How to excel as a test consultant
Graduating from a Computer Science university doesn’t mean you will end up being a geek who becomes a coding night owl. That stereotype image is very limited. The beauty of I.T is that there are essential professions that don’t require 8 hours of coding daily. Laveena Ramchandani, a senior Test Consultant shares with us her experience combining business customer perspective and technical quality assurance.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
The best part of my role is the fact that we are always curious about the product under development. I love exploring and finding out more about the product.
Also, we have to think like the user and try and understand the system and the journeys our clients would be making when using the product. There are various types of testing one can do on a product too, so it’s nice to research how your testing could help improve the quality of the product under construction.
Moreover, I like the idea of collaborating and pairing up within the team. If I can learn the reason behind an implementation and how it was done, that gives me more ideas of how I will actually test the particular feature.
Here are the most important points to focus on as a QA consultant:
* User centered point of view:
You must wear the users/clients hat on. Try to understand their behaviour, their needs and use these as insights to support the developers.
* Good communication:
Make sure you communicate and pair up with team members to understand the product much better. If you have a bright idea, do not fear to communicate.
* Precision:
Make sure to be detail oriented and work on testing scenarios as per client requirements.
* Fast learning and want-to-learn attitude:
You may be doing similar work on a daily basis, but some parts of the role are more novel, and some require more focus. Continuous learning is a core part.It’s challenging.
It’s a process.
It’s fun!
Can you recall a situation where you were challenged and how you dealt with it?
I remember when I was told we are moving away from manual testing to automation testing. That was a scary feeling for me, as I was never too eager to code. I think at that point it made sense being a little worried as I lacked skills coding. However, I decided to put my head down and actually start researching, practicing more and it all turned out to be an excellent skill set I acquired.
Another challenge I think most QA’s face is the idea of spreading QA eminence. Sometimes we become so excited to do certain types of functional, non-functional testing and walking 10 steps ahead and thinking out loud but get pushed back. This push back is not entirely negative it is something that may not be a priority as a team at that point in time. Knowing myself I am an overly motivated QA and that keeps me going. At the end of the day you have mentioned it within your team, sooner or later you can actually work on it. I think it is best to always give a positive outlook to things whether that was learning to code or trying to bring in more quality checks and processes.
“There is NO perfect QA, therefore just be yourself, ask questions ALL THE TIME.”
Career advice to those who want to go into the field?
There is NO perfect QA, therefore just be yourself, ask questions ALL THE TIME. Try and understand what the impact of a particular implementation on your product will be and how you can test it better and help the client’s journey when using the product.
To get into a field in IT, I think the best thing is to understand what kind of roles there are for you. What is the best fit for you? Are you super technical or would you like a mix of technical and business awareness or you just prefer the business and product awareness side of things?
Highlight possible roles and research them and find out from actual individuals of what they think of this role. Also, if you start as a tester/QA and then transition to a developer role, Kudos there is nothing wrong in that that’s actually amazing. Or if you transition from a QA to a UX designer. I would suggest attending conferences to actually hear more from the individuals and get a better understanding of what you are looking to excel in.
If you’re more curious about latest testing trends, check Laveena’s article about testing a Data Science model or dig into deeper technical articles on her medium.
