TEN TOP SKILLS FOR AN IT TESTER

  

 The Software testers don't like to break things; they like to dispel the illusion that things work. It is a new dictum contained in the famous book, Lessons Learned in Software Testing, written by Kaner, Bach, Pettichord.  Software testing is a system performed by a tester to find and fix bugs in a computer application or program. Software testing validates  the application, program, application or product. Gerald Weinberg, computer scientist and tester had exhorted us to learn something new every day. Learning every day means you are testing.

 

It is critical for you to learn new things and update yourself in technical skills. Unless you do it, you will become redundant.The U S A is a huge market for Testing jobs and QA (Quality analyst) jobs. LinkedIn cites 112000 such jobs. The average pay a Manual QA Tester gets annually is around $ 79000. A software tester need to possess specific technical skills. Here are the most valuable ten skills:

 

1. Awareness of SDLC   

 

SDLC (software development life cycle) defines actions you have to perform at each stage of the development of software. Testers and QAs should strive to achieve product lifecycle management skills. It will enable them to comprehend the application improvement issues.Then you can have a plan for testing cycles. It will help the quality analyst to suspect defects in the application.Testers should grasp a few development methods, like Scrum, Waterfall and Agile.

 

2. STLC skills  

 

STLC stands for Product Testing Life Cycle.

 

STLC is a procedure to improve the overall product quality. It is a group of procedures done by the software testers from the start to completion. It includes steps such as analysis of requirements, grouping, test planning, test case, setting up an ecosystem, doing tests, and closing the cycle.

 

3. Bug Reporting Tools

 

Bug reporting is the prime responsibility of a tester. He should be aware of different testing techniques and applications of tools. The tools are white box, black box, security and unit testing. Many bug reporting tools such as bug tracking, test management, GUI testing, and automation tools are available.

 

4.Get Techniques of Automation  

 

Relying on manual testing alone will help in executing the job well. Testers should have automation skills for testing browser compatibility, performance, headless, and database and integration layers. It imparts higher accuracy. Several test automation tools are there to support different testing types.

 

5. Communicate Better

 

As a tester, you should have good communication skills. Here it refers to good speaking, writing, listening, and reading skills. Quality analysts should communicate effectively with clients at all stages: updating the project's status, informing requirements to the team, passing on issues to the developers, translating specification documents to test cases, and preparing reports. Good communication helps in high degree of comprehension.

 

6. Logical, Analytical Thinking   

 

A software tester identifies bugs with rationales in the code. Your analytical thinking capabilities ensure that you are thinking out of the box. It should result in the creation of various test cases. Logical thinking helps you understand all Dos and Don't s when you test as an end client. You have to apply a vivid range of prospects. Your analytical skills and logical thinking make the product strong.

 

7. Project Management   

 

Testing skills alone will not be sufficient in the long run. You need time and project management skills. As a QA, you should understand the process involved in the business and the overall project details. Strong problem-solving and top project management tactics will assist you in crises. Having in-depth programming talent will make you perform excellently in testing the code. If you have in-depth knowledge of the code, your contribution to the development team will be immense. You will be able to come up with ideas that will benefit the product.

 8. Updating on Web & Mobile Technologies  

 

If you are a tester, you should also get updated with the current web and portable innovations. It helps you comprehend its scalability. Every software tester should be aware of the progress in web/mobile technology. It helps you to figure out the coding style. Yo get to know the technical challenges to achieve the required QA solutions.

 

9. Acquire Decision-making Skills

 

Analytical and decision-making skills ensure that you are capable of thinking out of the box. These skills will help break up a complex software system into smaller units to get a superior comprehension. Logical judgment plays a basic role when you are an end-user thinking of all possibilities. The goal is to make the product strong. It can be done quickly by a tester with strong decision-making skills.

 

10. Have Reporting  Skills

 

An ideal tester must have good reporting skills. It helps to provide the actual condition of the project under test to clients. Your reporting needs to be self-explanatory with high quality. Such a reporting testifies to overall coordination. It will deliver transparency to the top management regarding tests executed, and bugs encountered.

 

Be Independent

 

Finally, such a process would help you to work independently. It will sharpen your ability to work on the project right from the very beginning to final delivery, taking the right steps without help from others or supervision from the top brass. Independence will instill more confidence in you.

 © Ramachandran 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN BUSINESS ANALYSIS

 

You are seeing robots besides the anchor in today's TV programs. It may not be far away when a robot itself asks questions in the Slumdog Millionaire program. Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its presence felt everywhere in the connected world. It could be seen in deep technologies, self driven vehicles, or robots.

 

AI as part of daily life. It has changed how you react to life and technology.Your purchase in Amazon, queries to  Siri and request to  Alexa to play a song involves AI.

 

AI-enabled technologies have a prime place in emerging technologies like Gartner. AI has impacted business analytics immensely.

