How to become a Junior Tester in less than 3 months? (Part 2 — ISTQB, 7 rules of testing)
So in my last post i written Part 1, about starting in IT as tester, which included table of contents and where to start learning. Today im gonna say some about learning the first thing, which includes the most theory — ISTQB.
So what is ISTQB?
It’s International Software Testing Qualifications Board — a certification board for making software. It’s the most important organisation that is granting official testers’ qualifications, but You can work without it’s certificate. All You have to do is to learn the basics and theory from ISTQB glossary.
- Where to start
Depending of the country, there are many local brokers, Who are providing exams and/or help with passing the tests. In Poland where i am from, it’s SJSI.
So first step is to look in google, who is providing such services in Your country, and then you have to look for glossary on their site. The glossary will look like this https://glossary.istqb.org/en/search.
Then all you have to do is to.. well, learn it. I know it’s easy to say, because glosary have little more than three hundred pages, but there are few things that are more significant than others, and i will give you few examples.
2. 7 key ISTQB testing principles
The magnificent seven, the most important things in testing. All testers should follow these advices while working. These rules are:
- Testing reveals defects but cannot prove their absence
The more You test, the greater the chance of finding bugs or mistakes, which later can be fix by the developer. However, even if You will test a long time and find greater bugs or vast majority, You never gonna find ALL of them. Many people call this process negative by design, because you will always find something more and never fullfilly test something to keep it free from bugs.
- Thorough testing is impossible
Very similiar to last rule, but this one stands it clearly: You can’t find all of the bugs. But You can and should try, and learning new testing techniques, prioritizing the tests and analyzing the amount of risk of bugs that can be found in the code.
- Early testing saves time and money
Rule is simple: The earlier You start to finding bugs in code, the less money the company will have to spend on fixing it. For example: You have to test searchbar — the database is not yet connected to it, but the infotips are already there. So if You test it on this level, and You notice that the infotips are misleading, and developer fix it before database will be connected, cost will be less than if You would find it later, when almost all searchbar function will be done.
- Malfunction snowball efect
Usually, the most of the defects is cumulated in 20% of the parts of the code. So the simpliest way to clear this rule is: Prioritize Your tests.
- Pesticide paradox
If You gonna be testing the same application the same way over and over, then it will finally lead be not effective — You will not find more bugs, if You will be doing the same thing over and over, that’s why You have to switch perspective. Not including the automatic tests, where We are doing the same thing couple hundred times.
- Testing depends on context
You can test in variety of ways and its logical — You won’t be testing same way the store web application, and a submarine control panel. You have to be elastic as tester, which will come in time.
- Convinving aboout lack of errors is mistake
Other rules suggested it before — You can never be sure, that You tested all and there is no bugs anymore. But as Joseph Juran, Who is considered as the “father of software testing” proved in his book in the last century — tests are inevitable, if You want to have at least decent product.
And that’s all 7 rules of testing. That’s a good start, I am saying you good luck with ISTQB glossary — don’t be discouraged by amount of pages, or how it’s written — the begginnings are hard.
Have a nice day,
cheers.
