Job profile Software tester
If you love finding and fixing bugs in programmimg and coding, you could be suited to a career in software testing
As a software tester, you are involved in the quality assurance stage of software development and deployment. You'll conduct automated and manual tests to ensure the software created by developers is fit for purpose. Software testing involves the analysis of software, and systems, to avert risk and prevent software issues.
Your role is integral to the creation of software systems and technical products including vehicles, electronic goods, defence, and healthcare.
Ultimately software testers are employed to find bugs and issues within a product before it gets deployed to everyday users. You might work on bespoke, individual projects or multinational projects spanning the globe and costing billions of pounds. You will need to be, or become, familiar with programming and using coding languages. Assessing code is one part of the role of a software tester.
Responsibilities
Your role will vary depending on project requirements. You may join a project at the initial implementation stages to assess potential risks, or be brought on to a project midway through, when testing becomes a key requirement.
Large organisations may have software testers dedicated to one project; whereas smaller organisations may have a central team working on multiple projects.
However, your work activities are likely to include:
Salary
Salaries vary according to location, technical knowledge and the sector. The City of London and financial services currently pay the highest salaries. Some companies also offer bonus schemes, benefits and overtime payments for unsociable hours.
Income figures are intended as a guide only.
Working hours
Working hours usually follow a standard office day of eight or nine hours, between 8am and 6pm. However, due to the nature of project work you may be required to work outside these times. On occasion this may mean working shifts and weekend work. This would be most likely to occur during periods of software deployment or if a project happens to be taking place across a variety of locations and time zones.
What to expect
Qualifications
Software testers often have a degree in computer science or IT. However, the role is open to graduates from a variety of degree disciplines including:
You can enter the software testing profession with an HND or foundation degree. A software, IT, or engineering diploma may be most highly regarded by companies.
Skills
You will need to have:
Work experience
You would benefit from gaining professional software testing experience through summer placements and internships. This would expose you to the full development lifecycle. You would also gain experience of working in a team and using both written and verbal communication skills.
A number of large graduate employers offer summer internships and year-in-industry placements, which provide the opportunity to gain relevant work experience. Additionally, some companies run work shadow schemes to give an insight into the software testing profession.
Your university may also have a computing society. Joining relevant university societies will help you demonstrate your passion for technology and may provide other opportunities to meet with companies and industry professionals.
Employers
Software testers are required in a variety of organisations and sectors. Large employers with sophisticated software and IT systems will have the most opportunities. Technology companies and smaller organisations also require software testers.
You can find software testing opportunities in:
Large graduate employers may include software testing within their rotational IT graduate programmes. This would give you the opportunity to gain experience in software testing as well as other IT roles (including project management, application support and software development).
Employers with less traditional rotational graduate schemes may offer software testing as a direct entry role where candidates start work as a software tester from day one.
Look for vacancies at:
Professional development
Training will depend on the company you join and can vary from structured training and development programmes organised via a graduate scheme, to on-the-job training and short courses as required.
As the IT sector is ever changing, it is important that you keep up to date with developments and specific software testing trends. On-the-job training is an ideal way for students and recent graduates to gain an understanding of the software development lifecycle.
Additionally, you could consider joining a professional association, such as the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT). It may help to expand your awareness of the IT sector and provide you with the opportunity to meet a variety of professionals. The BCS, along with over 100 accredited training organisations worldwide, runs a number of software testing courses and professional qualifications. The courses and qualifications are mapped against SFIAplus (the Skills Framework for the Information Age), which is the UK government-backed competency framework describing IT roles and the skills needed to carry them out.
At present there are no specific software testing postgraduate degrees offered by UK institutions. However, it is not uncommon for software testing professionals to decide to study a postgraduate IT qualification at some point during their career. Search forpostgraduate courses in computer sciences and IT.
Career prospects
You may start your career as a software tester on a graduate scheme or via an entry-level position. Career progression can be rapid. The speed at which you progress will depend on your experience, your exposure to different systems, and awareness of testing methods. Professional qualifications and technical skills will help to speed up your progression.
Some software testers progress into senior software testing roles including:
You could choose to specialise by gaining experience within a specific sector e.g. financial services or media. Or you may decide to diversify and develop an understanding of many sectors.
Additionally, as software testers are required to work with business and project teams, you could move into business-facing roles, such as business analysis and project management.
Progression into software development roles is another possible route.
EXAMPLE OCTAD PROJECT
Determine and gather information ("vendor tradesmen spade work") that will be required to complete the assessment/underwriting of the requests. For example, depending on the customer request, title, stream, appraisal, and collateral perfection information might need to be gathered. Thoroughly understand Firm policies that govern the gathering of this information. Confirm the information gathered is accurate
Create test plan and test summary documents according to SDLC standards
Track and manage defects along with analyzing data and provided reports
Conducte end-to-end integration testing and assure software delivers Trades & Customer Requirements and expectations
Create and manually execute test cases for the Test database system to validate the (End User Computing) managed and tracked complex financial collections e.g refunds.
Gather business needs and document requirements for technical team
Work with technical teams to develop technical requirements and solutions
Prepare and create testable use cases and functional test cases
Designed and execute integrate (business, functional and technical) test planning, identifying and defining application requirements
Assiste users for user acceptance testing (UAT)
Execute test cases for different release
Note Test Cases Will be Supplied also by Test Lead
Validate that the "Octad" was able to load assets, post actuals, process calculations, handle exceptions, and make determinations based on the documente requirements.
Document detailed test cases while working in an Agile software development cycle.
Collaborate with BA and developer frequently for requirements clarification.
Actively participate in project meetings and discussions.
Comaprison Testing
Perform both positive and negative testing to ensure upgrades were performing correctly
Teste and re-test all defects found during testing period
Train new team members on BAU functions
Answered phone calls from Staekholders like Tradesmen or Customers regarding account setups and modifications
Profile and Expected Daily Tasks
Detail-oriented, extremely organized with exceptional writing and communication skills.
Work in an agile, waterfall and scrum environment and stories and test cases in an Agile Environment.
Traceability of Requirements to Test Cases and Test Results in Octad Center for Managed Portfolios of Security Transactions an added advantage
Review test results at the morning and afternoon Scrum Meeting.
In depth experience in writing detailed and accurate Self Determined test plans, test cases and test scripts
Strong working knowledge of "Octad".
May Participate in Validated test results with SQL to verify that all the audit records are updated and that the results are correct.
Communicate daily test results to both the business and developers every morning.