10 Must-Have Skills for Software Testers

Krisnawan Hartanto
4 min readOct 21, 2022

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All software testers need specific skills. Skill development is an ongoing process that starts with becoming aware of those skills and how they should be used.

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Software testing is a challenging job requiring many skills and knowledge.

If you are looking for a career in software testing, then this post will be helpful for you. I have listed 10 must-have skills for software testers.

SOFT SKILL

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There are a few must-have skills for software testers that can make or break a testing career. Soft skill is an essential skill for software testers. You may be excellent in technical skills, but without mastering a soft skill you can not express your excellency in software testing.

Excellent communication skills: The first and most important skill for software testers is excellent communication skills. This skill is required to interact with other team members and stakeholders. It helps in communicating the test results clearly with all the stakeholders so that they can take necessary actions to fix bugs or improve the existing application.

Critical and Analytical thinking: This skill is very important for software testers because it helps them analyze the application thoroughly before performing any test case. It also helps them find out issues quickly before applying any fix or improvement in an application.

Project Management: This skill helps testers manage their work efficiently and on time so that each phase of the testing process can be completed within a given time frame without delay. This ensures that there is no impact on the project schedule due to missed deadlines or delays in delivering the final product at the client’s end.

Time Management & Organization Skills: Testing is a challenging task but with proper time management and organization skills one can easily complete his roles within a limited time.

Sharp Attention to Details: Being able to pay attention to detail is important not only for organization and time management but for many other aspects of work and life. It can help you catch mistakes, solve problems more effectively, and just generally be more efficient and effective in everything you do.

TECHNICAL SKILL

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Software testing is a crucial part of the software development process. Software testers are responsible for ensuring that the software works as expected, and they help developers fix any bugs or errors before the product is released.

Testing is an essential part of software development, but it can be difficult to find people who are good at it. In this section, we will explore what technical skills you should look for in a software tester and how to find them.

Automation & Coding Skills: Automation is one of the most important skills for any software tester. Automated testing tools make it possible to run thousands of tests without requiring human intervention, which reduces costs and speeds up the testing process.

Coding skills are another must-have skill for software testers because they need to be able to write code to implement their automated tests.

Knowledge of Test Management Tools: Software testers should know how to use test management tools such as Bugzilla, Jira, or Rally Roadmap. These tools allow you to create test plans and track your progress during testing so that you don’t miss anything important when reviewing the results

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC): Software testers need to understand how their role fits into the SDLC. They should know what the different phases are and what they mean for their job description as well as other roles involved in software development.

A good tester should have an understanding of all aspects of software development and not just be concerned with testing.

For example, if you’re working on an agile project, you should understand agile concepts such as scrum master roles and ceremonies such as sprints and iterations. This will help you better understand how to plan your tasks and estimate how long the test will take.

Agile Methodology: This methodology is used by software testers to develop and test the software. The testing is done in small batches rather than waiting for a complete build. This helps in getting feedback from the stakeholders early on, which helps in improving the quality of the product.

Basic knowledge of scripting command: Scripting language is a programming language that is used to perform tasks in an automated way. It is used for automating repetitive tasks, such as testing steps, generation of reports, and similar other repetitive tasks. A tester should be good at scripting languages like Python or Perl and can use these languages to automate his/her workflows.

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Krisnawan Hartanto

Software Development Engineer in Test | Questioning the Unquestionable | Contributor to mydoqa.my.id