Few days back I was talking to one fellow tester from Philadelphia and he asked me what I liked and what I did not like in testing. I explained why testing is such a big misunderstood profession. Every product manager or client thinks that since tester has tested the product there will not be and there should not be any field defect. This is against the principle of software testing and assumes that testers will be able to perform exhaustive testing and testing proves absence of defect.

When I get calls from prospective trainees for my weekend training classes, I find that most of the guys are confused about what testing is. There is so much confusion about testing among the guys who wants to become testers. One of the most popular reasons why they join testing is because they think software testing is easier than the other disciplines in information technology domain.

Engineering schools and colleges do not teach testing as a separate subject. The technical graduates fresh out of colleges have never heard of software testing. The guys with poor knowledge in programming will want to become software testers. The commercial training institutes will train them for two months of theories, record and playback tools and that’s how they are shipped as software testers.

This should change. There should be more awareness about testing. Technical schools and colleges should now introduce software testing a parallel subject as they do for Java, dot net and database subjects. To improve the quality of awareness of testing we should not merely rely on the training hawkers and certification agents.

What do you think about this? Write to us with your feedback on teaching software testing in technical schools and colleges. I am sure we can create some changes to the thinking of our education policy makers.

Enjoy another informative issue of Testing Circus. Happy Testing!

– Ajoy Kumar Singha

 

Ajoy Kumar SinghaAjoy's EditorialsFew days back I was talking to one fellow tester from Philadelphia and he asked me what I liked and what I did not like in testing. I explained why testing is such a big misunderstood profession. Every product manager or client thinks that since tester has tested the...