Helpful tips for working as a tester in different teams

So you are a professional in software testing or looking to get into the software testing industry. Well, I trust this article provides you with insights into working in the testing functions of various companies, how they operate from a testing perspective within overall software development teams.

There are mainly three types of organizations from a software development perspective. Software testing is carried out differently in each of these organizations. I will explain how they are different and what are some of the common themes. Some strategies work best in one type of organization but not in another. You have to accommodate & fit yourself in the culture of the organization.

The big picture is crucial for test professionals. Many testers fail to remember/recognize this in the early stages. As a result, sometimes they miss to ask fundamental questions and consequently fail to identify design flaws in the requirement review meetings.

Some of the most common traits to be successful

• Put people first, process second, and technology third.
• Good relations with people will help you navigate problematic situations that may arise in decision making or simply settling in the environment.
• Always be on time. Be in the office on time or be online on time (working from home). Be on time for stand-ups or meetings.
• Be an active listener & listen more. Avoid multitasking during meetings or online conferences.
• Be polite but firm. Ask questions and get clarity instead of assuming.
• Always report usability issues or concerns as positively as you possibly can.
• Learn to write bullet point reports that helps anyone to reproduce the issue.
• Improve negotiation skills and learn to make trade-offs.
• Actively seek feedback on your work.

Product Oriented Organisation

Environment

• It’s highly influenced by features that make up an overall product or a solution that creates a company’s intellectual property.
• The quality of the overall product is super important. Everyone takes quality very seriously, from CEO to Sales Team.
• Usually, there is a product roadmap for three months, six months, and 12 months.
• The team focuses on tasks or user stories specified in three months roadmap.
• In a small (1–50 people) to medium (51–200) size company, engineering or a development team is responsible for BAU and new development work.
• Regression testing is critical to ensure that the mature product line continues to work.
• Test automation has a heavy influence.
• Issues found in the features could impact the quality of the overall product delivery. (Outlook keeps crashing, as opposed to mail sync functionality of MS Outlook isn’t working as expected)
• Product owners, Customer Champions, and Implementation People are usually the UAT testers.
• Testing people are often the subject matter experts of the product.

Tips to make an impact

• Take your time to fit into the existing team’s culture and learn the company’s product offering.
• Every company’s culture is unique. Remember, what worked in your past organization (s) may not necessarily work in the current organization.
• Talk to the team lead or manager. Know your responsibilities & your manager’s expectations from you.
• Know the competitive advantage of your company’s product offering & long term roadmap.
• Read customer stories that are available internally or on the company’s website.
• Talk to the employees who provide customer support and implement the solution for large customers & get to know how customers use the product and the mature and highly used features.
• Learn about the most recent bugs reported by customers.
• Attend incident review meetings or read the last five incident reports.
• Avoid introducing any change on your 1st day or a week.
• Whether you’re a technical tester or functional or any tester, your contribution will deliver a quality product to the customers, so always keep that in mind.
• Learn existing testing processes & tools that are in place & set them up on your device.
• Review the existing list of e2e test scenarios, use the product by yourself, and think of the missing scenarios. Come up with a list of strategies that toughen up your product and make it idiot-proof.
• Issues reported by customers are one of your most prominent source for the test scenarios.
• If you’re going to set up testing functions from scratch, then the below points could help:
• Write a small bullet point document that describes your testing plan & strategy. Make it super easy to read & get feedback from the team.
• Prioritize & automate unit & API tests (where applicable) before extensive tests like e2e tests.
• Automate customer-centric large test scenarios.
• Setup test reporting functions that quickly provide feedback to the dev team.
• Involve developers to write and own unit & API tests.
• Take the quality of every release very seriously. It should be in your work DNA
• Communicate & pass on compliments to the dev team when release is a success or a week/fortnight/month without any incidents or issues from a customer.
• Encourage the team to get involved in the process by adding new cases or improving the overall test coverage.
• Review product design & prototypes. Using your expertise, identify issues that could arise while developing the product, using the product, or even testing it.

Project Oriented Organization

Environment

Usually, there is a project team and a BAU team. The project team is only responsible for delivering new initiatives within defined scope, budget, and timeline with set quality standards. Project initiative and scope of work are highly dependent on the approved budget. They are focused on achieving/developing a solution broken down into specific release objectives.

The fast-moving environment with set deadlines to deliver the project. Project scope is well defined with timelines to deliver set user stories or feature items. Testing is the critical and most integrated part of the project team. Blocker bugs usually block the release, hence pushing the release and causing more stress.

Helpful tips for thriving

• You’re in the team to make a success; for yourself, for the team, and the project.
• Spend a week getting to know your team and culture.
• Build a good relationship with business users. They are often the most significant source of actual test scenarios.
• Get the knowledge of what is the objective of the project and how it will impact the project.
• Plan on how you can tune in and start making a positive impact.
• If you are in a Government or large corporate, then sort all your IT access as early as possible.
• Keep a printed or hand-drawn image of a high-level solution design on your desk. It will help you remember the big picture and how each small task could fit and contribute to the bigger picture.
• Brush off your estimation skills. Always keep a few hours of a buffer when estimating testing tasks to accommodate unplanned delays due to complex dependencies that may arise.
• Add an hour or two to estimate the regression testing or business scenario of the functionality under test.
• Your team lead is your best support (especially in a scaled agile framework). Raise any potential blockers or complexity that you could foresee with your team leaders, so they get addressed on time.
• Focus on automation of the regression tests. If the project team allows automation, then focus on automating the regression tests, as they help to reduce the time it takes to execute test scenarios.
• Focus on good documentation and collecting & sharing screenshots. You should always document your test execution results too for future reference.
• Humbly share your honest opinion in the retrospective meetings.

Service-Oriented Organization

Environment

• Delivering quality work is essential to keep the client happy and retain your (or your organization’s) business with the client.
• Clients look for reports & evidence of delivered work for the approved budget. It helps clients realize the value of money.
• Superior customer service, consultancy skills, and the ability to deliver the agreed scope work are essential skills.

Helpful tips for thriving

• Understand the client requirements and spend some time (at least a week) to understand how testing is done (if you are joining an existing testing force).
• Speak to on-site lead, business owner, and manager to understand their test engineers’ expectations and what they would like to see. It will help you to identify gaps between current deliverables and expectations.
• Once you identify gaps, work on filling those gaps with your expertise.
• Communicate your work frequently (at least once a week/fortnight)
• Go an extra mile & add some automation using either their existing framework or introduce a new framework in a solution that is familiar with developers.
• Record test scenarios that you execute. It will help you to leave a good mark behind :)