Do Testers Need Programming Skills ?

Do Testers Need Programming Skills ? A Good Tester Friend View.
Many freshers (especially people with Computer Science background) does not take up the first job as QA engineer and the reason they give is that many organizations give preference to people with development skills even while hiring people for testing positions. This raises the question does the testers need to be coders ? Some blogs report that organization like Microsoft hire the coders for test positions because they want to automate everything and eliminate manual testing. Automation is just one part of testing. But testers who understand programming and CS concepts have better analysis skills for testing. Testers with development skills can find the bugs earlier in development cycle and also find the cause for the bug. This also helps them in finding other places in code where there can be similar errors. I, personally feel that people with programming skills always makes better testers. Does this mean all the testers without programming knowledge be fired ?- of course not. Its always an option to have creative people as testers than bad programmers. An organization cannot have all the testers to have programming knowledge as well, with industry facing shortage of quality programmers. Microsoft seems to have found a way out of this by creating two different job profiles SDET and STE. SDET needs to have good programming skills as they are used for automation and debugging. But even this did'nt seem to have solved the problem completely. Can read more about SDET Vs STE here.

SOA- Service Oriented Architecture

software vendors have been creating development and infrastructure products for the latest IT architecture style - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Recognizing the immense value SOA can bring to IT, companies like BEA, IBM, and Microsoft have delivered products to help customers design and build SOA-based applications. These vendor-driven initiatives are beginning to sprout actual customer-developed applications that are built on the promise of SOA, such as better flexibility, agility and reuse.
A challenge facing many organizations is how to quickly and effectively react to frequent changes in business requirements, whilst improving productivity and reducing costs. To achieve this, you need a flexible infrastructure that can meet the demands of a changing marketplace and seize emerging opportunities. To address this challenge, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) promotes an architectural approach that replaces rigid proprietary systems with heterogeneous, "loosely-coupled" services. The Service Component Architecture (SCA), along with Service Data Objects (SDO), makes this architectural concept a reality and provides the programming model to build SOA solutions for agile businesses.

Some QTP Related Question Answers

  • Full form of QTP ?
  • Quick Test Professional
  • What's the QTP ?
  • QTP is Mercury Interactive Functional Testing Tool.
  • Which scripting language used by QTP ?
  • QTP uses VB scripting.
  • What's the basic concept of QTP ?
  • QTP is based on two concept-
  • * Recording
  • * Playback
  • How many types of recording facility are available in QTP ?
  • QTP provides three types of recording methods-
  • * Context Recording (Normal)
  • * Analog Recording
  • * Low Level Recording
  • How many types of Parameters are available in QTP ?
  • QTP provides three types of Parameter-
  • * Method Argument
  • * Data Driven
  • * Dynamic
  • What's the QTP testing process ?
  • QTP testing process consist of seven steps-
  • * Preparing to recoding
  • * Recording
  • * Enhancing your script
  • * Debugging
  • * Run
  • * Analyze
  • * Report
  • DefectsWhat's the Active Screen ?
  • It provides the snapshots of your application as it appeared when you performed a certain steps during recording session.
  • What's the Test Pane ?
  • Test Pane contains Tree View and Expert View tabs.
  • What's Data Table ?
  • It assists to you about parameterizing the test.
  • What's the Test Tree ?
  • It provides graphical representation of your operations which you have performed with your application.
  • Which all environment QTP supports ?
  • ERP/ CRM /Java/ J2EE/ VB, .NET ,Multimedia, XML Web Objects, ActiveX controls ,SAP, Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft Web Services, Terminal EmulatorIE, NN, AOL .
  • How can you view the Test Tree ?
  • The Test Tree is displayed through Tree View tab.
  • What's the Expert View ?
  • Expert View display the Test Script.
  • Which keyword used for Normal Recording ?
  • F3
  • Which keyword used for run the test script ?
  • F5
  • Which keyword used for stop the recording ?
  • F4
  • Which keyword used for Analog Recording ?
  • Ctrl+Shift+F4
  • Which keyword used for Low Level Recording ?
  • Ctrl+Shift+F3
  • Which keyword used for switch between Tree View and Expert View ?
  • Ctrl+Tab
  • What's the Transaction ?
  • You can measure how long it takes to run a section of your test by defining transactions.
  • Where you can view the results of the checkpoint ?
  • You can view the results of the checkpoints in the Test Result Window.
  • What's the Standard Checkpoint ?
  • Standard Checkpoints checks the property value of an object in your application or web page.
  • Which environment are supported by Standard Checkpoint ?
  • Standard Checkpoint are supported for all add-in environments.
  • What's the Image Checkpoint ?
  • Image Checkpoint check the value of an image in your application or web page.
  • Which environments are supported by Image Checkpoint ?
  • Image Checkpoint are supported only Web environment.
  • What's the Bitmap Checkpoint ?
  • Bitmap Checkpoint checks the bitmap images in your web page or application.
  • Which enviornment are supported by Bitmap Checkpoints ?
  • Bitmap checkpoints are supported all add-in environment.
  • What's the Table Checkpoints ?
  • Table Checkpoint checks the information with in a table.
  • Which environments are supported by Table Checkpoint ?
  • Table Checkpoints are supported only ActiveX environment.
  • What's the Text Checkpoint ?
  • Text Checkpoint checks that a test string is displayed in the appropriate place in your application or on web page.
  • Which environment are supported by Test Checkpoint ?
  • Text Checkpoint are supported all add-in environments Note:
  • * QTP records each steps you perform and generates a test tree and test script.
  • * QTP records in normal recording mode.
  • * If you are creating a test on web object, you can record your test on one browser and run it on another browser.
  • * Analog Recording and Low Level Recording require more disk sapce than normal recording mode.

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMM) Maturity Levels

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMM) Maturity Levels
The Five Maturity Levels described by the Capability Maturity Model can be characterized as per their primary process changes made at each level as follows:

1) Initial The software process is characterized as ad hoc, and occasionally even chaotic. Few processes are defined, and success depends on individual effort and heroics.
2) Repeatable Basic project management processes are established to track cost, schedule, and functionality. The necessary process discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes on projects with similar applications.
3) Defined The software process for both management and engineering activities is documented, standardized, and integrated into a standard software process for the organization. All projects use an approved, tailored version of the organization's standard software process for developing and maintaining software.
4) Managed Detailed measures of the software process and product quality are collected. Both the software process and products are quantitatively understood and controlled.
5) Optimizing Continuous process improvement is enabled by quantitative feedback from the process and from piloting innovative ideas and technologies.