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Lately, people ask why companies take so long in hiring software testers when just anybody can be employed to do the job. What do you think?
Yes, anybody can test software (Whoa there! Don’t riot just yet, hear me out!)
We’re (humans in general) all testers and have been since birth for just about anything we come into contact with.
Anybody can test but depending on the quality, level of results, reporting and detail you require, you need to decide on the level of skill and experience you want from your tester (hopefully this answers the ‘hire or not to hire’ question).
As an example, if any of you have either managed or been involved in a test lab or Public/Beta testing then you’ll know that with good development and test documentation, you can allow a much broader range of users to test it.
Their skill & experience in testing will usually affect the detail in which they report results and the number of issues found. This is not however as straight forward as it may seem.
A professional tester with a high level of product familiarity could be testing the software within its limits (using as it is intended to be used). Whereas an end user with possibly less experience may test it as they expect it to perform. You can turn this on its head immediately by theorising that an end user with less product experience may not understand the full use of the product and therefore not test as thoroughly.
These are just example scenarios but can produce unexpected results and for that reason I would recommend a combination of pro and non-pro testers.My point is this (I know you were beginning to wonder):
Maybe we shouldn’t be asking “can anybody test?”
How about asking “SHOULD everybody test?”
My answer to that question would be yes. The more eyes you can get on your software, the better. The more varied abilities involved the better. The more results received the better.Just my opinion but it works very well for me.
completely agreed with Seth!
a good example for me is when you have to test a web application. you need to test first if the application works such as the acceptance criteria require. and to do this you probably need some good testers with a certain experience and the right skill.
then you need to test the the look&feel of the pages, in the FrontEnd of the application. and who is the most skilled to do this thing? the one with zero skills on that pages checks the best out of usability of your web application.
this lead to the first thing I learned when I fell into Testing: know everything but act like noobs!
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