Aiti Tribe Stories (29): What is it like to develop transformation testing?

[51CTO.com original article] Gavin has 20 years of work experience and has experience in developing multiple projects and systems. He initially worked on Java system development and has used popular open source frameworks. Later, he switched to testing and led the team to implement compatible Web testing platform construction, performance testing implementation, automated testing implementation, mobile terminal testing and testing technology exploration in the testing field. Currently, he mainly does management and technical guidance work.

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Gavin·Test Supervisor

From development to testing, a gorgeous transformation

At that time, Gavin thought that he had developed a very robust project, but many bugs were found in the test. Therefore, he became curious about testing and wanted to expand his capabilities. So, by chance, he switched to testing work. At first, he did not understand the testing methods and processes, but gradually understood them through learning, training and practice. In the early stage of testing, Gavin was engaged in testing technical support, specializing in after-sales technology of testing software, as well as performance and automation testing.

Because it is easier to get started from development, he can understand the situations where developers do not cooperate or do not understand. For such interference, he usually communicates more about testing concepts to enhance the quality awareness of developers and form mutual support. Now Gavin has worked in the testing industry for many years, and later gradually led the team to do full-time testing, including functional testing.

Gavin switched to testing purely out of interest at the time . However, in the future, development and testing will be unified. With the development of technology, development and testing will also be development, and testing will also be development. The boundaries will be blurred. The pressure of development often lies in the tight deadlines, and some require technical research, etc., with the goal of achieving construction. The pressure of testing also has the problem of deadlines, but the pressure of responsibility for testing is very heavy. If a problem occurs, the person who is most responsible is often the tester, so testing is required to be particularly detailed, and the functions that need to be considered must also be comprehensive, and the workload is no less than that of development.

Compared with the past, testing work also requires technology, and the technical requirements are getting higher and higher, just like there is no big difference between automated testing and development. In addition to understanding the testing concept, testers must also pay attention to the technical part. This will help to better discover and understand deep-seated problems, such as multithreading. Only in this way can we know whether it is a concurrency problem. Including some framework concepts, which helps to locate problems, and understanding database technology, and being able to independently fill in data and do stress testing data.

For newcomers who want to switch to testing, Gavin recommends starting with a technical support position . It is relatively easy, with relatively few testing techniques, and it is easy for people with development experience to get started without having to learn too much about complex business. It is just that they do not understand the basic testing methods, which requires a little learning. Relatively speaking, testing is not difficult, and work can be carried out relatively smoothly.

Here are two common problems in testing:

The first question is how to make a case for the requirements, which is the basic requirement for testers. Through systematic learning of basic test theory methods, such as boundary value, equivalence class, etc., and then putting these methods into practice, you can quickly enter the testing work.

The second problem is the use of test tools. You need to understand the concepts and principles of these tools. There is no special method, you can only learn through documents and practice. Read more online materials, read original documents, and test environment verification, and you can basically master them. Problems involving special environments can be solved by searching documents and forums.

Organize and record the problems solved, accumulate and improve.

A brief analysis of the reasons for the stagnation of test case management

Gavin has a good understanding of testing and development processes and technologies. This time, he will talk about the management and experience of test cases in testing. He mainly shares the problem of test case management, which has always lagged behind development. He has worked in several companies since he entered the industry. Whether he was in development or in test management, he learned from his own experience and from most of his colleagues and friends that test case management is still mainly based on Xmind and Excel. Only a small number of companies have adopted commercial solutions or self-developed tools.

Compared with the frequent updates and iterations of development technology, testing has not made much progress in this direction. What is the reason for the stagnation of test case management? Gavin analyzed the following main reasons:

1. Business tools are expensive and most companies cannot afford the cost

These tools are unrealistic for small and medium-sized companies to purchase software. The necessary software tools are not necessarily genuine (without discrimination), let alone the expensive expenses. In most cases, the free version is adopted to try to make the company's management model and software have a better match, which also leads to the popularity of various software in the market, and no one can occupy the mainstream position;

2. The self-development capability is limited or the cost investment is not cost-effective

Self-development requires a development team to handle it, and the technical capabilities for testing self-developed tools are often lacking; even automation testers focus more on the business field, and need to accumulate the depth and breadth of pure product R&D technology;

3. The labor cost of testing is low, and adding more manpower can make up for the problem

This is a more realistic factor. Most functional testers enter this field after graduation. Few of them work in the same business field for a long time. Many of them enter other work fields after becoming familiar with the business for about 3 years. Some of them switch to product development, including pre-sales support; many of them switch to performance testing and automated testing in the testing field. In this process, they learn test case design and test execution, and do not consider more related management issues.

In addition, compared to development, human resources can be replenished more quickly, and the reduction in the amount of individual tasks also reduces the need for case management. For management, this factor also does not require too high an accurate assessment of the project's test workload, thereby relaxing the management requirements for test cases;

4. The testing process is not given enough attention in the company's production process

Compared with the product process of large companies, most companies do not have a deep understanding of the role of the testing link, and often have administrative instructions to "just test it", which makes the already insufficiently resourced testing even more difficult to fully execute. The most missing part is the test case design, and without this link, management is out of the question. Even for outsourced projects, due to time compression, test cases are often designed after software delivery.

Despite the cost and other factors, we still hope that the design and management of use cases can be given enough attention and promoted. Is there a good solution? Gavin believes there are two points:

1. The promotion of testing concepts enables everyone to fully understand testing, recognize the importance of testing, and ensure the strict implementation of testing;

2. The evolution of management tools makes use case management more convenient and easier to use through the improvement of tool technology;

***As a prospect, I hope that the testing work can be deepened and developed, so that testing can fully safeguard the quality of software products.

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