Qualities of A Superb Mobile App Tester

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Morris White
8 years ago
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1 15 Qualities of A Superb Mobile App Tester

2 introduction Getting the right expertise is the key to success in any business and that s no less relevant when it comes to mobile app testing and test automation. It is important to remember that at the end of the day, used tools and technology are just enablers. And those will work for you as well as your engineers and QA folks can utilize those in their daily work. Even though mobile app testing can be tedious, it s vital to the success of an app. To make testing effort successful, especially the larger companies typically cherry pick the competent testers with the skills and traits that are must-to-have in their testing team. In the long run, companies that rely on the best resources in their testing save time fixing those nasty bugs in their apps, games and services, but more importantly, save money. And superb resources save you even more! SO, WHAT ARE THE TOP CRITERIA FOR THE SUPERB QA FOLKS THAT YOU SHOULD CONSIDER TO HAVE IN YOUR CORNER? Here they go!

3 passion for 5 stars only! Do not compromise on this. Without passion to get your mobile app super robust and work as expected, by everyone - developers, testers and users - you are just delivering average. In some cases it may be enough but in today s competitive application landscape average doesn t score anymore. A superb test automation individual really cares about the quality of the application and encourages others to do the same. In this test automation for your mobile apps/ games is crucial - however, there are important things to consider when and what should be automated. A superb test automation individual is truly capable to clearly separate what should be automated and what not.

4 Tech-Savvy Approach It is popular to have testing teams staffed with people who have little or no programming skills/knowledge at all. Actually, there is a good reason for that nowadays: Although many of testing methods and frameworks are programming-intensive, there are plenty of options with different automatic exercisers, recorder-and-playback approaches and even with test automation frameworks that only require common sense. Testing for mobile app should not be driven by tools and technology - those are just enablers - but people should drive the test automation.

5 Thinks big The ideal tester has deep insights into how users will use the application - starting from download to full use of it. By thinking big, QA folks focus on use cases, usability and user experience - managing all of this while building their test cases/scripts for mobile app. Naturally, this can be a very challenging task but capability think big makes superb QA tester stand out from the masses!

6 Thinks Small A superb test automation individual finds out all little things that others (including end-users) miss or ignore. Testers see symptoms, not bugs, and both of those can range from harmless to catastrophic. It is only after the symptom is fully explained (e.g. app thoroughly debugged) that you have the right to say if the bug was severe or minor. A superb tester is able to focus on the most fine-grained details of use, usability and user experience, and find out how symptom shows up. This is important information for app developers in order to fix it.

7 Accountability Superb testers notice all small and big things, and use those to understand and communicate issues that will cause those failures. However, accountability of test automation individual is more important; they set appropriate expectations for their testing effort and take accountability for its success. A superb test automation individual also holds others - e.g. programmers - to deliver their accountabilities.

8 Able to Focus The testers world is more chaotic than the programmers. Superb test automation individuals recognize that 90% of testing doesn t provide any (bad) results - and only that 10% delivers results that need all their attention. Some testers give up after seeing 90% tests passing and some testers are able to focus on that problematic tithe. Also, it is very important to be able to focus on testing while the development is ongoing. If testing starts once application is ready, lots of time will be wasted and end-users needs to wait for your app.

9 Able to Deliver Testers always have many irons in the fire. Testers have to be flexible and be able to drop things when blocked and move on to another thing that s not blocked. A compulsive need to achieve closure is not a bad attribute in a programmer - but it is a crucial attribute in a tester! APP

10 Diplomatic to Non-Compromise Typically, desirable attribute in a person is an ability to do compromises and prioritizations - at least wisely. However, mobile app quality is not a subject to be compromised - and test automation folks should understand it. There will be always need to prioritize and balance against internal issues, strategic testing goals and tactical imperatives. But compromising on quality of your app will end up disappointing app s users and that can cumulate as catastrophic consequences. QUALITY 100%

11 Intellectually Skeptical Superb test automation individuals are never hostile. Programmers can be effective even they are hostile and anti-social - but this doesn t work for testers. Test automation folks need to be sensitive when bringing up the issues that were found in app - the programmer s masterpiece. Diplomacy, tact, and a ready smile - all work to the independent tester s advantage.???

12 Communication While those average testers question everything arbitrarily, superb counterparts know how to ask the right questions and provide the right comments at the right time. Regardless of verbal or written communication, superb testers are good at highlighting important details after testing activities and truly gearing their efforts to the final success. All reports that superb tester produces explains the situation perfectly.

13 Team Player T he importance of a well-collaborated business cannot be emphasized enough. A superb test automation individual not only delivers 5-star performance, but also works closely with other team members or in other sectors - sharing the project, double-checking others work, contributing to the project, etc. They are also ready to assist someone else who is temporarily off the project.

14 Responsive Why do testers need to be responsive? Today s mobile app testing is all about speed - Fast iteration means time-to-market and revenue generation. Superb test automation individuals are very conscious of errors and are able to jump into bug fixing immediately. To fully achieve your agile development and testing scheme, responsiveness is another very critical trait that superb test automation folks have. BUG

15 Skill Competencies Although superb test automation testers do not necessarily have much knowledge about programming, they are very familiar with different testing methodologies, data-driven testing and keyword-driven testing, to name a few. With various testing skills available, superb testers will not be restricted to the specific situations.

16 Fast Learner Suppose you have a superb mobile app test automation tool in place, you want the whole team to quickly learn how to use it and make full use of it. But the truth is, maybe only superb testers meet your expectations. They learn things faster, produce better results and bring more value to your team.

17 Test Automation Hungry! Humans are not infallible. We re not and never will be as accurate and precise as machines and automatic tests. Even the most conscientious tester will do basic mistakes during manual testing. Automated tests perform the same steps precisely every time they are executed and never forget any details. Also, (nearly) everyone hates repetitive work. Many of software testing tasks can be laborious and time consuming to do manually. In addition, a manual approach is not the most effective in hunting for defects. test automation

18 Conclusion The fact, however, is that a superb test automation individual understands the need to automate all the trivial things (90%) and focus on the most tough ones (10%) by either automating some of those or manually testing certain things that do not make sense to automate. When it comes to finding the perfect testers, every QA team is looking for something different - passionate to testing, hands-on test automation knowledge, goal and detail oriented, etc. The purpose of our ebook is to help you align a list of expertise with your screening system in order to scout and filter the best one among all of the candidates. To find the ACE tester, it is always better to show the candidate that your company practices what you preach.

19 do you already have your superb testers on your team? Equip them with a superb test automation weapon to fight against bugs and create a pleasant user experience for your customers Check out how Testdroid makes your team even more superb

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