Software Tester Skills

There are three categories of skill that needed for any software tester.

• Testing skill
• Domain knowledge
• Technical expertise.

Any tester should have the basic testing skills like Manual testing and Automation testing. Tester having the common sense can even find most of the obvious bugs in the software.While testing any application tester should think like a end-user.

When tester know the functional domain better , then he/she can better write and execute more test cases and can effectively simulate the end user actions which is distinctly a big advantage.

Here is the big list of the required testing knowledge:

• Testing skill
• Bug hunting skill
• Technical skill
• Domain knowledge
• Communication skill
• Automation skill
• Some programming skill
• Quick grasping
• Ability to Work under pressure …

It is very difficult to have all the above skills.But you can stick to one skill or can be expert in one skill and have good understanding of other skills or balanced approach of all the skills. This is the competitive market and you should definitely take advantage of it. Make sure to be expert in at least one domain before making any move.

If tester don’t have enough domain knowledge of that project they need to quickly grasp as many concepts .Try to understand the product as if you are the customer and what customer will do with application. Visit the customer site if possible know how they work with the product, Read online resources about the domain you want to test the application, participate in events addressing on such domain, meet the domain experts. Or either company will provide all this in-house training before assigning any domain specific task to testers.