Should I learn Software Testing as its not providing me Growth?

Most of the people (especially Fresh Graduates) have this, while they come for Software Testing training in our center. This is not a single voice. This is the voice of the mass. When People look into Software Industry, most of the people believe that the Industry is full of Developers. Those people assume that if they are not good in any Programming language, they are not fit enough to be in Software Industry. In reality, this is a blind belief.

If you take any successful organization, it consists of Many Teams including Development, Software Testing, Networking, Marketing, Sales, Support and HR. Though the other teams will have less number of employees comparing to Development Team strength, the Testing teams will have almost equal number of strength.

If you look into any major Software Organization, they will give the same importance to Software Testing as they give to Development. Most of the organizations provide a month long Software Testing Without getting official consent from the Quality Control and Assurance (The other terms for Software Testing Team), the Product releases would not be possible.

Here, we mention some of the major tasks in which we could provide training on Software Testing. In every Organization, the growth path for Software Testing Teams would be:

1. Software Test Engineer

  • Executing Test Cases
  • Writing Test Cases
  • Understanding the Product
  • Getting Domain Knowledge

2. Senior Test Engineer

  • Writing Test Scripts
  • Using the Domain Knowledge gained in Level 1 to automate some tasks
  • Learning Automation Test Tools
  • Becoming Expert
  • Guiding the Test Engineers

3. Test Lead

  • Module Level Responsibility
  • Anchor Point for the Testing Team
  • Test Plan Activities

After this level, a Test Lead can choose between climbing the Technical ladder or the Management Ladder.

4. Software Test Architect

  • Be a part in Automation Testing Framework Team
  • Playing a major role in selecting Automation Tools for the team
  • Identifying the areas where Technical Support / Automation Testing is needed
  • Providing Technical support to the Testing Team
  • Helping the Testing Team by providing trainings in Domain level
  • Grooming the Test Engineers towards Automation Testing (Selenium / QTP)

5. Test Manager

  • People Management Responsibilities
  • Managing People Issues
  • Focusing on Higher level Test Strategies

Among these positions, Software Testing Training is needed in the Entry level (Test Engineer and Senior Test Engineer). To be a successful Test Engineer, he / she should be trained in Software Testing Life Cycle, Testing Processes, Test Reports and the Best Practices. It is necessary to get trained at least the Basics of Automation Testing. There are many Automation Tools like QTP, Selenium. We prefer training on Selenium Automation testing over QTP automation. The reasons are quite simple – These are the days of Web application development. Of course, Selenium is Web application automation tool. The second reason is – it is open source. After learning this, no need for employers to provide us jobs. We can create our own life through Freelancing. Apart from these, it is always good to learn Performance Testing.