Three key steps all QAs should take in their first week at work
So you just started a new testing gig and want to get up to speed and impress your team as soon as possible. But you’re not sure where to start. Perhaps you are a bit overwhelmed with all the new concepts thrown your way. As you begin the on-boarding process (if one exists), learn about in-house tools and try making friends with the developers, try to place priority on understanding your environment. The following steps help you place your focus on what is important as a tester. These steps are a crucial but personal quick guide to get you comfortable and up to speed quickly. Completing each step mentioned below will also increase your efficiency once you fully start testing.
Understand your application
The first step is the most obvious, so you can skip it if you want to. But sit back and try to ‘conceptually’ understand all the functionalities of the application. Read and understand the functional requirements if you have to, but the idea is to:
i) holistically understand the purpose of the application
ii) and understand how it does (or how it is supposed to) fulfil that purpose for the consumer. This is rather intuitive but must be stated.
iii) Also understand who the consumers are. Who is the application made for? Is it the general public or the company you work for?
2. Write a sanity test
The second step is not so obvious. But it does a lot for your credibility within your company as a top-notch tester. Write a quick sanity test. If you complete and fully understand the first step above, the you should be able to design and perform a a smoke test. Doing this challenges your basic understanding of the application. Even if a smoke test script already exists write your own anyway. Being able to do this gives you confidence that you understand the basics of the application. With this solid knowledge you can approach extended features and projects of the application. Completing this step gives you an opportunity to make suggestions and possibly expose vulnerabilities that have not been seen before. Don’t forget, finding flaws at this stage is good because it’s a smoke test. Vulnerabilities found during a sanity test are of high priority.
3. Learn the overall architecture
To gain deeper understanding of everything as a team member, spend some time to understand the overall architecture. This only makes sense if there are other applications adjacent to the one under your scrutiny. And if so, you should understand how data flows from one application to the next. Where and when is data stored. Understand the domains and endpoints of each application. Doing this will make you more valuable to your team and will equip you with the tools to wear different hats if you need to.
Doing these 3 things within the first week will boost you with enough knowledge on the main application under test and boost your confidence as a new tester within the company.
Nathan Maduakor is a software developer in test for The Telegraph. Follow him on nathandaily.com or @itsnathandaily.
