distributedlife

This follows on from yesterdays post.

I’m going to talk about the lack of direction a little bit more.

At present no certification, nor the Association of Software Testers currently define what we do when we test.

What I mean by this is; when I am asked to test an API, there is nothing that tells me that I need to consider the command/query separation principle and that violations of it should be raised with the developer.

In terms of what they do provide the certifications only have vague notions of specialisation. The ISTQB has test analyst, technical tester and test manager but as you will soon see these categories are too broad to be usable and the still don’t provide the kind of guidance I mentioned before.

Now, this lack of guidance is not necessarily the fault of the certifications; they have an emphasis on the process of testing. Not what to test.

In terms of advancement certifications only provide simplistic notions. The ISTQB has foundation, advanced and expert levels while the QAI has associate, practitioner and manager. This last advancement tier is tied into specialisation. These rudimentary advancement models and the lack of emphasis on career development showed up in my research: 64% of those with a certification felt that even with a certification they still have insufficient information to achieve their career goals.

The companies that hire testers also use simplistic notions of advancement with terms such as Junior and Senior. These are not appropriate ways of indicating competency. They are based on the needs of an organisation at a given point of time; not some measure of competency as defined by the tester and the profession.

To overcome the issues of a lack of direction, retention and an information deficit we need three things:

1. A structure that provides clarity about what we do when we test

2. A set of specialisation that reflect that diversity that exists within the field

3. A framework that realistically allows us to assess our competency

I’ll cover these tomorrow.

[to be continued...]