Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

I've been with a company for eight years, and in those eight years I've met a lot of testers who are just starting out, some very senior and good testers, and a lot of testers who can't grow. Many testers have strong technical background and good operation ability, but it is difficult to find problems. Why?

Let's talk about how to perform tests well and what skills need to be developed.

Work attitude and technical background do not say it, do any work must have a good work attitude, if only want to muddle along, no matter what work will not have progress. Technical background is also required, of course, testers can not be as in-depth as developers, for example, when developing certain protocols, developers often have to recite rfc, testers do not need to be so skilled.

What other skills do testers need to develop?

I have met quite a few testers who are eager for the case to pass. If a case is blocked or fails for some reason, they both express frustration or laugh at the developer, thinking it's causing trouble for their work. If a case passes smoothly, they will be overjoyed and feel that they have finally completed a job and can be accountable to the manager. But senior testers are not like that. What they crave is not to pass a case, but to help developers find more problems through this case. When problems arise, they are excited, not depressed. They'll get to the bottom of why this problem exists, how to fix it, how to improve the test plan to find more similar problems, and so on. When a tester is eager to finish a case, he often subconsciously ignores many problems that he should have found. As long as the operation continues and big mistakes do not occur, they will not actively look for errors. I remember a foreigner in a certain department who just came and reported a lot of bugs. We found that he reported a lot of bugs, we have encountered before, but because it does not affect the testing process, do not think this is a bug, they are ignored. In fact, some bugs are very serious problems, such as the CPU of the system is suddenly 100% occupied for a long time, memory leaks, status display and real situation do not match, and so on. To the user, it will become possible for the user to complain about the product. That foreigner had also instructed me to do platform integration testing. Under his guidance, I reported more than ten bugs in two weeks. One thing I remember very clearly was that the Ethernet interface order of the expansion card was reversed from that on the host. The network port on the host increases from left to right, while the expansion card has 1 on the right and 2 on the left, and it is not marked on the machine. This can easily lead to configuration errors. When I first encountered this problem, I thought it was my own problem. Why didn't I pair up? But foreigners say, you are also a user, you are not paired, users will not be paired. When it comes to users, this is definitely a bug. A lot of people hate integration testing because the software isn't ready and the test case doesn't run very well. When I found so many bugs, in fact, none of the real cases ran. I've been stuck with installation and basic configuration. But I was not discouraged at all, but found a lot of problems in the process, and I also had a lot of deep understanding of the most basic system startup and installation. A tester can grow up quickly, not because he can successfully complete the test task, but because he has to encounter many problems, seek growth in the problems, and find answers in the problems. One of the most important qualities of testers is that they welcome questions and like to look for them rather than complete them.

I have found that experienced testers have good testing habits. I used to think of this as the most valuable asset I learned, but when I tried to pass it on to other testers, they sneered. One tester documented all the operations beforehand and typed the commands in copy-paste. This allows the testing process to be repeated completely without manual input errors, making the testing process reproducible. As he enters commands, he turns on the real-time log display and alarm display, and uses tools to record all command output. Every time he typed a command, he would see if there would be a problem. If there is a problem, he immediately analyzes the cause of the problem and considers whether it is a bug. Many testers only think about checking and recording errors when there is a big problem, such as when the call doesn't work, or the machine restarts, or the entire test results don't match expectations. When I first started taking tests, it was like that. This often makes it impossible to determine when an error occurs and what operation it occurs because it has to be repeated. If it wasn't something that had to happen, it couldn't be explained. Many testers wrote one set on the test plan and did another set by themselves, because the test plan and execution were not done at the same time. Some problems were found during execution, and the test steps were adjusted, but the plan was not updated in time, and the operation steps were not recorded. When you find a problem, you have to re-remember the steps you have done, which is a waste of time. If no problems occur, the test steps are not recorded at all. These problems seem simple, but the impact is not small. Therefore, in the usual testing work, consciously cultivate their own good testing habits, is a very important quality to become an excellent tester.

Veteran testers always think of themselves as users and like to comment on how the software makes users feel, which is something many testers dare not do. In test reports, we focus only on how many bugs were reported and whether they were fixed, not on what the testers said about the software. These reviews are very important to developers. Testers often sense where the weakest points of the system are. For example, the system memory protection mechanism error causes the system to crash frequently, the system has too many layers, the interaction is very problematic, the system has bottlenecks, the performance does not go, and so on. The software staff has only individual bugs, but no overall feeling, and this feedback is very important for system architects and developers to improve the system and improve the quality of the product. Good testers should always stand in the user's perspective and express their feelings about the software and the product.

Senior testers like to pair-work with software personnel, because software personnel know the architecture of the software better, and they can quickly locate the problems that arise. From the description of the development process by software personnel, they can also judge in advance where bugs are easy to appear. As users of software, testers can quickly feedback their feelings about the use of software. Giving developers an understanding of testing can also help developers better understand user needs and gain insight into how software is used. Some developers have never been in a lab and never used software they wrote, which is very, very wrong. Good testers make friends with developers and work with them. Agile advocates say testers should be dispersed among developers and work closely with them. I don't agree with that either. Communication between testers is more important, and testers cannot be constrained by software implementations. There's a degree to it. Break up testers. Testers are often at a disadvantage in the team. They can easily become appendages of developers. They can test what developers want them to test. What developers think is a problem is a problem. Testers have a hard time growing up. So, working with software people is when testers have enough testing experience, and it should be on an equal footing.

Performing tests is a bit like mine detection. It requires a step-by-step approach, proceeding cautiously. The goal is to find thunder, not to pass it.

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