So… you want to become a software test engineer?

If you are thinking about starting – or growing! – your career in software testing, you’re in the right place.

After graduating, when I got my first job as a software tester, everyone told me: “What? Testing? That has no future. Buddy, listen to me: Do not take this job”.

Well, I didn’t listen to them! And now, I’ve been in the testing arena for 15+ years, and I couldn’t be happier with the opportunities for growth and learning that I’ve discovered.

What is Quality Assurance or Software Testing?

For example, if you need a pen, before buying one from a shop, you scribble your name on a notepad to make sure it writes the way you want it to. You are testing it! Congrats – you’re a Quality Assurance Tester for the pen!

You can read more about this in my article on Learn Testing from Pen.

Quality Assurance is playing a pivotal role in any organization’s growth and sustainability. We, QA engineers, are the pillars of both. 

Each and every product must go through some kind of QA process before it hits the market. From hair pins to sandals, telephones to tablets, pens to clothes… everything must face the QA process. Otherwise, you risk missing the flaws – or bugs – in your product.

And that is the importance of software testing: If any one of the requirements is not met, and it isn’t QA tested first, you could seriously impact your customers’ opinions of your product negatively.

Who is a software testing engineer, and what are their responsibilities?

A software testing engineer is a person who validates and verifies that the product being tested has met its requirements or specifications. Sometimes, they are also known as testers, test engineers, or software developers under test. 

Some of their most common responsibilities include:

  1. Understanding the business requirements
  2. Understanding the change request document
  3. Analyzing the design
  4. Preparing/reviewing the test approach or test strategy documents
  5. Preparing/reviewing the test plan
  6. Preparing/reviewing the test coverage matrix
  7. Test Environment readiness validation
  8. Test Execution
  9. Test Results documentation
  10. Submitting defects
  11. Conducting defects triage meetings
  12. Procuring sign-off from clients and architects

How to get started as a software testing engineer

On my blog, you’ll find loads of articles about software testing. I focus on various genres of software testing, including manual testing, test automation, and performance testing; as well as tools like Apache JMeter, Micro Focus, Tricentis NeoLoad, LoadRunner, and Micro FocusQTP/UFT.

For the courses and training I offer, check out the “My courses” tab on the blog.

You can also stay up-to-date on everything QA and testing by subscribing to my weekly newsletter.

And for some great places to start on software testing, check out the following articles I’ve written:

  1. What is Software Testing?
  2. Introduction to Software Testing
  3. Why software fails?
  4. Software Testing Life Cycle
  5. Learn Software Testing from the Pen
  6. Learn Software Testing from Business Cards
  7. Test Requirements
  8. Black Box Testing
  9. Pairwise Testing
  10. Software Testing Myths
  11. When should stop testing?
  12. What Is Acceptance Testing?
  13. Risk Assessment
  14. Are you a good tester?
  15. Defects Life Cycle
  16. How to submit valid defects?
  17. Top 10 Open Source Defect Tracking Systems
  18. Metrics and Measurements Calculator for Software Testing
  19. Steps to take after production failure – Software Testing Interview Question and Answer
  20. Improving the Test Process

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