When did your journey in software testing begin? - STEC 1.1.0

[amandefasano (Amandine)]

I began the MoT Software Testing Essentials Certification last week, and I’m quite excited about it!

The first lesson was on the history of software testing, and even though it was a “very brief” one, it was already quite rich!

In the lesson, Beth Marshall summarizes the different trends in the software development industry that have impacted testing activities, which are as follows:

1985: Waterfall model
The waterfall model is a software devolopment approach that breaks down the different development activities into « linear sequential phases, meaning that each phase is passed down onto each other, where each phase depends on the deliverables of the previous one and corresponds to a specialization of tasks. » This simply means that the development phases are executed one after another. Therefore, testing takes place at the very end of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

2001: Agile manifesto
Contrary to the Waterfall method, Agile methodologies promote an iterative and flexible SDLC, where all phases are executed for a small part of the product (a feature, for example), and repeated over and over until the product is complete. In this context, tests are designed and executed during each iteration—meaning multiple times throughout the SDLC.

2002: Test automation
Test automation refers to the use of software tools to perform testing activities—specifically, to automatically execute pre-programmed tests on the Software Under Test (SUT).

Around 2010 (even though these practices had existed for over 30 years, they weren’t widely adopted until then):
Exploratory Testing , Cloud Testing , Microservices
Exploratory testing involves creatively exploring the application to uncover bugs or anomalies that might not be detected through predefined test cases.
Cloud testing refers to testing software in a cloud environment.
Microservices is a software architectural pattern that organizes an application into smaller, independent services that communicate via lightweight protocols. Testing microservices ensures that each component of the application functions correctly and that the services can be integrated seamlessly.

More recently: DevOps , CI/CD
DevOps is a modern software development methodology that emphasizes early and continuous collaboration between development and operations teams throughout the SDLC. This approach is intended to help organizations deliver products faster and more continuously.
CI/CD, which stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, refers to a development practice where code changes are consistently integrated and delivered as soon as they are developed. This means software is released quickly, so it’s crucial to ensure its reliability in real time.

I’m curious about your experience! When did you begin your testing journey? What was the trend in the industry or company when you started testing? Was there a particular trend you felt obligated to follow? And which one did you genuinely embrace?

I’ll leave you with a quote from Beth Marshall that really stuck with me during the 1.1.0 STEC lesson:

« We [the software testing industry] attract lots and lots of people from different backgrounds. Each of those people brings a different experience, a different set of transferable skills, and lots and lots of knowledge to the table. So you might be asking yourself ‘Is this really for someone like me?’. But believe me, it’s really really important to the tech industry that you’re here. »

[lili (Elisse)]

I feel a lot of feelings for the quote you just stated!

I do believe that the Testing Community is such a rich place for different people to engage with. It seems like it’s a place in the software development world that is not so daunting. Perhaps because of the fact that different experiences bring various perspectives, leading to unique ways of testing.

I started my Software Testing journey by literally just creating test cases and executing it for a website and an online game. “Requirements Traceability Matrix” and “Pre-conditions, Steps, Results” are some of the earliest things I learned.

I enhanced these practices and knowledge further by getting a basic software testing certificate too, which is, in my opinion, the best way to understand SDLC/STLC better for a fresher like me!

[fransiscusdenny (FDenny)]

2017 : At a Startup, my first time as tester, no testing experience, no guidance, low visibility, no requirement, no documentation. I start digging all information from my cross functional team (developer, PM, scrum, business team, sales, even CTO and CEO) to know better about my company, our products/features. I got all informations and create documentation for it, so everyone no need to ask one by one or each other, just look at documentations i created.

Day by day, month by month, year by year, i learn a lot of things about quality, technology, people, documentation, i start research and learn about testing not just manual but automation. How to create test case, test plan, test report, bug report, tracking, etc. Until found ISTQB and MoT.

[fruityoatybar (Kaylen Stuart)]

I fell into software testing by accident.
Ex-Web developer turned Compliance Tester by the lure of “getting paid to play games”!

“The Break from Tech job” - I was trying to take a break from being a web developer, was working at a publishing company’s marketing dept and ended up being the go-to person for when the email campaign/landing page was “acting weird” - I spent a lot of time investigating issues and quickly realised I enjoy investigating the code, more than writing it.
“The Side Gig” - Walking home from “The Break from Tech job”, I saw a weekend Game Tester temp job advertised, applied and got the job. Like most people, I thought Game Tester meant ‘get paid to play games’ and had a fast education when on the first day I was told I would be doing something called Compliance Testing and handed a folder of Microsoft’s requirements (XRs).
Fast Forward 10 years - Lots of googling of all things software testing, lots of pizza and support from MoT meet ups, compliance requirements has expanded to include all sorts of random things including automation, security and AI models. I’ve had all sorts of job titles (from Manual Tester to a QA Lead), I even got around to doing the ISTQB last year!