ISTQB FOUNDATION 4.0 | Tutorial 7 | 1.5 Essentials Skills and Practices in Testing (Part-1) | CTFL
Summary
TLDRThis tutorial focuses on essential skills and good practices for ISTQB Foundation level certification testers. It emphasizes the psychological aspect of testing, highlighting the tester's role as a critical, end-user-focused individual. The script discusses the importance of maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders despite delivering negative findings. It outlines key skills such as testing knowledge, curiosity, attention to detail, and effective communication, while stressing the need to balance negativity in product evaluation with positivity in interpersonal interactions. The tutorial also touches on overcoming confirmation bias and the perception of testing as a destructive activity, advocating for constructive communication of defects.
Takeaways
- 😀 A tester's role is to think from the end user's perspective and find defects, maintaining a 'negative' attitude towards the product to ensure quality.
- 🔍 Testers should be curious and methodical, exploring all possible scenarios to uncover potential issues that may not be immediately apparent.
- 💡 Communication is key for testers; they must be able to convey their findings effectively without damaging relationships with other stakeholders.
- 👥 Testers need to be effective team players, working collaboratively with others while maintaining their independence in testing and reporting.
- 📚 Essential skills for testers include testing knowledge, attention to detail, curiosity, and good communication skills.
- 🤖 Technical knowledge is crucial for modern testers, as technology plays a significant role in how applications are developed and tested.
- 🛠️ Domain knowledge is important for testers to understand the specific industry they are testing within, such as automotive, healthcare, or banking.
- 👂 Active listening and being a team player are part of the soft skills that help testers communicate effectively and maintain positive relationships.
- 🧠 Analytical and critical thinking, along with creativity, are necessary to enhance the effectiveness of testing and find defects beyond the obvious.
- 👎 Testers often bring bad news, which can lead to negative perceptions; thus, it's vital to communicate findings constructively to avoid blame and criticism.
- 🛑 Confirmation bias can hinder the acceptance of defects; testers should approach discussions with an open mind and seek third-party moderation if needed.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the tutorial video script?
-The main focus of the tutorial video script is on the essential skills and good practices in software testing, particularly the psychological aspects of testing and the importance of communication skills for testers.
Why is the psychology of testing important for a tester?
-The psychology of testing is important because it influences the tester's approach to finding defects and their ability to maintain a good relationship with other stakeholders despite often delivering negative findings.
What does the script suggest about the nature of a tester's perspective?
-The script suggests that a tester should have a negative perspective in the sense that they are always looking for defects and are driven by the end user's perspective, rather than what the product is doing from a development standpoint.
How does the script describe the role of a tester in a project?
-The script describes the role of a tester as someone who is not just finding defects but also communicating these findings effectively to the team without damaging relationships, despite often being the bearer of bad news.
What are some of the essential skills mentioned for a tester in the script?
-Some of the essential skills mentioned for a tester include testing knowledge, carefulness, curiosity, attention to detail, good communication skills, analytical thinking, creativity, technical knowledge, and domain knowledge.
Why is communication so crucial for testers according to the script?
-Communication is crucial for testers because they often have to report negative findings, and how they communicate these can affect their relationship with other stakeholders and the perception of their role.
How does the script address the common misconception that testing is destructive?
-The script clarifies that testing is not destructive; testers do not break the product. Instead, they identify existing defects and communicate them to the team, which is essential for improving product quality.
What is the importance of being a team player in the context of testing as per the script?
-Being a team player is important for testers because they need to collaborate effectively with other team members, understand their perspectives, and work together towards a common goal of product quality.
How should testers communicate defects to developers to avoid negative perceptions?
-Testers should communicate defects in a fact-focused and neutral way, avoiding personal criticism and focusing on the product rather than the individual, to foster a constructive dialogue.
What is the role of confirmation bias in the context of testing as discussed in the script?
