Building Your Software Testing Skills 102

Building Your Software Testing Skills 102

Author: Rosalind Evans
Date: June 24th 2011 

Introduction – This crash course is a continuation of 'Testing Resources...Building Your Software Testing Skills (Part 1)' which is intended to provide software testers with resources that I have used to help develop my software testing skills.  This crash course includes links to many testing resources that are intended to help you grow as a software tester.

Software Testing Certification – Whether or not you choose to become certified is simply a matter of choice, as it may not be required by an employer.  The knowledge gained by studying for the ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) certification exam can be valuable in understanding the discipline and process of software testing.  Below is information to learn more about how to become certified and resources for studying for the certification exam.

• ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) (http://www.astqb.org/)
  • ISTQB Foundation Level Certification (exam syllabus)
  • ISTQB Advanced Level Certification (exam syllabus)
  • ISTQB Standard Glossary of Terms Used in Software Testing (glossary of terms)
  • Resources for studying for the software testing certification exam.  Regardless of how long you have been doing software testing, it is recommended that you study for the certification exam because the exam is not easy and relies heavily on memorization of testing terms, testing methodologies, and testing practices that you may or may not be using on a regular basis.

• Software Testing Training Programs
  • Villanova University – Provides an online non-degree Master Certificate in Software Testing program.  For a detailed description of their software testing programs, click here. 
  • SQE Certification Training  –  In addition to software testing certification programs, they also offers a wide variety of other software testing-related training courses which are offered throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as courses that are available online. 
• Books – There are many books available to study for the ISTQB certification exams.  To find them, do a Google or Amazon.com search for 'software testing certification books'.  Below are just a few:
  • Software Testing Foundations: A Study Guide for the Certified Tester Exam by Andreas Spillner, Tilo Linz, and Hans Schaefer
  • Foundations of Software Testing: ISTQB Certification by Dorothy Graham, Erik van Veenendaal, Isabel Evans, and Rex Black

Non-Software Testing Skills – There are some essential non-software testing skills that are needed if you want to become a well-rounded software tester.  These skills are more than likely to appear as skills needed on job applications for a software tester.

• SQL Query Skills – All software testers should know how to query (search) database tables in a Relation Database Management System (RDMS).  SQL is a database search engine used to search many RDMS like Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Microsoft Access, etc.  A critical responsibility for software testers is data validation.  Performing data validation tests are used to verify that the application user-interface (UI) is displaying the correct data.  To do so, you will need to know how to write and run SQL query scripts (searches) against the database.

It is difficult to thoroughly test an applications user-interface without access to the database in order to validate (verify) the data results displayed by the application.  For example, I searched Amazon.com for books containing the words 'software testing' and retrieved 2,496 books.  My question for you is, how do you know that the results are correct?  Answer...you cannot possibly know with any degree of certainty unless you validate the results against the database.  Testing is not a guessing game...test results should be based on facts!  Don't assume that the Developers' SQL queries in the code are always correct.  My testing motto is:  The UI results are false until I can prove that they are true.  Because software testers my not have access to the application database, testers must sometimes improvise and perform tests to allow them to make educated decisions about the data results.

• Microsoft SQL 2008 Express  – Microsoft provides a free, feature-rich version of their RDMS intended for developers, but great for software testers.  Installing Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Express is easy to install and will enable you to have hands-on experience learning how to query a database using SQL.  I installed the 'Database with Advance Services' 64 bit version which also installed the Adventure Works databases as well as Visual Studio Express.  This is an extremely useful learning tool for software testers to learn SQL, especially since you don't want to be experimenting with your company’s production database and accidentally overwriting data.
• SQL Server 2008 Express How-To-Guide Series  – This series of short how-to videos will touch on SQL Server Express 2008.  I viewed the ' SQL Server 2008 Express: How do I install SQL Express tools after VS Pro install?' video before installing the software which was helpful.
• SQL Share  – SQLShare.com has some of the best free SQL training videos I've seen for both advance and beginner users.  If you click on the Video List link you can search the database.  For beginners, search for 'Kathi Kellenberger' under Author, as she has some very good videos on basic SELECT statements.
• SQL Tutorial  – w3schools.com has a very comprehensive free online SQL tutorial as well as other tutorials that are helpful for understanding web software development which is also useful for developing software tester skills.
• MSDN Transact-SQL Reference  – This is a great resource for learning the T-SQL language syntax.

The final resource for this crash course, which is not directly related to software testing, but is one that I thought was worth mentioning since I use it almost daily.

• Instapaper  – Instapaper.com is a very cool free tool that allows you to save your bookmarks online instead of in your browser Favorites.  I use this tool because I bookmark a lot of articles from software testing newsletters, at work and at home, when I don't necessarily have time to read them.  When I bookmark the articles, or any web page, they are sent to my Instapaper account which I can access at any time and from any computer.

I hope the software testing-related resources that I have provided are helpful to you as you continue to develop your software testing skills.