As a software testing practitioner, do you understand your development direction?

As a software testing practitioner , Have you figured out your development direction ？ Goes the , Men are afraid of going wrong , Women are afraid of marrying the wrong man . Now , Line breaks are very convenient , But if you don't understand the way after entering the industry , After all, it will only be a waste .

Generally speaking , Management and technology are the main development direction of testers . Integration of development and testing under agile development mode , Test development, which is very popular in recent years, was born , Flat management concept transmitted from Internet manufacturers , It also allows people who focus on software testing technology to have more career development choices .

The growth path of Management

Management is in a specific environment , Effectively plan the resources the organization has 、 organization 、 Leadership and control , The process of achieving established organizational goals .

Different companies have different levels of Management . however , It can be divided into three levels ： Grassroots test managers 、 Middle level test managers and Senior Test Managers .

The following figure is from the position 、 Experience requirements 、 Management scale 、 These three levels are summarized and compared at the level of responsible object and work content , Help us better understand how these positions develop .

Grassroots test managers ： Test team leader

Grass roots test managers generally have about three years of working experience , Lead your team （ Less than ten people ） Complete the test task together , For example, the test of a version or the test of a project delivery . Grassroots test managers often assume the most important responsibilities in the group 、 The most complex test work , It's the backbone of the team , So sometimes we call them technical leaders .

Middle level test manager ： Test Manager

Middle level test managers generally have about five years of working experience , Lead a medium-sized team （ Ten to dozens of people ）, Responsible for testing one or more products . They need to be responsible for the whole process of product testing , They need and different roles （ Such as products 、 Development 、 maintain 、 market 、 service personal ） Communication and cooperation , Achieve product objectives . Management , They are responsible for the testing team “ Breeding, using and retaining ”; Technical aspects , They need to be able to solve the difficulties encountered in team testing 、 problem , Continuously improve the testing ability of the team .

Senior Test Managers ： Test Director

Senior test managers generally have about ten years of working experience , Lead a large team （ Dozens to hundreds of people ）, Responsible for one or more product lines . Like other high-level managers , Senior test managers are also responsible for the company's business success . Their work will focus more on Strategy 、 Development and planning , Such as the organizational structure of the test team 、 Performance standard setting 、 Talent selection and training （ Such as qualification ）、 Improve efficiency, etc , For the health of the test team 、 Responsible for sound development .

The forward extension of Technology

The technical development direction of testers can be divided into three categories ： Product testing experts 、 Testing technologist 、 Test developers .

Product testing experts ： Test Architect

Test Architect is a development direction of test technology , He is an expert in product testing technology , Its main responsibility is to different organizations 、 product 、 Research and development mode to make the most suitable choice for the current situation , Do just the right test , Escort the success of the product , Provide support .

Many companies have system architects , relatively speaking , You are familiar with the position of system architect , But not all companies have positions like Test Architect . In fact, there are many similarities in the responsibilities of test architects and system architects , We can use system architects to understand the role of test architects , As shown in the figure below .

Testing technologist

We can also focus on a certain testing technology field , Develop into a test technology expert in this field . Software testing has developed to this day , A sound testing system has long been formed , Every test activity （ Such as test analysis and design 、 The test execution 、 Test evaluation 、 Test process, etc ） Both have rich connotations , It's all worth studying , Corresponding testers can develop into experts in relevant fields , Such as test analysis and design experts 、 Test process expert 、 Exploratory testing experts, etc , As shown in the following table .

besides , Each product quality attribute （ Such as performance 、 reliability 、 Safety, etc ） Have their own professional testing methods and tools , There is also a very large space , It's worth ploughing , The corresponding testers can develop into experts in relevant fields , Such as security testing experts 、 Ease of use / User experience testing expert 、 Performance test experts, etc , As shown in the following table .

Test developers

Test development is a very popular test position in recent years , Generally speaking, test development can be divided into three categories ：

Test development engineers who prefer automated test architecture ;

In favor of efficiency 、 Test Development Engineer of tool chain ;

Test development engineers who can pair up with developers .

The following figure summarizes the general technology stack of test development engineers .

among “ Development capability ” and “ Development capability ” Basics ” This is an area that all test developers need to focus on . Test development engineers related to automated test architecture also need to focus on “ automated testing ” and “ Test type ”, Performance and tool chain related test development engineers need to focus on “ Test type ” and “ R & D effectiveness ”.

Management or technology

The answer to this question ultimately depends on your choice . First of all, you must break through the new level , As a type of technical work , Technology must be quite important . It is recommended that the test manager , Especially at the grass-roots and middle levels , Don't give up technical advantages too early , Just focus on managing 、 communicate 、 In terms of coordination , It's hard to imagine that a manager who doesn't pass the test technology can lead the test team well . Of course , If you're on the technical path , If you have spare time in your daily work , It's not impossible to be involved in Management .