudos”. If you have something better than what I have shared please share with me.  I see “Sharing is Caring”.

Thank you

My Contact Details:

Email ID: ktg.pradeep@gmail.com

Skype : pradeep.lingan

Twitter :pradeeplingan1

Mobile: 08748887074