2

I'm a newbie in software testing and I got some questions.

  • How can I improve my skills in software testing?
  • Is there any game or something similar that I can learn, which in turn can improve my ability in software testing? For instance in computer programming you can improve the logical way of thinking by playing chess.

Thanks!

Dhiman
  • 4,580
  • 8
  • 26
  • 54
HelloWorld1
  • 143
  • 1
  • 5
  • 1
    It is far from obvious (at least from me) how playing chess improves logical way of thinking. All I can see that playing chess improves the ability to play chess. CompSci skills are mostly unrelated, or related to memory and planning (which chess playing might improve). – Peter M. - stands for Monica Sep 22 '15 at 22:03
  • Hi HelloWorld - I would suggest that you search through the "learning" tag here, there are plenty of questions that are about improving skills. Without knowing what skill you want to improve, it will be difficult to suggest specific enough things to practice. It would probably help you to research and read more first to see what skills might exist. – testerab Sep 23 '15 at 23:06

3 Answers3

2

How can I improve my skills in software testing?

There are plenty of books and resources online. I have found Wikipedia is apt for covering things at high levels (search for "Software Testing" and read every referenced page). Beyond that nothing compares to real world experience.

Is there any game or something similar that I can learn which in turn can improve my ability in testing?

I haven't found anything like this (there are 'games' on GitHub to test your Git knowledge, for example). I would say try to cheat at games by looking for and exploiting bugs. Like how people "dupe" items in online games. Really, the QA mindset is "how can I change the inputs or processes to come up with a result the dev's didn't think about".

Community
  • 1
kirbycope
  • 4,090
  • 1
  • 13
  • 30
0

One thing you can do is to come up with edge use cases for your application: entering very large or very small values, submitting null values, clicking a button repeatedly, etc. To measure your improvement you should make a list with brief descriptions of the tests you will run and keep track of the results you are getting. As you do this more and more you will develop an intuition for the type of steps that will lead to discoveries.

alexsome
  • 101
  • 1
0

As a newbie in this field,

  • First of all you need to be clear on the basic concepts. There are hell lot of links and wonderful blogs by guru's of this field. You just need to search and understand what they've mentioned. You'll find some very links here on SQA Stack Exchange.

  • If you're working for a firm or company, try to understand- what you've learnt from point 1, how is it applied in daily QA and testing process. This will give you the real world idea of what you learnt from point above.

  • While doing point 2, try to understand, HOW the process it working and question WHY is it working that way (this is my way of working btw). Questioning how, will help you the understanding correct flow ,of how the system under test, is working and this will enable you to understand, the risks and potential threat areas. Questioning why intrigues you to try and approach the flow with a different perspective (sometimes with a negative mindset to break the system).

  • When you're assigned a testing task, first understand what is there to test. Many times people deviate from this and end up doing what they were not asked to do.

  • Improve your communication skills while you work on a bug or a defect, especially, when you are presenting one. Most testers don't emphasize on this, but this is a really important skill, that you can learn right away. It is very important for a tester to be precise and be clear about what he wants to state.

Is there any game or something similar that I can learn, which in turn can improve my ability in software testing? For instance in computer programming you can improve the logical way of thinking by playing chess.

Go with what Kirbycope has said. Try exploiting the cheats and if you're successful in one, just don't stop at that. Try to see WHY that cheat is there in first place. What went wrong? What point did the flaw came?

Community
  • 1
demouser123
  • 3,532
  • 5
  • 28
  • 40