The most important soft skill of a tester

Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst

It’s not flexibility, can-do attitude, or patience. These are all important, of course, but there is one that stands out above all — diplomacy!

Here’s a succinct definition:

the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and tactful way

Given this definition, we can argue that diplomacy is a perfect blend of the most vital soft skills a tester should have:

• Communicative: a project has many stakeholders — technical, sort of technical, and not technical at all. So you have to speak at least three different languages with each group. Developers, managers, users, automation engineers, other testers — all speak using their own jargon.
• Empathetic: developer needs != business user needs. Not only do stakeholders speak “different” languages, but they also have different perspectives and sometimes conflicting interests. We have to learn to be on everyone’s side, no matter how paradoxical it may sound.
• Tactful: not just reporting issues, whether in requirements or software, but doing so without being arrogant or “I told you so” attitude.

Diplomacy is interwoven in nearly everything you do as a QA professional: bug reporting, emails, meetings, 1-to-1 conversations. I see developers as the most important stakeholders for both test…