The top qualities of a professional tester

The top qualities of a professional tester

Software testers operate in a dynamic industry where continuous learning is essential. While there are key qualities that are non-negotiable in a field that demands quality, there are also other skills that help shape the difference between a good tester and a great tester. In this article, Tim Smith and Greer Gavin discuss the top qualities they look for in a tester. 

A look inside the modern tester’s toolbox 

In terms of critical skills, in today’s environment, you need a good mix of hard and soft skills. A tester will find that as they grow in different roles, and in different disciplines or more senior roles there may be emphasis on some skills over another. However, fundamentally, the core skills a tester needs are the same – no matter their career stage, or whether they are focused on manual testing, automation testing, are a test engineer, or a software developer.  

Furthermore, all testers should have a foundational understanding of how each testing role plays in their field. For instance, an automation tester needs to have the foundational understanding of when they wouldn’t automate and when manual testing is required.  

Overall, the key requirements of a tester operating in today’s environment are: 

• A solid understanding of the role of testing  
• Diverse testing knowledge and experience 
• Domain knowledge 
• Programming knowledge (a basic understanding of programming and limitations useful)  
• Technical tools and technical knowledge 
• DB / SQL 

Recently, we discussed the changing shape of a tester and how domain and technical knowledge are key. You can read more developing your ‘special sauce’ to remain competitive, in our article,‘the life of a professional tester.’

The top ten soft skills a tester needs to remain competitive 

As testing scholar James Bach says, “Pretty good testing is easy to do. Excellent testing is quite hard to do.” Above the technical expertise and understanding, there is a diverse soft skill required to become an excellent tester. We outline these below: 

1. Attention to detail – It goes without saying, a testing career demands quality, so it’s a must-have. 
2. Big picture orientated – while the ability to think in the abstract and see how small details fits, the need to understand the bigger picture to contextualise how the smaller parts fit in is also imperative. 
3. ‘Thinking’ – this includes lateral, critical and analytical. There is an expression that says an average tester finds problem, a good tester will find a solution’. A good tester needs a combination of skills to do just this. Analytical thinking is necessary to break down complex information or comprehensive data into fundamental parts or basic principles. Critical thinking is required to evaluate information and determine how to interpret it to make a sound judgment and lateral thinking is necessary to think outside the box by looking at why something happens and work on alternatives. 
4. Easy to do business with and amiable – as a tester you need to know how to answer a question without saying no, whilst also bringing people back to reality. It’s a fine balance. We teach our tester to say, ‘Yes, but…’ 
5. Consultancy skills – As a consultant, there are an expected set of skills. These include spotting opportunities to add value to a project; being a trusted advisor and utilising their fellow practice members to achieve a better outcome. 
6. Diplomacy and negotiation skills – No one likes to be criticised or hear ‘bad news’ and unfortunately this is an inherent part of being a tester and will become increasingly important as you progress to more senior roles. However, diplomacy is important at all levels – as a tester, you are criticising people’s work. You need to have the ability to put yourself in someone else shoes and deliver directly, but empathetically. 
7. Being flexible and adaptable – you may work in big teams, small teams, new teams, Agile teams, Waterfall teams and teams where testing is not really valued! Having exposure to these different scenarios across organisations helps you to become flexible and adaptable. Working within a practice can give you this exposure. 
8. Collaboration and team player – with the various types of teams listed mentioned above, you need to be a team player who can work with people with differing views and from a different discipline.  
9. Communication skills – written and verbal communication is important as you converse with a lot of stakeholders. What you communicate, to who and how best to present is vital. Distilling information down is also a key skill of a tester as well 
10. Self-starter – motivation and enthusiasm to continuously develop the skills in their tester toolbox. Technology and practices change constantly so learning is a life-long challenge, people who remain static may get left behind. 

If you are interested in developing your skills further as a professional tester – whether starting out, or as an IT professional – please reach out to our team.