What Type of Software Testers Do You Need?
In general, there are two main areas of software testing: manual and automated. When QA engineers apply manual testing, they don’t use any special scripts and tools. Essentially, they interact with your product the way the end-user would.
Manual testing is often perceived as an unreliable option, as even the most attentive QA engineers are prone to human error. That said, they can be extremely helpful when there’s a need to test the user-friendliness of a product.
By contrast, automated testing presupposes the use and development of testing programs that can run predefined tests. Automated testing is the perfect choice for large and dynamic projects that require frequent code changes.
How to Hire a Great Software Tester: Look For These Three Skills
- Intuitive Sherlock Holmes
Some people just have a natural ability to perform a meticulous detective work. Potential software testers need to demonstrate a capacity to spot, categorize and connect the details into a bigger picture, analyze behavioral characteristics and performance metrics.
How to assess: asking your candidate to put down a basic test plan and give a summary to each part of it is the best way to evaluate a QA’s investigative skills. Second, observe real-world technical skills by asking a candidate to provide as many test cases to a given diagram of a graphic user interface as possible.
- Solid Technical Background
A good software tester needs to be well-versed in both software development topics and QA methodologies and tools. A candidate must be able to explain a software development life cycle, as well as software testing life cycle and the interrelation between them.
How to assess: check a software tester’s understanding of core software and QA terminology.
- Communication and Reporting
Ability to translate abstract and complex concepts into human speech is vital for QA reports and documentation. Also, good software testers are good at interacting and coordinating with cross-functional teams, namely while reporting bugs and planning processes with team leads and other managers.
How to assess: ask a candidate to provide examples of positive and negative situations while working with managers, cross-functional departments, how they handled and resolved these cases.