-Confirmation bias can make it difficult for individuals to accept information that disagrees with their beliefs. In testing, this can lead to disagreements between developers and testers, necessitating a third party or constructive discussion to resolve differences.
How does the script suggest improving the perception of testing as a constructive activity?
-The script suggests that testers should communicate information about defects and failures in a constructive way, emphasizing the positive contribution of testing to project success and product quality.
Outlines
🔍 The Psychology and Skills of Testing
This paragraph delves into the mindset of a test engineer, emphasizing the importance of being driven by the end user's perspective and maintaining a negative outlook to uncover defects. It highlights the tester's role in communication, the challenge of delivering bad news without damaging relationships, and the misconception that testing is destructive. The paragraph introduces the concept that testers are not breaking the product but identifying existing issues. It also begins to explore the essential skills a tester should possess, such as being an effective team player and maintaining independence in testing.
🤝 Essential Skills for Effective Testing
The second paragraph focuses on the essential skills required for a tester, including testing knowledge, carefulness, curiosity, attention to detail, and being methodical. It underscores the importance of good communication skills, especially when delivering negative findings, and the necessity of being a team player with analytical and critical thinking abilities. The paragraph also touches on the importance of technical knowledge and domain expertise in the context of testing, and how testers often have to manage the human tendency to blame the bearer of bad news, advocating for constructive and fact-focused communication.
🛠 Overcoming Perceptions and Confirmation Bias in Testing
The final paragraph addresses the common misconception that testing is a destructive activity, arguing instead that it is crucial for project success and product quality. It discusses the importance of communicating information about defects and failures in a constructive manner to avoid negative perceptions. The paragraph also mentions the role of a third party in resolving disagreements between developers and testers, and the impact of confirmation bias on accepting information that challenges existing beliefs. It concludes with a reminder of the importance of constructive communication and a call to continue learning and exploring in the field of testing.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡ISTQB Foundation Level Certification
💡Testing
💡Psychology of Testing
💡Test Engineer
💡Communication Skills
💡Negative Perspective
💡Stakeholders
💡Technical Knowledge
💡Domain Knowledge
💡Constructive Communication
💡Confirmation Bias
Highlights
Introduction to the tutorial on ISTQB Foundation Level certification.
Emphasizing the importance of essential skills and good practices in testing.
Understanding the psychology of testing and the tester's role as an end-user advocate.
The tester's mindset should be inherently negative to find defects effectively.
The impossibility of exhaustive testing and the focus on relevant requirements.
The misconception that testers are destructive and the clarification that they identify existing issues.
The challenge of maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders while delivering negative news.
The authority of testers to point out mistakes and the potential resistance from others.
The necessity for testers to possess both technical and soft skills for effective communication.
Importance of testing knowledge, including understanding technology and the testing process.
The role of curiosity, attention to detail, and methodical approach in testing.
Communication skills as a critical component for testers, especially when delivering negative findings.
The necessity for testers to be analytical, critical thinkers, and creative to enhance testing effectiveness.
The importance of domain knowledge for testers to understand the specific industry they are testing in.
The common human trait to blame the bearer of bad news and its impact on testers.
The significance of language and communication style when reporting defects to avoid personal criticism.
Confirmation bias and its impact on accepting test results that disagree with held beliefs.
The need for constructive communication of defects and failures to improve product quality.
The tutorial's conclusion and invitation for further discussion in the next segment.
