Tag Archives: software testing training

A Winning Combination: Mastering Manual Testing and Test Automation for a Successful Career as a Software Test Analyst

Introduction:

In today’s competitive job market, aspiring software test analysts need to equip themselves with a diverse skill set that includes both manual testing and test automation. The ability to seamlessly transition between these two realms not only enhances your marketability but also opens doors to a wider range of opportunities. In this blog, we will explore the importance of mastering both manual testing and test automation, along with essential tools such as Selenium, Cucumber, Jenkins, GitHub, Jira, and API testing. By acquiring the right software testing skills, you can boost your CV and position yourself at the top of the candidate pile and securing a rewarding career as a software test analyst.

1. The Power of Manual Testing:

Manual testing forms the foundation of software testing and is essential for understanding the intricacies of the testing process. Mastering manual testing allows you to gain valuable insights into the software and its functionalities. It enables you to design effective test cases, execute them meticulously, and identify defects through hands-on exploration. Manual testing helps you develop a deep understanding of the software’s behaviour and user experience, allowing you to provide meaningful feedback and contribute to the overall improvement of the product. Essential knowledge areas here include:

•     Analysing various forms of requirement documents

•    Producing Test Plans.

•    Identifying Test Data required.

•    Determining Test Environment.

•    Understanding the context of the test effort.

2. Embracing Test Automation with Selenium:

Software Testing

Test automation has become an integral part of the software testing landscape, and proficiency with automation tools is highly valued in the industry. Selenium, a widely-used open-source automation framework, empowers testers to automate web service testing. Learning Selenium enables you to write efficient and reliable test scripts, execute test cases across different browsers and platforms, and identify defects quickly. By incorporating Selenium into your skill set, you showcase your ability to expedite testing processes and ensure robust software quality.

Essential knowledge areas here include:

  • Learning how to set up WebDriver, launch browsers, navigate web pages, locate and interact with elements
  • Effectively locating elements on a web page is crucial in test automation
  • Handling Alerts, Frames, and Windows
  • Page Object Model (POM) and the Page Factory pattern
  • Using reporting libraries and frameworks compatible with Selenium, such as TestNG, JUnit

3. Leveraging Agile Tools for Collaboration:

In today’s Agile-driven environment, collaboration and efficient project management are key. Familiarity with tools such as Cucumber, Jenkins, GitHub, and Jira can significantly enhance your employability as a software test analyst. Cucumber facilitates behaviour-driven development (BDD) by providing a common language for communication between stakeholders. Jenkins enables continuous integration and automation of test execution. GitHub offers version control for collaborative development, while Jira helps manage Agile projects effectively. Proficiency in these tools demonstrates your adaptability to Agile methodologies and enhances your ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.

4. Emphasizing API Testing:

API Testing

API (Application Programming Interface) testing plays a crucial role in validating the integration and communication between software components. Understanding API testing and becoming familiar with tools like Postman and SOAPUI expands your testing capabilities beyond the user interface. Proficiency in API testing allows you to validate data transfers, test API endpoints, and verify proper functioning of backend systems. This skill set positions you as a well-rounded software test analyst capable of handling diverse testing scenarios.

5. Giving Your CV the Competitive Edge:

CV with a competitive edge

By acquiring a combination of manual testing, test automation, Agile tools, and API testing skills, you provide your CV with the competitive edge it needs to stand out. Employers value candidates who possess a holistic understanding of the testing process, as well as the ability to adapt to evolving industry trends. Highlighting your proficiency in these areas demonstrates your versatility, adaptability, and commitment to professional growth. Showcase your hands-on experience, certifications, and successful project outcomes to give potential employers confidence in your abilities as a software test analyst.

Conclusion:

To secure a software test analyst job and position yourself at the top of the candidate pile, it’s essential to master both manual testing and test automation. Additionally, gaining proficiency in tools like Selenium, Cucumber, Jenkins, GitHub, Jira, and API testing adds significant value to your skill set. By learning the right combination of manual and automated testing techniques, along with familiarity with Agile tools,

New Software Testing and Business Analyst Training with Work Experience and Mentoring Programme launched

Are you an aspiring Business Analyst or Software Tester? Have you been looking around for a course that will not only teach you the basics but give you the practical project level knowledge? Fantastic. you are in the right place and we can help you towards landing that dream job.

