How do you practice Software Testing?

By Michael Kelly

Introduction

• The key to superior software testing skills is practice. Practice shows your willingness to "stretch yourself to the limit and increase your control over your performance."

12 Ways to Improve

1) Focusing your practice

2) Avoiding Automated Performance

3) Contributing to Open Source Projects

4) Beta Testing5) Pair

Testing/Programming6) Adopt “Parallel

Thinking”

7) Search for Bugs in the Wild

8) Learn “Systems Thinking”

9) Teaching and Writing10)Participating in

Conferences and Workshops

11)Develop Your Cognition Skills

12) Finding the Time for Practice

Focusing Your Practice

• The goal isn't repeating the same thing over and over again because you like it, but to get better at it each time.

• A musician repeatedly plays a scale, not because they don't know the scale, but because they develop better technique for doing other things by practicing the simple things.

• If you practice one specific area at a time, your skill increases.

Avoiding Automated Performance

• Poor musicians go through a long process of automating how to play a particular piece.

• Instead, the goal should be to develop a strong technique, so that you don't have to automate, but can easily pick up any thing that is thrown your way.

Contributing to Open Source Projects

• Contributing includes submitting code, test code, documentation and examples

• This is a good method of practice because it most resembles a real project with real issues and problems that you might be facing.

Beta Testing

• Getting involved in beta testing exposes you to the newest types of bugs in the latest software

• Hopefully, this can help you to identify potential bugs in your own testing

Pair Testing/Programming

• Done best with a tester and a developer

• If you're a tester, it's important to spend time writing unit test code to allow you to better collaborate with the developer.

Adopt “Parallel Thinking”

• Look at the problem from different schools of thought

Search for Bugs in the Wild

• Look for bugs in software you aren't supposed to be testing

• Identify if you came across the bug by accident, or what you did to find the bug

Learn “Systems Thinking”

• Quality Software Management Volume 1: Systems Thinking.

• Spend time quickly identifying systems and interactions between different systems

Teaching and Writing

• Sometimes teaching others what you know raises questions that you're forced to think about and answer

• Writing down your testing methods reinforces what you already know

Participating in Conferences and Workshops

• An opportunity to tap into the testing skills of those more experienced

Develop Your Cognition Skills

• Increase your ability to collect, analyze, evaluate, retain, recall, and compare information

• James Bach's article "Inside the Mind of an Exploratory Tester" describes ways to increase rapid cognition skills

– Go to a bookstore, pick a computer book at random, flip through it in five minutes or less, close the book, and ask yourself the following questions:

• What does this technology do? • Why would anyone care? • How does it work? • What's an example of it in action?

Finding the Time for Practice

• There is often very little time between projects to do the practicing required

• When free time does present itself, it's difficult to balance personal lives and getting in the time needed to master your skill

• The best way to accomplish this is to know a specific area you would like to improve, and schedule time for it instead of just waiting for a time.