Ways to Improve Your Software Testing Skills

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摘自：http://www.softwaretestpro.com/Item/4901/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=083110-TQA&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTERS

Ways to Improve Your Software Testing Skills

Think about when you learned how to drive...

Did you read a book, then jump in a car and know how to drive in every situation? Or did you couple your reading with conversations and hands-on lessons with a seasoned driver or driver’s education course?

Consider how prepared you would have been if your car lost control on ice-slicked roads only after reading a book or listening to someone talk about it. Would you have slid into a ditch or another vehicle, or would you have been able to keep your car safely on the road?

Think about it.

Now consider how you learn new testing skills (or anything else for that matter). Do you read a book or article? Watch a presentation? Try to listen to a trainer or teacher?

How much do you actually learn in these situations? And how much do you learn that you can readily apply hands-on quite competently?

Learning new skills takes time, effort, and practice. That old adage “practice makes perfect” is good advice. While you may not get to perfect, practice allows for experiential learning, and improvement.

Ongoing self-discovery and learning have been critical in my own skills growth, and in managing test departments. Even after mastering a technique or achieving a desired outcome, my experiences have shown there is always a better way to do something. Learning new skills is critical for being able to discover those improvements.

Gain New Skills Through Hands-On Learning

There are things that you can do to facilitate the creation of a supportive learning organization, whether as a team member or a manager. There are also things you can do on your own time to facilitate your own skills enhancement, even if your organizational environment doesn’t support it.

Paired Testing

Hands-on learning is easily done when pairing with someone. Find out if a colleague is skilled in a particular test technique or strategy you are interested in learning, and ask them to coach you in paired testing sessions. Time-box paired sessions to ensure you stay focused on achieving an agreed-upon goal. Remember to read about the technique or strategy ahead of time so your colleague doesn’t have to teach you from the ground up.

I did this in a test department when there was a need for more cross-training across technical domains, and in enhancing testing skill sets of junior team members. This approach supported the collaborative environment being developed, and increased communication and spirit of team members. People were happy to be learning together.

Practice Outside of Work

Sometimes getting out of the daily grind at work is necessary for learning and practicing new skills. There are many options for testing products outside of your day job that will allow you to enhance your skill sets (and reputation!).

Be an Alpha or Beta tester for a favorite product or in a new industry you want to learn more about. Testing is a complex task, and companies need help getting more test coverage, so there are many opportunities to learn and practice new skills on different software solutions.
Test open source products. There are more and more open software solutions being developed, and they all need to be tested. Do a search online to find something that interests you and start practicing new techniques.
Take part in a Weekend Testing event. Weekend Testing is a platform. for software testers to collaborate, test various kinds of software, foster hope, gain peer recognition, and be of value to the community. Participants spend a couple hours on the weekend testing with a bunch of other people with a specific mission, then discuss their experiences, challenges, bugs, and questions. Chapters have opened up around the world, so look for one near you to get started.
Join a testing community for paid testing engagements with real companies. Some may not pay well, but they will provide you the opportunity to work with different products, try some new test techniques, and hopefully improve your industry reputation. A few which come to mind: uTest, Software Testing Club’s - The Crowd, and Mob4Hire.

In-House Testing Workshops

You don’t have to pay a trainer to have a testing workshop. Instead, set up your own workshop at work for a couple of hours, with the focus on practicing different test techniques. Think of this as a cross between Paired Testing and Weekend Testing. Pick a test technique, select the software, get participants in a room with computers, and let loose. Be sure to spend at least 30 percent of the workshop time debriefing and sharing insights, to help participants bring their learning experience into their daily work.

One workshop I did was two hours long, involved 16 testers, and used two small software applications. Testers paired up to practice writing good exploratory testing charters, then did exploratory testing while practicing writing good exploratory session notes. During the latter portion of the workshop, participants worked together to discover what made a charter ‘good’, what made session notes ‘good’, and how to improve their exploratory testing approaches.

Learning-By-Doing Training Courses

There are a number of training opportunities available that promote learning-by-doing, if you know where to look for them.

The STP Conference has introduced a new Hands-On Testing Techniques Lab where you can challenge yourself with new test techniques in a safe environment with instructors and other students. This is a rare opportunity at any conference, so take advantage of it (and bring your laptop!). EuroStar 2010 also has a Test Lab component if you are able to attend a conference across the Atlantic.
The Association for Software Testing offers a Black Box Software Testing series of online courses that are all learning-by-doing. The first course, BBST Foundations is free for AST Members, with subsequent courses being a small fee to cover administration costs. Each course spans a month, is very interactive, promotes collaboration with students across the world, and requires you to not only think critically but also write persuasively.
There are a number of coaches, consultants, and trainers who provide workshops and training courses that are predominantly hands-on learning new testing skills. Do a search online, or contact me directly to connect you with the folks

I recommend: Improve Your Software Testing Skills

How are you learning new software testing skills? I hope that you will consider incorporating hands-on, learning-by-doing, approaches if you aren't already.

While learning and practicing new skills takes time and effort, the benefits far outweigh the costs as you expand your skill set, improve the quality of your work, reduce time-to-delivery in your tasks, and improve your reputation.

Gaining the respect of stakeholders and improving the value testing provides to companies requires skills growth in people and in teams. This can be achieved through ongoing opportunities to learn and practice new skills, both within an organization and via the initiative of the individuals involved.

Take ownership of your personal learning!

Selena Delesie, Delesie Solutions Consulting Software Tester and Agile Coach, has more than 10 years of experience testing, managing and coaching software testing and agile practices for leading-edge technologies. Selena will be facilitating the Explore Beyond the Obvious, Hands-on Testing Techniques lab at theSoftware Test Professionals Conference & Expo 2010, October 19-21 in Las Vegas.

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