Each profession comes with its challenges at different stages. In the IT industry as well and particularly for testers, some common issues may be affecting your productivity and seem quite overwhelming to overcome. You’re not the only person in this boat, you only need to understand how to navigate through these challenges. In this article, you’ll get to read 10 top challenges common to testers and the effective solutions to them. Let’s get started.
Time difference
As an automation tester, you can work in a remote setting. This helps and is more preferred because the pay is more and it’s an opportunity to work with the big companies out there. This is quite challenging especially when your working hours fall in the evening/nighttime in your country. This is a general problem with no permanent solution, really. But one of the tips that could help you is selecting a company in a country with a similar time zone. Alternatively, sign some long-term partnership with coffee.
Cultural difference
Yes, it’s a global world, but there are evident differences that can be a big challenge for you as an automation tester. It spans through differences in greeting, behaviors, and disposition to work. These are just general with no quick solution except trying to change your boss and other staff (difficult, yeah?) Instead, turn the tables around and understand their culture. This way, the friction will reduce drastically and you’d be able to perform better at work.
Unconducive environment
The working environment sometimes also affects your work performance. Imagine a system developing an issue during the testing period. With this, you’ll have to restart the system and start the process from the beginning. Nothing spoils a day faster than this. But, while any mechanical fault can develop in systems without prior notice, ensure the proper functioning before testing. This will be better treated during your quality assurance courses online.
Forced Features
As the expert, you’re in the best position to recommend a tool and specific features for the tool, but it’s not the case most times. Your boss or organization may decide to work with other ones which may be problematic for you during testing. It’s alright, try to explain what the consequences are in detail. If it’s still forced, proceed with it using methods to ensure the method works.
Testing documents from others
Yes, there are different experts, and teamwork is very important. But, testing products from others without any filling in is very tough. You take a lot of time trying to understand the processes, features, and other specifications. To solve this, try to develop your skills to quickly understand and work with tasks from others. You can practice this during your quality assurance course.
Unrealistic deadlines
There’s something that comes with strict deadlines. It ushers in some nervousness and eventually leads to tons of mistakes when testing especially when it’s very tight. This cannot be helped really, but try as much as possible to explain the need for having enough time for your team. This way, other departments will complete the task faster, giving you enough time for testing.
Insufficient Funds
As the quality assurance expert, you’ll be required to make some estimations before the software development process begins. Sometimes, your guesses may be wrong, and yeah, prices fluctuate as well. But when you have this task, ensure you check for real prices and make a feasible price projection before submitting the final paper.
Abrupt changes
This happens a lot and is very difficult to work with especially when the deadline is close. But, when issues like this come up, you need to perfectly understand the new requirements, ask for an extension of the testing period and work on the modifications. This way, you can finish your task with perfect results.
Heading the testing process
If you’re a new tester that just completed the quality assurance courses online, leading the testing process can be a big challenge especially when some experts are on the team. Instead of being nervous, try to showcase your leadership skills as learned in your quality assurance classes to your fellow members. When in confusion, ask for help from your seniors and absorb every correction even when wrongly passed. This way, you’re developing yourself for tougher tasks.
Bugs
Lastly, bugs appearing during the testing process always can weigh you down. It’s a big issue that comes with every software testing process. One way to reduce this is by proper documentation of each process and using tools like Selenium which has an automatic documentation process. These serve as a reference for future work and you‘ll be averting the mistakes that could bring up bugs.
Conclusion
You’ve read through the top challenges, but there may be more. In all, try to get the solution when your mind is well relaxed. Also, seek solutions from experts. They’ve passed through this and understand how to navigate as a beginner. The first step with enrolling for quality assurance classes though. So, get on with one.