 

All companies have a huge volume of data in their store house. Its complexity makes AI business analytics tools inevitable. It also necessitates business analyst  in every sector. The use of AI and business intelligence (or BI) is helping companies enterprises tremendously. They pull out immeasurable insights out of complex data bases. They deliver valuable business recommendations.

 

Artificial intelligence is based on algorithms. They are based on data. Data analysis is an essential part of AI. Questions and answers provide accurate data for the algorithm. The provided data should be correct.

 

Dependence on data may create a bias. Algorithms are opinions that stay embedded in code, for fictional characters. The perceptions behind the algorithms are flawed, and often people using AI don't comprehend the code.

 

 AI Role in Business

 

AI is used to train computer applications with human intelligence traits.Human beings learn, solve problems and make decisions. Those are human traits.The AI application in business is enabled by machine learning (ML) technology. It is used to perform specific tasks like,

 

• Complex text reading and comprehension

• Recognition of images and classification

• Recognition of objects and  facial features

 

AI applications in business could be seen in

 

• Chatbots, BI bots, virtual assistance

• Online advertising

• Predictive analytics

• Recognition of voice

• Pattern recognition

 

Benefits of AI in Business

 

• Automate communication with customers through online chats, emails and social media. These were assigned previously to human beings

• It gives online shoppers a personalized experience., based on customer behavior and online buying patterns.

• Automated inventory management. Robotics in hotel check-ins and factory premises

• Business predictions, sales forecasts depending on customer data.

• Real time communicates with customers using mobile apps

• Measuring sales data with Performance Dashboard

 

The AI revolution in Business

 

There are three major applications of AI in business:

 

1. Work Automation

 

AI-driven work automation in the near future is estimated to affect over 9 million jobs in the U.S. General Electric through AI powered smart sensors, has reduced its machine downtime. They have installed them on their manufacturing equipment. Yo can combine AI with the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. It can reduce costs, improve productivity, and create specialized jobs.

2. Sales and Marketing

 

AI in marketing and sales has revolutionized marketing and sales in various industries. AI enables marketing personnel to automate their routine tasks through acquired data. Facebook uses ML algorithms. It tracks customer behavior and targets them with an apt digital ad. Airbnb uses AI to optimize and market the right prices based on customer demand.

 

3. Customer Service

 

About 30% of all online retail business today happen on smart phones. Surveys say that the top five apps used by online customers are for messaging their needs and social media. Business houses have AI enabled chatbots for customer service.  Royal Dutch Airlines does traveler check-ins and flight notifications through its Facebook app. Facebook Messenger boasts over 300,000  bots. Monthly, It exchanges around 20 billion messages between various companies and customers.

 

AI in Business Analytics

 

IoT-enabled devices will be 75 billion by 2025,, according to estimates. It is up from 26 billion in 2019. The data from these devices is a whopping five quintillion bytes each day. Walmart through 11,000 retail stores, uses the ML-enabled HANA platform. It processes its day today transactions, appointing people in business analyst  jobs.

 

The business management software firm Domo has implemented AI, productive analytics and machine learning. Its customers extract data from Facebook,Salesforce, and Shopify and compare.

 

AI business analytics is sure to become common. It will transform the role-played by the present day business analyst. AI powers real-time data analysis. Hence, business analysts will be free to focus on fundamental analysis. The AI DataRobot assists in predictive modelling. Even the unskilled users can handle it.

 

Statistical data is positive: over 60% of executives support AI strategy to create more data-driven business avenues.\. 72% of business managers consider it a major advantage.

 

BI bots assist decision-making by analyzing data. They analyze data queries made in a natural language without complex querying codes. BI bots will boost the adoption of BI tools in company workplaces.

 

AI-powered BI tools can

 

1. Manage volumes of big data

2. Get real-time insights from market data

3. Substitute the industry shortage of good data analysts

 

Caution 

 

Artificial intelligence will not eliminate human intervention. Qualitative analysis is still crucial. Human beings are intense, complex, and unpredictable. You can't control human intuition. Your are influenced by your mood, the feelings of others, and frustration. Knut Hamsun, the famous Norwegian novelist, wrote Hunger, to show how even hunger can influence your decisions. Hunger has been the foundation for political revolution. These human elements aren't considered while determining AI's logic.

 

You will continue to work with human beings. Caligula, the Roman emperor, appointed his own horse, as his advisor. But you can't appoint a robot as your CEO; Uncovering the real issues that need to be solved beyond algorithms will require human intervention. Only the human brain can achieve customer-focused product development and design. A chip will never replace the brain.

 

The global world is becoming more connected. Virtual interactions will be more common. The ability to effectively elicit information with a virtual team will be a necessity. The human brain will be 24x7.

© Ramachandran