This presentation from CleanSoft Academy helps graduates to make a career choice in the discipline of software testing. A must read for all those graduates who are not sure what career to pursue after graduation.

1. CAREER CHOICE FOR GRADUATES
URL: www.cleansoft.in | Facebook: www.facebook.com/cleansoft2 | Twitter: www.twitter.com/clean_soft

2. SOME INCIDENTS
In July 2010 a major smart phone maker reported that their software
contained a long-time bug that resulted in incorrect indicators of signal
strength in the phone's interface. Reportedly customers had been
complaining about the problem for several years. The company provided
a fix for the problem several weeks later.
In August of 2008 it was reported that more than 600 U.S. airline flights
were significantly delayed due to a software glitch in the U.S. FAA air
traffic control system. The problem was claimed to be a 'packet switch'
that 'failed due to a database mismatch', and occurred in the part of the
system that handles required flight plans.
A rail car caught fire in a major underground metro system in April of 2007
according to newspaper accounts. The software reportedly failed to
perform as expected in detecting and preventing excess power usage in
equipment on new passenger rail cars, resulting in overheating and fire in
the rail car, and evacuation and shutdown of part of the system.
What is the connection between these incidents?
2

3. All the mentioned incidents and the problems
there, were due to defects in the software
programs/systems of the respective products
Not testing the software/systems effectively,
intelligently and thoroughly from various aspects
for various conditions/situations that can create
variety of losses to users/systems/businesses
3

4. WHAT IS A DEFECT?
…a shortcoming, fault, or imperfection
…lack or want, especially of something essential to
perfection or completeness
In software testing, a defect
is considered to be anything
that can hamper the
functioning or execution of
the software application or
service
... anything that deviates from meeting the expectations of the
customer/users can be considered as defect
4

5. IMPACT
A defect is a risk to success of the software product
Cost
Timeline Business
Reputation
A software defect is a “material breach” of the contract for sale
or license of the software. If it is so serious that the customer
can justifiably demand a fix or can cancel the contract, return
the software, and demand a refund.
5

6. RESULTS OF POOR QUALITY/TESTING
Loss of money due to
..increase in costs with more support calls
..increase in costs with rework in development/testing
..delays resulting in loss of revenue/business
..reduction in market share with diminished reputation
..lawsuits and criminal proceedings with regulatory
violations
..injuries and deaths in mission critical systems
6

7. WHY SHOULD WE BE BOTHERED ABOUT THIS?
Software is all pervading and used in many
systems/products that are needed by us in various ways
If the software is released to market/users without
adequate testing , it will greatly affect the users, the
businesses and the eco-system eventually resulting in
financial loss and could even result in injury or loss of life
to human beings
7

8. IMPORTANCE OF SOFTWARE TESTING
Testing is a critical component of software development life cycle. This
runs parallel with development activity to ensure that the software product
released is of highest quality.
Customers demand “quality”; hence
companies realize that investing in
testing services today is better rather
than risking business failure tomorrow.
Software non-performance and
failures are expensive to fix once they
are released into the market.
The size of software products today is millions of lines of code. The
increasing complexity along with decreasing average market life
expectancy of many software products has heightened concerns over
software quality. Software testing is not an ad-hoc process.
8

9. CAREER GROWTH IN TESTING
Today every IT company has a specialized full time test
organization. Starting as a test engineer, you can grow all the
way to becoming a Director/VP.
Software testing is not just a job,
you can make a successful career
out of it!
Companies treat test professionals on par with developers, in
fact a good tester can command a better salary than a
developer!
9

10. OBJECTIVES OF TESTING
Check if the system is doing what it is
supposed to do
+
Check if the system does NOT do what it is
NOT supposed to do
…to ensure that expectations that the
end users have from a system is indeed
met. 10

11. WHO DOES TESTING?
Development Testing Pre-
deployment
Developers QA Staff Functional
Specialists
End Users
It is not just QA staff who do testing.
Early stage code is tested by developers.
QA staff test the system once developers deliver partial/full
system.
Before deployment, functional domain specialists do testing.
Before going live, typical end users also test.
11

12. PSYCHOLOGY NEEDED FOR TESTING
Testing requires a “mentality to break”.
It requires a ‘negative attitude’.
What can “go-wrong” thinking
How can end user “abuse”
How can I mis-configure
What if other thing fails
Constantly suspicious User centric
Be very curious Persuasive
Attention to details Be interactive, stay
engaged
Keen sense of Big picture thinking
observation
Continuously learn Communicate clearly
12

13. OPPORTUNITIES IN TESTING –
INDUSTRY REPORTS
“The global testing services market is estimated to be US$ 50
Billion by 2020. The estimated size of testing market in India by
2020 is US$ 13-15 Billion.”
“Testing workforce in India in 2010 was 63,000. According to
current estimate, India will require around 22,000 testing
professionals every year over the next 3 years to meet the
demand of the software testing market.”
“Indian market will require approximately 1,65,000 testers by the
year 2013.”
“Talent remains to be the major
challenge for testing companies due
to lack of availability of industry-
ready graduates from colleges.”
Source: Gartner, IDC and NASSCOM
13

14. WHAT IS IN IT FOR NON-ENGINEERING GRADUATES?
Indian IT firms are interested in hiring more and
more Non-Engineering graduates such as science
(BSc), computer science (BCA) graduates for
testing and support services
Companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant,
ITC Infotech and KPIT Cummins among others are
hiring more of science and computer science
graduates already
Professionals from non-engineering backgrounds
form about 5% of the total engineering workforce of
Infosys. The company has hired close to 14,000
engineers and about 700 BSc graduates in 2010 –
2011
Wipro Technologies hires non-engineering
graduates (science & commerce) from colleges as
part of it’s Wipro Academy of Software Excellence
14

15. INDUSTRY EXPECTATIONS
Software companies expect test engineers to be project-ready from
Day #1
They expect you to be skilled, independent and possess good
analytical skills.
Knowing testing concepts is just not enough anymore.
Organizations expect you to have exposure to
techniques & technologies, be familiar with programming
concepts, databases etc.
They also expect you to be conversant with tools and be
capable of supporting the development team in test
specification, execution and reporting needs.
Today organizations value soft skills like communication,
teamwork in the youngsters more than just academic
knowledge. They not only expect good technical skills,
but expect you to communicate well, work well in a team
and be less dependent on others.
In short, the industry expects YOU to be CONFIDENT.
15