WITH A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY, A CAREER IN SOFTWARE TESTING CAN BE CHALLENGING AND FUN, SAYS RADHIKA RAMASWAMY

Engineering colleges across the country have been churning out thousands of software professionals every year. As IT penetrates into more domains, the number of IT applications and systems are increasing significantly. Just as the production and development of software is the most crucial aspect of this profession, carrying out effective quality checks to ensure standards is also as important. This is where a job of a Software Tester comes into play.

What is Testing?

A career in Testing primarily involves validation and verification of the system to ensure that it meets the desired functional and nonfunctional capabilities of the software/system that has been built. The job of a testing professional is not only to identify flaws in the system, but also to evaluate the quantum of risks in application prior to production. Testing professionals interact closely with the clients and the development team, help them understand the criticality of the bugs identified and ensure they are fixed. Some of the various specialisations in Testing include System Testing, Performance Testing, Security Testing, etc.

G Sumithra, Senior Vice-President, Testing Practice, Cognizant, says, "We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the mindset of fresh graduates, who are increasingly choosing a career in Testing. They are required to understand the requirements completely, plan for testing, evaluate and design test scenarios and test cases, execute them under the stated conditions, report bugs and risks in application release to production, and ensure fixing of all issues."

Qualities required

"To be successful in this area, testing professionals should possess the right mix of technology, business and management expertise. A student aspiring to grow as a testing professional needs to be a graduate with a basic understanding of business and technology," adds Sumithra. Knowledge of testing tools, methods and frameworks is an added advantage. In order to become a Tester, a Bachelors degree in computing or its allied fields is desirable. Ravishankar B, Senior VP-HR, HCL, says, "Earlier systems were tested after they were completely built. This had a huge impact on cost, if the product was found to be error-ridden. To avoid this, testing occurs in parallel with development. Hence there is a significant requirement for testers. From a soft skills point of view, Testers must be cautious, curious, critical but non-judgmental and also good communicators." Although, there is a general misconception that the job is very monotonous, Archana Dayanand, a Programmer in Cognizant, begs to differ. "There is a thrill in breaking the applications, it exposes one to newer challenges. We have control over the application and even have the rights to refuse production. Testing is inevitable in software profession and hence proves recession-free."

Career path and eligibility

The career prospects for a Tester is very similar to that of a software developer, points out Ravishankar. "One starts as a Test Engineer, move on as Test Lead and then a Test Manager. They can then specialise in areas of testing and become experts in their selected fields," he adds. Testing professionals across companies are usually engineering, science, management and commerce graduates. Nitesh B, a Test Engineer, says, "Although the testing services market has grown exponentially over the past few years, educational institutions do not provide any specific programmes in this area. Most companies have around four to six months training in this area." Usually, Computer Science and IT students have Testing as a small part of their course curriculum. B T Maran, Principal Placement Officer, SRM University, says, "Usually companies come to recruit them in bulk as trainees and later assign them particular domains. They do not usually come to recruit specifically for Testing. Computer Science, IT and MCA students have chapters dedicated to software testing and security. If needed, we will introduce Testing as course." Institutes such as STC Technologies provides Software Testing Training. "Usually these institutes train students for a period of three to four months and make them industry-ready," says Maran. Cognizant Academy, the in-house learning centre of Cognizant, offers a variety of training and certification programmes. The academy also helps professionals obtain international testing certifications. The payscale of testing professionals in large organisations is on par with that of any IT professional.

(radhika.ramaswamy@ timesgroup.com)