123/038 13-LXE 110 0048 Uen Rev PA3 Tester Personas2011-03-16 1123/038 13-LXE 110 0048 Uen Rev PA3 Tester Personas2011-03-16 1

The many aspects of a tester

Introduction

• A perfect tester has to not only be an excellent developer, but also have great domain knowledge, understanding of test tools, ability to present risks and results, great understanding of test management, deep knowledge of test techniques and methods, and much more

• Impossible to find such a person

• Many different types of testers

• Each type of tester prioritizes different skills and abilities

• Each type must be used in the right way to maximize potential

• In this presentation, a number of types are presented, but testers could be categorized in many other ways

Personas Overview

E2E TesterE2E TesterDeveloper in Test

Verification Tool Engineer System TesterSystem Tester

Domain TesterDomain TesterTest Automation

Engineer

Developer in Test

• Work Description– Work side-by-side with developers enabling the team to produce high quality code by writing

unit/API test cases in C and Java during feature development – Driving not only functional quality, but also performance, stability, power consumption and

similar during design & development phase– Pushing for testability and maintainability of the code to enable testing – Support developers with expertise in their unit testing effort

• Key Competencies in priority1. C & Java competence2. Test competence3. Driving testability4. Domain knowledge

Verification Tool Engineer

• Work Description– Push testing downstream by continuously working with new tools to enable testing early– Put requirements on the development line organization what is needed to increase testability

of the code – Drive development of new verification tools– Roll out new tools in the organization– Usually works alone or in pairs, but interfacing a lot of testers and developers

• Key Competencies in priority1. Verification & Development tools knowledge2. Driving testability3. Java & C & Script competence4. Test Competence

Test Automation Engineer

• Work Description– Develop system API tests which cover the gaps left by the Developers in Test– To continuously executed and monitor automated test cases and analyze the results– Push requirements on verification tool engineers for new tools– Works in a small team of dedicated automation experts, as part of an automated test lab

• Key Competencies in priority1. C & Java competence2. Test competence3. Domain knowledge4. Verification tool knowledge

Domain Tester

• Work Description– Is an expert on a domain, such as local connectivity, graphics, device drivers, or similar– Focuses on tool-aided manual testing– Can work both in teams with developers, or in dedicated test teams, depending on the

assignment– Support new development with requirements from a verification perspective– Write and execute manual acceptance tests for features in development– Execute manual tests and exploratory testing charters on the software main branch to report

status and find defects

• Key Competencies in priority1. Test competence (including exploratory testing)2. Domain knowledge3. Verification tool knowledge4. Requirements competence

System Tester

• Work Description– Focuses on the system instead of a specific domain– Working mostly in dedicated test teams, further away from development– Focus on other aspects than pure functionality; system performance, system stability, system

interactions and so on– Mostly executes exploratory charters to cover as much of the system as possible with the least

effort– Measures system KPIs to evaluate the quality of the system, often using verification tools– Put requirements on the system which are needed for verification

• Key Competencies in priority1. Test competence (focus on exploratory testing)2. System knowledge3. System requirements competence4. Verification tools knowledge

E2E Tester

• Work Description– Works with the final product that ships to customers– Understands the customers needs and requirements– Focus on using the product the same way as the customer – mostly manual testing– Working in dedicated test team with close connection to customer interfaces– Must understand how the different domains and the system work to be able to test from an

E2E perspective without mistaking design decisions for defects

• Key Competencies in priority1. Test competence (focus on exploratory testing)2. Customer focus3. Customer requirements competence4. System & Domain knowledge

Q&A

• Where is our organization today?– What roles dominate? – Pie-chart which shows how many testers of each role we have?

• What is our goal?– What roles do we want in our organization?– Ratio between the different types of testers

• Are there any more roles than the six described in this presentation?

• How do we get to the new ratio between testers if we are not there today?

References Material

[1] Career Paths for Testers Using Personashttp://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S16548_COL_2