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Do you want to make the difference?
And improve software quality sustainably with your testing, thereby positioning yourself as a personality.
The position in testing is not always easy, even though the disparities between testing and development are often taken with humor and illustrated in funny memes; it can also become challenging when testing is once again given too little importance or is included in the project too late with an insufficient budget.
The stakeholders are demanding and not always appreciative of your impact, but the customers are!
This was the experience and motivation of Pascal, our Principal Verification Engineer, to give you a few hints in this article on how to do yourself a favor and simplify your life!
Follow these approaches and learn how to use clever self-positioning to get released and functional software that makes customers happy.
Understand the business goals: Engage deeply with the company's business goals to understand how your work contributes to achieving these objectives.
Demonstrating that you understand and support the business concerns enhances your credibility, for example, by highlighting features that can attract new customers.
If you lack knowledge of the big picture, gather this information. Only those who understand process interconnections can act economically accordingly.
And don't forget to emphasize the business impact: Highlight how your work influences the quality of the end product. Discuss potential risks and issues you discovered before they could reach production. Show how your tests contribute to reducing downtime, customer complaints, and support efforts.
Position yourself, not just the dashboard!
Be the go-to person, be a resource that can be asked questions, assess risks, and see beyond the information on the dashboard with your experience. Don't just expose the dashboard; show that you, as a person, know more.
Create more value with Proactivity: Don't just identify errors; actively work on finding solutions. Offer constructive suggestions to address problems and optimize development and testing processes.
Dare to question unfamiliar results!
Should the system really behave like this? If you observe something unexpected but don't have time to investigate immediately, note it down and follow up on it later.
How would a user interact with the system? What could go wrong? Engage with these questions and embark on finding improvements to the system, even if you lack knowledge. You can gain experience formulating theories about unknown things and validate them as a tester.
A nuanced understanding of corporate objectives, coupled with a keen awareness of user requirements, form the bedrock. Infused with inquisitiveness and innovation, your activities become instrumental in elevating software excellence.
Communicate always clearly: Keep management regularly informed about the status of testing activities. Use clear and precise communication that encompasses both technical aspects and business impacts.
Avoid complex jargon for non-technical individuals to understand and use measurable metrics to underline the facts. Implement metrics to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your tests. Show how improvements in testing processes affect error detection, test coverage, and product stability.
And don't forget the good old documentation that helps you remember things (even if you would rather suppress them). It will help you so much in the future if you can fall back on it: Maintain detailed records of your testing activities, results, actions taken, and their impacts. Solid documentation demonstrates furthermore that you work thoroughly and methodically.
Work closely with developers, project managers, and other team members. An open exchange of information and a collaborative approach contribute to improving product quality.
Celebrate your successes with the team: accentuate success stories in which your tests have helped prevent critical errors or improve product quality. This enables you to emphasize the importance of your role.
To ensure ongoing success, continuous learning is needed. That means staying updated on current trends, methods, and tools in software testing. In this way, you show that you are an expert in your field.
By implementing these approaches, you can strengthen your reputation as a tester and establish a position of credibility and indispensability to management.
You are ultimately creating an unbeatable win-win-win situation: satisfied customers, satisfied management, and yourself as a successful tester!
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