Business Analysis and Quality Assurance online work experience and mentoring

The truth is that the more live project experience you have then the better prepared you will be when it comes to facing tough questions at your Business Analyst or Software Test Analyst interview.
Especially if they are scenario-based and set up to see what approach you will take and whether your current skillset will add value.
Furthermore, after successfully bagging the job the next problem is knowing exactly what to do for each task you are saddled with. This is very important if you want to keep the job after spending so much time in preparation for it.

On top of the 2 weekend training we have now launched a 4 week work experience and mentoring project to give you that valuable experience you need.

Why is this aimed at Business Analysts and Software Testers?

We strongly believe in the “Three Amigos” concept. This involves a business analyst, a software tester and a developer all coming together and reviewing anything that has been created for the project. As a group they ask any questions and define a clear view of what is being developed.

This type of group is best formed at the very beginning of the development process. They will oversee and have input from the initial planning stages all the way through to release. They are usually the group that does demo acceptance or actively organizes and directs the workflow. The main focus is for the team to show that they understand what they need to do. And they do this through questions, discussions of concrete examples, and proposed solutions. All this helps to mitigate issues later on in the development cycle

When working in this fashion there is huge scope for team members to develop  a wide range of skills (including Agile, User stories, Project backlog, backlog grooming, Test Plan, Test cases, Test reports, Defect management, Change management, etc)

To participate in our live projects aspiring Business Analysts need to be able to:

  • Create a Requirements Catalogue using MS Excel
    Cleanse data, create reports/data visualisation using MS Excel
  • Write User Stories with acceptance criteria
  • Understand the different Ceremonies involved in Scrum (Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective)
  • Write User Stories with acceptance criteria for an agile project
  • Understand how to use JIRA to document requirements and assist Product Owner with Backlog grooming.
  • Understand  how to use Confluence to annotate your tasks and communicate with team
  • Create Swim Lanes & Pool Diagrams using MS Visio or any other diagramming software
  • Create Flow Charts using MS Visio or any other diagramming software
  • Create As is & To be Gap Analysis using MS Visio or any other diagramming software
  • Create Wireframes using MS Visio or any other diagramming software

To participate in our live projects aspiring Software Test Analysts need to be able to:

  • Analyse requirements documentation
  • Analyse and comprehend User Stories
  • Understand acceptance criteria
  • Verify test data and environments for use during testing.
  • Create test plans
  • Create test scenarios
  • Create test steps using MS Excel
  • Create test scripts using MS Excel
  • Perform Front-end and back-end testing of website applications
  • File bug tickets based on the outcome of QA test cycles in JIRA
  • Be able to communicate with team via Confluence
  • Create comprehensive QA reports

The main business analysis essentials training and software testing essentials training program is quite wide and generic. It touches almost every area that a Business Analyst or Software Tester should be familiar with (and could be involved with from project to project).  The live Project focuses on delivering a solution for a particular  problem and as such it is narrower in scope of the BA and QA techniques used.
That being said we still give refreshers in all of the above “essentials” on the mentoring program but it is ideal if the students really understand fully the how to, why, where and when to use certain techniques.

The project
The next project on the cards for our Business Analyst’s and Software Testers will involve enhancements to an existing web portal. The project will be run in an agile mode and will be lead by a team of experienced Senior Business Analysts and Test Managers.
As you know for software products already developed, there is still a need to maintain and update it to fulfil the changing needs and demands of the users. As such good quality long-term support that can allow the effective implementation of any changes is required. The Project team will be expected to map as-is, to-be, analyse current requirements/change requests, hold story-sizing meetings, propose enhancements for client to review, create to-be flow charts , interpret, manage and test change requests accordingly.

June -September 2021 Software Testing work experience group
October – December 2021 Business Analysis work experience WhatsApp group

We are now inviting aspiring Business Analysts and Software Testers to join the project and get a feel for working on a  live application with various modules being built.

We are now taking registrations from aspiring Business Analysts and Software Test Analysts for the next programme.


This is set to commence from April 2022.
If you want to be part of this exciting team please sign up on our dedicated IT professional training website: careertesters.com before January March 19th 2022.

Remember, there is no need to visit our training centre to participate as everything is done online via Zoom, Google Meet, email and WhatsApp groups. As long as you have access to the internet, time available in the evenings to attend meetings then you will be just fine.

For more details of what our work experience and mentoring program involves please visit  our dedicated web page for this here:
http://www.careertesters.com/work-experience-mentoring.html

if you don’t have the required knowledge as detailed above and want to train as a business analyst see details of our standard business analysis training here.
if you don’t have the required knowledge and want to train as a software test analyst see details of our standard software testing training here.

Call us on 0208 443 2888 if you want to have a 1-2-1 conversation about any of this before joining.