12 Technical Skills Every Software Tester Should Know: Software testers or QA engineers are like a master chef in the world of digital development. Just like every time you go to any restaurant or hotel to eat, you will be very impressed with the food they serve. And what is the reason for that? It is not just a cook who has prepared the food. But it is the master chef, who has tasted the food and served you with the proper tasting. The software tester or QA engineers have played the same role and responsibility throughout the software development life cycle.

No one can become such a tester. To obtain that profession, there are some technical skills that every evaluator must pass. According to the renowned computer scientist and testing expert, Jerry (Gerald) Weinberg once said, “If you don’t learn something new every day, you are not testing.” Well, however, when technology, agile methodologies, and DevOps advance rapidly, while accelerated development and continuous deployments become more complex, testing is quite a critical phase. This allows testers to work harder and requires more deliberation.

Therefore, learning about the latest trends and advancing technical skills becomes inevitable to keep up with trends and avoid becoming obsolete. In this scenario, each tester must be well versed in technical skills, to gain greater understanding, a high degree of effectiveness, and effectively communicate system flaws and flaws to developers.

An evaluator with a good understanding of requirements analysis, design, and coding has a strong understanding of the defect life cycle. They can easily understand which area of ​​the code has the biggest flaws and how it could be solved by helping developers. So, I must say, there are some good technical skills of an evaluator that help prevent flaws from entering the delivered code.

So here as a well-known and experienced software testing company, we have selected the top 12 technical skills that every software tester must have.

12 Technical Skills Every Software Tester Should Know

1. Agile testing

The Software Testing Process – Agile testing follows the principles of agile software development. Agile testing is aligned with iterative development methodology in which requirements are gradually developed from customers and test teams. The development is aligned with the client’s requirements.

Agile testing is a continuous but not sequential process. Testing starts from the beginning of the project and there is continuous integration between testing and development. The main and common goal of agile development and testing is to achieve high product quality.

2. Automation tests

By leveraging the latest technologies, increasing software complexity and application integrations, using manual testing alone cannot get you on the right track. To test browser compatibility, performance, headless, as well as database and integration layers, software testers or QA engineers need to learn automation skills as it imparts higher accuracy due to the business logic and technical aspects it can offer. In addition, there are several test automation tools that are fully compatible with the test type and have the features to perform tasks quickly and efficiently.

3. Software development life cycle (SDLC)

It is one of the important and preferable things, if an evaluator is willing to learn software development lifecycle management skills. The entire structure of SDLC will help you understand your application development tasks and plan your test cycle accordingly. Having a solid and in-depth understanding of the SDLC cycle will also help testers to anticipate complexities in the application that can guide them in taking appropriate action beforehand. Along with this, testers must also learn other development mythologies like Kanban, Waterfall, Scrum, Lean, etc.

4. Web and Mobile Technologies

Each evaluator must know the latest technologies that are in vogue on the web and mobile devices. Therefore, they can understand the type of application, its construction and scalability and apply a suitable course of action for its testing. Evaluators should keep an eye on the latest web and mobile technologies and trends as they guide them in understanding the coding architecture and technical challenges to deliver effective QA solutions.

5. Testing tools and techniques

It is important that each evaluator is armed with the latest and different testing techniques and use of tools. The other types of tests, such as black box tests, penetration tests, security tests, system tests, unit tests, etc., help testers to work on any type of project, regardless of domain and the type of application. Apart from this, the other testing tools available in the market such as bug tracking tools, admin tools, GUI testing tools, automation tools, etc., will help testers to meet the different requirements and complexities. of the project.

6. Defect tracking and test case management tools

Tracking defects and the life cycle of defects are the key roles of any software testing phase. It is very difficult to manage defects correctly and track them in a systematic way. So the tester with extensive knowledge of bug tracking and test case management tools like QC, Bugzilla, Jira, etc., will help you to block the flaw, including admins, developers and testers.

7. Database or SQL

For the last 4 decades, SQL has been the standard programming language for database management. Since then, software systems have a large amount of data in the background. Since the data is stored in different types of databases like Oracle, MySQL, etc. on the backend, testers need to understand the query and manipulate the data. Therefore, if the testers are well versed in databases or SQL, it will be easier for them to come up with suitable solutions when this data needs to be validated. A single database or SQL queries can be found to check if the correct data is stored in the back-end database.

8. Testing skills in various browsers

Due to the demand for multiple browsers along with multiple devices and variations in different screen sizes for smartphones, the need for browser compatibility testing is more than ever.

This cross-browser testing ability allows testers to test their developed application in different browsers. This test guarantees to deliver the product without having errors or errors that could work on all platforms without problems.

9. Project management

Software testing skills are a mix of technical and professional aspects. And to manage both, it is extremely important that testers can own the project. This means that an evaluator submits the project after completing the tests. Learning project management skills will instill problem-solving ability in evaluators. In this way, the testers will be held accountable for their work to the person concerned and will also take responsibility and management of the test project from one end to the other. Project management skill also plays an important role in promoting a sense of responsibility.

In this way, the tester can improve the entire testing process and deliver quality results to the customer.

10. Basic programming knowledge

When we talk about programming, that doesn’t mean that every tester has to work as a developer. But it is really very important to understand the knowledge of the application so that it is very easy for a tester to understand its functionality and create tests accordingly. Basic programming knowledge will help testers to identify potential bugs in the application code, further reducing the chances of application errors and inefficiencies. In some ways, it is recommended that all testers learn at least some programming languages, as there is a good chance that they know the alternative solutions of the application.

11. General knowledge of operating systems

This also includes basic IT skills. And if you’re interested in learning and exploring more in your field, new operating systems are easy to learn and use. Of course, it is mandatory to learn the operating system: Windows, Linux and Mac, to know what the basic differences are between desktop operating systems, and to simply spot the difference.

On the mobile platform, it is also good to be familiar with iOS and Android. Since wearable devices are on the rise, it should sneak onto the scene: Tizen and Android Wear OS.

12. Knowledge of the domain

Having knowledge of different domains is very essential for every QA or software tester. Evaluators can get more creative with knowledge of software testing domains. Thus, it helps to increase the value of the software product. Having a good knowledge of the domain, helps each tester in an enhanced way to have a clear understanding of the testing techniques that are required by the client or that meet the requirements of the client. Being the knowledge of multiple domains for each QA also opens the door to multiple jobs as sometimes some clients require people who have domain expertise in a specific domain like Legal, Healthcare, Finance and Banking etc.

Therefore, it is important for each evaluator to balance all skills activities so that all aspects of the product are addressed.

conclusion

Regardless of educational background and years of experience, testers should always strive to learn and improve their technical software testing skills and knowledge. Whether by self-study or participating in a training program, testers should always be eager to learn more methods and processes to improve their performance on tests and keep implementing new skills and learning to stay ahead of completion.

As a prominent and valued software testing company, Resourceful Dev has experienced and trained software engineers who adhere to any and all technical skills while working on the project. Our team of experts will never fail to impress you by providing bug-free software for your organization. For more information, get in touch today.