Software Testing is a process of verifying a computer system/program to decide whether it meets the specified requirements and produces the desired results. As a result, it identify bugs in software product/project. Software testing is seen as a good professional career for many. From being a test engineer, one can grow to become a senior test engineer, from a test lead to a test manager; or alternatively, one can become a QA lead or QA Manager. Moreover, the options available in the testing tools side are vast. There are a number of functional, performance, security testing tools besides test management tools like Quality Center from HP, CQTM from IBM etc. The growth prospects in the Software Testing domain are tremendous.
Professionally trained software testers are in great demand nowadays and are sought after in the industry. One can either become part of an independent software testing company or join an internal software testing department in a leading firm. The demand for niche skills like SOA testers, Security testers, etc. is high nowadays owing to a vast shortage in skills in test automation areasAvailable career options
Your career progression as a software tester (QA Analyst) in typical CMMI level 5 company will look
- QA Analyst (Fresher)
- Sr. QA Analyst (2-3 years’ experience)
- QA Team Coordinator (5-6 years’ experience)
- Test Manager (8-11 years’ experience)
- Senior Test Manager (14+ experience)
Once you have got your skills polished in manual testing, you can pursue following specializations
- Automation Testing
As an Automation Test Engineer, you will be responsible for automating manual test case execution which otherwise could be time-consuming.
- Performance Testing
As a performance test engineer, you will be responsible for checking application responsiveness (time is taken to load, maximum load application can handle), etc.
- Business Analyst
A major advantages Testers have over Developers is that they have an end to end business knowledge. An obvious career progression for testers is to become a Business Analyst.
