1. The many aspects of a tester

2. Introduction

A perfect tester has to not only be an excellent developer, but also have great domain knowledge, understanding of test tools, ability to present risks and results, great understanding of test management, deep knowledge of test techniques and methods, and much more

Impossible to find such a person

Many different types of testers

Each type of tester prioritizes different skills and abilities

Each type must be used in the right way to maximize potential

In this presentation, a number of types are presented, but testers could be categorized in many other ways

3. Personas Overview E2E Tester System Tester Domain Tester Developer in Test Verification Tool Engineer Test Automation Engineer 4. Developer in Test

Work Description

• Work side-by-side with developers enabling the team to produce high quality code by writing unit/API test cases in C and Java during feature development

• Driving not only functional quality, but also performance, stability,power consumption and similar during design & development phase

• Pushing for testability and maintainability of the code to enable testing

• Support developers with expertise in their unit testing effort

Key Competencies in priority

• C & Java competence

• Test competence

• Driving testability

• Domain knowledge

5. Verification Tool Engineer

Work Description

• Push testing downstream by continuously working with new tools to enable testing early

• Put requirements on the development line organizationwhat is needed to increase testability of the code

• Drive development of new verification tools

• Roll out new tools in the organization

• Usually works alone or in pairs, but interfacing a lot of testers and developers

Key Competencies in priority

• Verification & Development tools knowledge

• Driving testability

• Java & C & Script competence

• Test Competence

6. Test Automation Engineer

Work Description

• Develop system API tests which cover the gaps left by the Developers in Test

• To continuously executed and monitor automated test cases and analyze the results

• Push requirements on verification tool engineers for new tools

• Works in a small team of dedicated automation experts, as part of an automated test lab

Key Competencies in priority

• C & Java competence

• Test competence

• Domain knowledge

• Verification tool knowledge

7. Domain Tester

Work Description

• Is an expert on a domain, such as local connectivity, graphics, device drivers, or similar

• Focuses on tool-aided manual testing

• Can work both in teams with developers, or in dedicated test teams, depending on the assignment

• Support new development with requirements from a verification perspective

• Write and execute manual acceptance tests for features in development

• Execute manual tests and exploratory testing charters on the software main branch to report status and find defects

Key Competencies in priority

• Test competence (including exploratory testing)

• Domain knowledge

• Verification tool knowledge

• Requirements competence

8. System Tester

Work Description

• Focuses on the system instead of a specific domain

• Working mostly in dedicated test teams, further away from development

• Focus on other aspects than pure functionality; system performance, system stability, system interactions and so on

• Mostly executes exploratory charters to cover as much of the system as possible with the least effort

• Measures system KPIs to evaluate the quality of the system, often using verification tools

• Put requirements on the system which are needed for verification

Key Competencies in priority

• Test competence (focus on exploratory testing)

• System knowledge

• System requirements competence

• Verification tools knowledge

9. E2E Tester

Work Description

• Works with the final product that ships to customers

• Understands the customers needs and requirements

• Focus on using the product the same way as the customer mostly manual testing

• Working in dedicated test team with close connection to customer interfaces

• Must understand how the different domains and the system work to be able to test from an E2E perspective without mistaking design decisions for defects

Key Competencies in priority

• Test competence (focus on exploratory testing)

• Customer focus

• Customer requirements competence

• System & Domain knowledge

10. Q&A

Where is our organization today?

• What roles dominate?

• Pie-chart which shows how many testers of each role we have?

What is our goal?

• What roles do we want in our organization?

• Ratio between the different types of testers

Are there any more roles than the six described in this presentation?

How do we get to the new ratio between testers if we are not there today?

11. References Material

[1]Career Paths for Testers Using Personas

http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S16548_COL_2