Transcripts
Hello friends and greetings for the day
welcome back to another tutorial on
istqb Foundation level certification we
are in chapter one talking about
fundamentals of testing and moving on to
the next segment of today's tutorial
that is 1.5 essential skills and good
practices in testing as a part of this
we will be trying to understand how
exactly testers can communicate well
about their findings and maintain some
good relationship with that of the other
stakeholders but this is the part one as
this topic is longer we'll go in bits
and
pieces in order to talk about this
particular topic it's very very
important to first understand what is
the psychology of testing when it comes
to the testing of course a test engineer
is not an ordinary person in fact the
portfolio also does not invite you to be
one among those Common People which are
working otherwise Dev in a project a
tester is someone who is really driven
by the perspective of the end user and
has nothing to do I repeat that has
nothing to do what exactly the product
might be doing as per the development a
tester must always be negative in nature
negative in perspective looking forward
to find as many defects as possible
indeed a tester is someone who is very
very curious about what if that means in
any context they look forward to see
what if this is different or what if
someone tries like this and they come up
with different possible areas which
might not be working but can I go
everything with what comes to my mind
again exhaustive T testing is impossible
so I do not think everything what comes
to my mind rather something which is
relevant to fulfill the requirement but
at the same time we do understand as we
bring a lot of negativity to the product
and to the other stakeholders we must
maintain that positivity towards the
people quite often it happens that you
may not have good relationship with the
other stakeholders because you are the
carrier of the bad news yes being a
tester you bring that bad news that hey
your code is just not working and your
code is broken and we are just kind of
like bringing that news to you to a
certain extent we do want to highlight
here that many people think testing is
destructive in nature many people think
we break the products answer is
absolutely not because because we don't
break and we are not destructive in
nature the product is already broken we
are just letting them know right as a
tester you do not break the product you
do not destroy the product you have a
destroyed piece of code already which
you are testing and letting them know
informing them that hey what we got is
already broken right and that's where
people may not appreciate what your
Communications would be or what your
news would be that is defect let me also
highlight here that as a test engineer
you are someone who has the authority to
prove or let people know that you have
done a mistake and that's the reason
most of the people may not like you when
it comes to even the professional
culture right because when you walking
to their workstation they know that you
have something bad for them so being a
tester it takes a really really
important effort and lot of effort to
maintain that positive relationship with
other stakeholders but at the same same
time not losing your negativity that
means you should not start loving your
product and find nothing in that product
right so that's where we are talking
today about what are those skills and
what are those good practices what a
tester should follow the first part
we'll be covering today and then we'll
look forward to how do we work together
with the team and then what exactly it
takes to be independent from other
stakeholders so the very first thing we
talking about is the good skills of the
tester and here we are talking about the
essentials uh skills number one skill is
basically defined as an ability to do
something well that comes from one's
knowledge practice and aptitude a good
tester should process possess some
essential skills to that of their job as
well a good tester should be effective
team player and should be able to
perform testing on different levels of
test Independence so we'll be deep
diving into the other part of it but for
now we are just trying to understand
what are those essential skills a tester
must possess in order to test a system
system and communicate well so in order
to talk about these important things
let's have a look here so we have got
some generic skills required for testing
which are very easy to understand number
one while being generic the following
skills are particularly relevant for
tester that is one testing should or
testing knowledge is very very important
a tester is not an ordinary person many
people think that anybody can do testing
but let me tell you that's not something
which is valid statement testing do
requires you to know technology the way
that test cases must be written the way
the execution happens how to report a
defect and many other things what you'll
learning in the upcoming chapters the
other important thing what we have is
the thorus carefulness Curiosity
attention to detail being methodical and
many more such things of course thorness
is more of like testing everything
particularly not like missing out
anything carefulness is more of like
going towards the details of everything
like all the information written in the
requirement curiosity to explore
attention to detail that means we are
not driven by high level information we
do Deep dive to understand more about
the details of every single aspect and
then work on it on the other hand good
communication skills becomes very
important but not limited to us good
communication skills is for everyone but
especially when people are negative in
nature it becomes very very important
for you to be as positive as possible
because good communication skills also
contribute the way you will be reporting
the defect to the other stakeholders you
may understand a problem very well but
to communicate the problem to someone
