To find fault is called Criticism,
To do so officially is called Testing,
To earn a stack of cool dough for fault finding - is the awesome job of a Tester!
If you are like: How cool is that! Tell me how to join the club of ‘Fortunate Fault Finders’!
Well then you are in luck! Browse through this blog to see if you have what it takes to make a fortune from fault finding!
To begin with, let’s briefly understand what software testing is, and why Mobile App Testing is so important, which in turn will explain why it is now a front-liner in the software career race!
Simply put, Software Testing must ensure that the software product functions as it should and meets customers’ expectations anywhere, anytime, all the time! Today the dominant channel of communication is the smartphone which is used for everything from routine communication to banking, insurance, investment, shopping, education, entertainment and the list goes on.
Statistics show that 50% of the global population uses smartphones and 88% of mobile time is spent on apps! The numbers are mind blowing! Add to this the fact that Google Play Store gives you a choice of a phenomenal 3.48 million apps and the Apple App Store offers 2.22 million apps and it becomes amply clear that to stay relevant, businesses have to ensure that their apps grab customer attention and provide smooth, seamless, superior user experience. This is where Mobile App Testing gains immense importance, because downtime is a nightmare for any business as it brings with it embarrassment, costs and loss of customers!
Is it any wonder then that Mobile App Testers are in high demand but short supply?
Which brings us to the crucial question: Who can become a Mobile App Tester?
To answer this question, we’ve put together some quick pointers to let you know what it takes to become a good Mobile App Tester.
Read further if you are itching to get into this very promising and coveted career!
1. Human Skill Sets
Let’s begin by posing some important questions that will help you identify whether you have the inborn traits to a good Mobile App Tester.
- Are you naturally curious, wanting to get to the bottom of things?
- Do you understand the software development process well enough? We’ll expand on this point later.
- Do you have a good business approach to be able to think from the client’s viewpoint? Remember, clients want quick and high ROI from the apps!
- How good are your judgments? I mean not of people but of problems! Your judging capabilities should hit the bull’s eye and not be way off mark!
- How good are you at communicating? We’ll dedicate a separate header to dwell on this.
- Are you a lone wolf or a team player? More coming up later.
- How are you writing skills? Remember you’ll have to document your processes meticulously especially when doing manual testing.
- How good are your consultancy skills?
We’ll expand on some of these points in the headers that follow.
2. Qualifications
Manual Mobile App Testing requires experienced Software Engineers with limited level of programming knowledge and coding skills. For Automated Mobile App Testing, programming knowledge is required at an intermediate level only. However, if you are not exactly qualifying, don’t be disheartened! With newer Automated Testing Platforms, the need to use coding or programming is also eliminated sometimes, especially if you are testing on a fully automated, codeless platform like BOTm.
3. An Understanding of Software
As a Mobile App Tester, a good grasp on software and how it works, will go a long way in making your job easy. After all the bread and butter of your job as a tester comes from the foundation of software development! Having some knowledge of software development is therefore an added advantage. Remember you’ll be in constant touch with software developers to tell them where they are wrong! Speaking their language will make you sound knowledgeable and make people sit up and listen when you speak!
4. Problem-Solving Skills
Remember as a Mobile App Tester you will be paid handsomely for finding faults! Hence you need to identify every error in the software to ensure that the app is perfect when it gets to the market. You’ll need an eye for detail, a thirst for uncovering every glitch, analytical skills to be able to see beyond the obvious and an ability to identify interconnection between errors. Your problem solving skills will also come in handy in correctly prioritizing the error list, so that the most disruptive bugs are eliminated first. If you are fortunate to test in an automated environment like BOTm, your job will be a lot easier. Of course your job is only to identify the problems in the software – the fixing will be done by the developer- yet problem solving skills will still be required.
5. Discipline
Good discipline is essential for a Mobile App Tester. If you are someone who gets easily bored, then this job is not for you – especially when it involves manual testing! Doing the same testing over and over again every time a code is added or changed and furthermore repeating the tests on a variety of hardware and software combinations can get very repetitive and boring. It’s extremely easy to lose focus when you are bored and tired. You may just blink and miss a bug and that’s a complete no-no in Mobile App Testing. This is more so when you are testing a large scale app. Identifying bugs can be extremely time consuming and hence this job necessitates great personal discipline.
The good news is that technology once again comes to your aid through the great boon of automated testing. Automated platforms like BOTm do the repetitive jobs for you with accuracy, sparing you of the boredom!
6. Effective Communication Skills
Your communication skills need to be really good. After all if you are good at identifying the problem but cannot express it in its totality, it’s going to defeat the purpose of testing. As a Mobile App Tester, you will be regularly interacting with developers, clients, other stakeholders and even end users (in User Acceptance Testing). Hence your ability to communicate efficiently and effectively with this diverse group is very important.
7. Team Spirit
Good team spirit is another very important trait for a Mobile App Tester – more so in an automated testing environment. A good team spirit requires collaboration and co-operation rather than competition and one-upmanship. A Mobile App Tester cannot afford to be at logger heads with his colleagues from Development and Operation teams. Yes the job involves fault finding, but the attitude should be that of wanting to make a positive impact for the benefit of all, rather than finger pointing. You have to also have confidence to ask the right questions that will spur discussions in the right direction and bring to the table the benefit of collective thoughts and ideas.
So if you have the skill sets and traits mentioned above, then here’s an awesome career option waiting for you! This is your chance to make some cool dough and the good run is going to continue well into the next century, because the digital mobile revolution is only going to grow from strength to strength. The demand-supply scales are highly tilted in the tester’s favor!
What’s even more rewarding is the pride and sense of accomplishment you get, when your app serves millions of users who will enjoy superior viewing experience, because you caught those nasty bugs well on time!
This is an awesome place to be. It began with Manual Testing but seeing the great potential in this field, innovators focused their energies on putting their money where their mouth is! ..... And so was born the era of Automated Testing which not just makes the Mobile App Tester’s job easy, but also rakes in a lot of moolah for all the stakeholders!
If you want to experience first-hand, the ease of Automated Mobile App Testing, you are in luck! Get your Free Trial of automated testing by clicking on the link or visit us at www.botmtesting.com. We promise to transport you into the new era of error-free mobile app testing across spectrum! Good luck with your career!
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