Since the beginning of this world, it has undergone tremendous changes. Due to natural failures and mistakes, such as catastrophes, we can evolve. Well, mistakes make us who we are and provide us a lesson for a better future ahead. These mistakes keep us evolving and making progress in everything we do, especially in the technical field. As the world is experiencing a change on a daily basis, technology is embraced by almost every single sector, and if the technology is there, then some defects or errors can also be there. If the errors have not resolved, it might be possible that it will also have a negative/destructive impact on the success of many sectors. The fact is that no matter what time limit we have, we humans are imperfect creatures and if software products are being developed by we humans then they may surely have some errors and omissions involved.
One of the biggest responsibilities in the software industry is that of a tester, who is being responsible for testing complex software products. These are software testers who make the software product free of bugs and errors and make it user friendly via ensuring the best quality of a product. Testing serves as a bridge between users and developers of the software, that’s why maintaining and sustaining an exceptional testing process is necessary for an organization. That’s the reason you must spend ample time while outsourcing an independent software testing company for your software’s testing requirements.
Let us draw your attention to some of the major goals of a software tester;
Digging out bugs – The ultimate objective of every tester is to identify the bugs and then digging them out from the grassroots. But it must not be only limited to finding the bugs instead the objective must be extended up to effective reporting, define severity and classification, and communicate them to developers.
And here’s a pro tip for you; ‘If you ever feel that you’ve identified all the bugs and errors even then your testing journey must not be stopped there. Look at the minor things may be some bugs left untested’.
Prevention from bugs – It happens mostly that an error which is being rectified by the test in one part of an application, may, later on, occur in another part of the application because the same developer has developed the error, or the logic used is the same, Or the system intends to operate similarly. Therefore, it is recommended to look out for bugs in minor places even where errors are least expected because they might be hurtful in the future.
To assess the quality of the product – No doubt finding bugs is essential but a tester is just not limited to it. He/she is responsible for assessing the quality of the product. Most of the time, upper management is not concerned with the number of bugs or errors a tester is successful to find instead they just want to be sure that whether a software product or application is ready to deliver or go live in the market.
Clear communication – The objective of a tester is to ensure clear communication between him and developers. They must be able to remove the communication gaps between two parties and if codes or tests are not written appropriately then they must ask developers or authors to make it accordingly via providing constructive feedback.
Must not lose passion at any stage – There may come times in every individual’s career especially in testing when a tester starts feeling worthless and gets bored from his/her role. Reasons can be the extensive criticism from other teams and upper management, no encouragement on good work. But the tester’s goal is to have high hopes and must not lose passion at any stage in life.
Providing suggestions – Based on experience, testers must be ready to provide suggestions at any time to make the product more efficient, friendly, and ready for the entire business.
But this requires testers to explore other products, to understand why some applications are famous, to have an understanding of why some products fail, need to analyze market trends and the needs of your users.
Final Thoughts
In cricket the individual who can bat good, nicely balls, have good fielding skills and wicket keeping as well, we generally call that person as an all-rounder (the person who is good in most of the tasks). Likewise, in testing, testers are also playing a role of all-rounders because a project being delivered is heavily dependent on the tester’s experience, communication, confidence, skills, and vision.
Thus the role of the tester is not just to identify the bugs instead to have an understanding of the bigger picture in terms of the quality of the product.
