Career in Software Testing and Current Industry trends

Broadly we can categorize Software testing career as below based on the nature of work done:

There are thousands of Manual testers in market and most of the companies are looking beyond manual testing skills. 

     Manual Testing

Involves testing the software application with human interaction of software manually without any tool.

2.    Automation Testing

Testing the software with help of software tools. Basically the functional automation tools are in scope in this topic and below are high level info of tools available in market today.

Commercial Tools:

QTP

Silk Test

Rational Robot

Skills: VB Scripting for QTP, Tool Knowledge frameworks

Open Source Tools:

Selenium, Watir, Sahi etc

Skills: Core Java, Tool knowledge, Frameworks (like TestNg etc) or any language supported by tool.

Performance Testing

Understanding the capacity of software to sustain and manage huge traffic is important today for various kind of software like web apps, Enterprise software's etc. To understand the performance bench marks performance testing tools are used.

Commercial Tools:

Popular tool is Load Runner or Silk Performer which is commercial tool

Open Source Tools:

Jmeter or WebLoad etc: Open Source Tools

Skills: Networking Concepts, Tool Knowledge Jmeter 

Database, ETL and BI testing.

Involve testing of data flow and availability at various check points. This testing is now a day’s taking good response across clients/customer

Skills: Good SQL, Data Base Concepts

Functional QA on Enterprise software like SAP, Oracle etc

Here testing of enterprise application is done where understanding the features and functionality of products are important as these high complex and huge products. One can grow as Business Analyst, Implementation engineer, Product owner upon mastering the product and acquiring domain knowledge.

SDET (Software development engineer in Test)

You might have seen this kind of job title recently, basically this is the role where in both automation and functional software testing is performed.

This is type of role is popular with Microsoft, Google, Amazon and other big MNC’s

Skills: .net, C#, and Microsoft test tools, framework=Glider, Java, Selenium

For more info on Selenium visit http://seleniumhq.org/

If you are good in programming learn at least Core Java and learn Selenium which is in high demand today and very less people are available.

Feel free to reach me in case you have more questions. Please search in LinkedIn or various job sites for the high demand skills in QA/testing

Official Reference Books for PMI-ACP

Below is the list of books published for preparing PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) examination.

Agile Estimating and Planning

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition)

The Art of Agile Development

And here is the list of books recommended by PMI

PMI Agile Certification

PMI is offering new certification called PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP). This is bringing lot of interested and momentum in Agile community worldwide.

ACP certification is basically designed to provide understanding of Agile concepts at basic level. So the eligibility criteria is set as below:

2000 hours of experience in working on any project team that may or may not follow Agile.

1500 hours of experience in working on project team following Agile

21 hours of training on Agile Project management concepts

So here are your steps towards ACP Exam preparation:

1.Gain experience as prescribed above.

2.Register for membership with PMI

3.Focus on topics defined in study guide

4.Read the official reference books

5.Enroll for the workshop/training to completed 21 contact hours on agile topics. Check with PMI chapter near you or any education provider registered with PMI

6.Join the official group in LinkedIn

7. Once you are ready take Exam.

For more details download the handbook

Good Luck!

Career Guidance Council

Career Guidance Council aims to provide guidance to people facing a variety of career challenges.These challenges may include, but are not limited to dealing with redundancy; seeking a new job; changing careers; returning to work after a career break; building new skills; personal and professional development; going for a promotion; and setting up a business.

The common aim of the career guidance council, whatever the particular situation of the individual being guided, is normally to help that individual gain control of their career and, to some extent, their life.

Making right selection of a career can be a very challenging task, especially when you are offered with a wide range of paths, all of which seem to be leading to a perfect life. Careers can actually make or break one’s life, so it is important to make the right choice. Career Guidance Council helps you in pursuing the right courses, in the right colleges or institutes and can guide you in choosing a suitable career.

For more information visit:
http://careerguidancecouncil.org/
OR
http://www.facebook.com/careerguidancecouncil