Software Testing Blog

Santhosh Tuppad has high hopes for the software testing industry – and he’s here to tell you all about them as this month’s featured guest blogger. Over the last year or so, Santhosh has proven to be one of the top testers in our global community: He is an active member of the uTest forums, Bug Battles and, of course, numerous customer test cycles. His rise through the ranks of the uTest community was highlighted as part of our Tester Spotlight series.

Aside from uTest, Santhosh is a member of the Weekend Testing, and received his formal training from fellow guest blogger Pradeep Soundararajan. For more on his background, go check out his blog or follow him on Twitter.

As you could have guessed from the title, this post is about my wishful thinking of software testing. Of course, I can’t be expected to cover all of my wishes in a single blog post, but I have done my best to highlight a few areas of great potential – and here they are:

More active software testing communities
As many of you know from being a member of uTest, software communities will play a big part in the future of testing. Although uTest is a global community, I envision similar communities popping up in every city, state and country. The Weekend Testing group, of which I’m also a member, is another great example of this.

Software testing in schools and colleges

Pradeep Soundararajan – my testing coach – said that kids sometimes ask better questions about a product than what many so-called experienced testers ask. He talked to me about how questions from school kids would lead them to solutions in their own software and products. They asked some very intelligent questions and I was amazed by the perspective they showed. It made me wonder, “Why are students  not taught about thinking (example: lateral thinking) as a skill in most schools and colleges?”

In the future, I wish there will be schools dedicated only for software testing. We will see a great amount of value if an individual is taught about software testing from a much earlier age than college. That kind of expertise would be great for our craft.

Better testing approaches
Most of the organizations use traditional approaches to executing test cases and doing testing. In the future, I wish organizations will understand the problems with the ‘test case approach’ and adopt better testing approaches like Exploratory Testing, Session Based Test Management and others.

Kids as security testers
“Some kids generally explore cracking / hacking tools because they are keen into looking into their girlfriend’s account to keep them updated about the happening.”

“Some kids out of their interest want to crack their friend’s account and get confidential information.”

“Some kids want to show that they are smart enough when compared to their friends.”

So what’s happening here? Clearly, younger kids want to hack everything from the smallest application on up. They practice in coffee shops and shopping malls, trying to crack passwords and getting into the networks of other organizations. I see a group of ethical hackers (can’t stress that last point enough) who are enthusiastic about testing – and who share their knowledge with their peers – will help advance the knowledge base immensely. Today’s harmless hacker is tomorrow’s security tester.

Testing shops
I also wish we could see ” Testing Shops” in future, where testers test any product the customer purchases (for a nominal fee) and then provides them with the issues. This would enable the end-user to evaluate the product and decide “to buy or not to buy.”

Charges might be different:

• Depending on quality criteria
• Depending on the product
• Depending on the number of users using the specific product

Many more points to be considered…

Software Testing TV Channel
A TV channel dedicated to Software Testing. It could include programs like:

1. Effects of Poor Testing
2. Testing stories
3. Testing news
4. Testing jobs
5. Tutorials

The list goes on as the ideas go on.

More Testing Competitions
Talent Hunt – There are a lot of talented testers out there, but not all of them get recognized for their skills. Testing competitions – like the uTest Bug Battle – are a great way to expose their talent and bring them forward for more active roles. I hope to see this trend of increased competition and collaboration keep up for years to come. If the last few years in the testing industry are any indication, I think it will.

Those are just a few of my hopes and wishes for the software testing industry. What are  yours?

Editor’s note: If you would like to participate in our Guest Blogger series, please email your ideas to us at marketing@utest.com.