else is very crucial so even a part of
like that is active listening being a
team player because you're not just one
person who is doing that you have to be
collaborative with other people at the
same time analytical thinking critical
thinking creativity this is to basically
increase the effectiveness of testing
because if you're just limited to the
information provided to you you may not
be able to actually find those defects
what you are looking for or what exactly
exist also to add technical knowledge is
equally important today it's not that
era where testers used to be
non-technical and then also it used to
work fine behaving like a generic user
today technology plays a vital role and
given that a tester does not understand
the framework the architecture or the
way the application has been developed
it might be a challenge for them to Deep
dive into the product also to add domain
knowledge because not every single thing
is very generic like you're not talking
about every time a website or a simple
e-commerce website sometime you are a
tester in automotive domain or you're a
tester in security health com Health
Commerce or you know uh banking Etc and
that's where it becomes very crucial for
a tester to be technically strong as
well to fulfill all the needs so a
testing essential skills do require you
to have very very uh technical skills at
the same time the soft skills to make
sure that you communicate well and are
able to let people know about your
progress further to add on top of it of
course we are also looking forward to
add some more values that is like
testers are often the bearers of the bad
news and which we were just talking
about for a moment it is a common human
trait to blame the better of the bad
news that you know we just put it back
saying that you did it or you
purposefully did it and things are
actually working fine and so on so it is
very common human trait to blame the
bearer of the bad news now this makes
communication skills very crucial for
the the tester communicating test
results may be perceived as criticism of
the product and its author now here I
want to further Deep dive a little bit
more and try to talk about what this
point is trying to Deep dive into from
the psychological aspects of human
mindset now say for example when we are
communicating the findings to that to
the owner like I found a bug uh a defect
and just want to let the developer know
about it then of course the developer is
someone who is not supposed to be
criticized for this defect right because
that person is also working together
with you and at the same time we should
not hurt the ego of individual so
reporting a defect could be done in a
way that like I'm going to say for
example the defect is uh found in the
system right but the way you report it
the way you communicate it is very
important for example what if I say the
statement hey developer you have got 15
mistakes in your code or if I say hey
developer you have done done 15 mistakes
in a code the two two statements have
two different meanings the first
statement says Hey developer your code
has 15 mistakes which I can very easily
digest as a developer considering that
yes everything is okay the code has a
problem and this guy is not pointing
that finger on me but in the second
statement I'm upfront telling the
developer that you are good for nothing
that means I'm telling him that hey
developer you have done 15 mistakes in
the code and it makes totally a
different sense so always it is
important for a tester to mind the
language mind the words what they're
using the way they are communicating
because it might hurt somebody's else
ego so it is very important for a tester
to keep that finger towards the product
and reporting of any such findings
should be done in a very fact focused
neutral way without criticizing the
person who created it right so that's
where it adds a lot of value further to
add confirmation bias can make it
difficult to accept information that
disagrees with currently held beliefs
that is of course the two people may not
agree on something as a common
understanding because a developer may
think that it is absolutely fine as per
my understanding or tester may say as
per my understanding it is a defect so
we need a third person U you know
advocating on that or maybe moderating
with a discussion between the developer
and tester to have a good Clarity or get
a clear picture of what is the ask also
at the same time the see some people may
perceive testing as a destructive
activity even though it contributes
greatly to project success and product
quality because people do treat this as
a destruct destruction in nature or
destructive approach the reason is they
think building a product is all about
writing the code but at some point of
time they believe that just because
testing happened we are getting delayed
but trust me on the other side everyone
do agrees to certain extent that thank
God we had testing in place because if
in case testing was not done this could
have gone to production and we could
have had a very very pathetic failure in
the market additionally to try to
improve this view information about
defects and failure should be
communicated in a constructive way at
the same time that means we are not
supposed to put it across to someone in
a very negative way rather we should
look forward to put it as constructive
as possible so that they feel they're
bringing something good for us not a bad
news so put together that's all we had
from the part one of course uh we are
there with some more topics to talk
about under the segment so we'll come
back to you with the next segment in
part two so that's all from this
particular tutorial team should you have
anything else feel free to comment below
I'm always there to address your goodies
and answer them well till then keep
learning keep exploring keep
understanding the context thanks for
watching the video team and happy
[Music]
learning
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