| Q1.
Please tell us something about your background and experience? |
You may read my biography
for this |
| Q2.
What drew you to testing? |
As a natural outcome to
become the best software engineer, it is but natural that you become
a good critiquer. This coupled with the fact that testing was misunderstood
as a unglamorous profession were the chief motivations. |
| Q3.
What is your opinion on testing as a profession w.r.t. |
|
| a.
Maturity in testing industry? |
Improving in the last
few years, but depth is poor in terms of appreciation of methods and
techniques |
| b.
Perceptions about testers? |
Domain knowledge is important,
techniques are equally important |
| c.
Future directions? |
A deeper formalism is
needed, contribution to prevention is critical, better sense of tool
usage |
| d.
Issues? |
Jargons/terms abound,
button-pushers are not testers |
| e.
Perceptions about testing? |
Vital in good product
development, Do not understand technical stuff |
| Q4.
What are your major/chief learning? |
Methods, strategy/plan,
engineering and appropriate usage of tools are key as in any mature
engineering discipline |
| Q5.
What qualifications testers should have? |
An engineering degree,
good communication skills, background in programming/design, should
have been part of development team |
| Q6.
How to build good testing teams? |
Impart deeper technical
knowledge of testing techniques, do not treat them any differently
from the other engineers, encourage them to play a contributory/participatory
role in development rather than just find defects |
| Q7.
Use of tools and views on Automation? |
Tools are a means to
an end, not the end itself. Knowing what/what-not is very important
before jumping in. Understanding the concept and customizing the tool
usage is key to successful test automation |
| Q8.
What prompted you to start stag software? What directions you see? |
Come up with methods and
build tools to deploy these methods to foster a engineering-oriented
approach to validation |
| Q9.
Chief strengths of tester and most important skills? |
Good communication skills,
Strong attention to details, Customer-focussed thinking in addition
to good domain knowledge and technical skills |
| Q10.
Message for testers? |
Understanding the principles,
techniques of software testing so that you know what kinds of defects
you are going after and then device the appropriate test strategy
and cases |
| Q11.
What tools should testers learn? |
Coverage tools, functional
test automation, |
| Q12.
What languages should testers learn? |
Good programming concepts
by using a language reasonably well. Expertise in at least a scripting
language |
| Q13.
Is development necessary for testing better? |
Yes, as it helps understand
the means of making mistakes better |
