Few people outside the IT industry have a clear idea of what software testers do. But even among those directly involved in software development, there are often misconceptions about the work of quality assurance professionals. Let’s finally debunk a few common myths about testing.
1. Testing is too expensive
As the saying goes: “If you don’t want to pay for testing during development, you have to pay for those. post-release support and fixes. Early testing helps to save money, while failure or neglect of testing can have the most unfortunate effect on the quality of your product.
2. Testing takes a long time
Testing itself (provided that production processes are properly organized) goes in parallel with development, so it’s a stretch to talk about the time spent on testing. The truth is that fixing bugs found during the testing process takes time and effort – but after all, the result of these efforts will be to improve the quality of the product.
3. Only finished products are tested
Without a doubt, testing depends on the written code. But there is also testing of requirements and the creation of test artifacts, which can be carried out even before the creation of the finished version of the product. In addition, in an iterative development model, the processes of testing and writing code are quite independent.
4. You can fully test the program
The problem arises when the client or project manager thinks so. This statement directly contradicts the second principle of testing, so yes, you can run a lot of tests and provide full coverage of the functionality, but this will not mean that the software is fully tested. There can always be an error that you missed. Therefore, exhaustive testing is impossible – we can only bring the quality of the system to an acceptable level.
5. Testers are to blame for missed bugs
It is wrong to blame testers for bugs remaining in the application even after a full cycle of testing. The problem here is time constraints, development costs, and frequently changing requirements. Testers, like other participants in the development process, are often limited in time and resources, which affects the quality of their work. So this is where priorities need to be set.
6. Testers are responsible for product quality
This is a very common misconception. It is the responsibility of testers to find bugs and communicate information about them to interested participants in the development process, after which the latter decide what to do with these bugs – whether they will be fixed or postponed.
7. The only job of a tester is to find bugs
From the previous sections, you should have already understood that this is far from the case. While developers usually work with a fairly narrow functional area, testers must understand the organization of the system as a whole. In addition, in modern conditions, testers often take part not only in testing as such, but also in quality assurance processes.
8. Anyone can test software
People outside the IT industry often think that anyone without special training can test programs and that testing is a job that does not require special knowledge and a creative approach. Be that as it may, testers are well aware that this is a myth.
Today, in order to become a sought-after specialist in the field of software testing, you need to have a sufficient level of training, understand modern trends in the development of information technology and possess the personal qualities necessary for the profession. A good tester, in addition to the testing area itself, must know the basics of programming and speak English at a level not lower than Intermediate.
But even if something of the above is not enough for you, do not worry. We can help you with this. QAContest has successfully trained many people to be a tester. Our graduates work in leading IT companies both in USA and in Europe.