Testing Courses

Digital-sphere dynamically enters everyone's routine, gradually covering all areas of life. The development of technology is always moving forward and it is quite difficult to influence its significance. People are ordering cabs through mobile apps, paying for utilities, placing orders at online stores. Today you don't even need bank branches - some companies are abandoning standard branches and smoothly moving to online services.

Using a smartphone or computer, the user can see the time of arrival of transport, see his child's location, open a navigator, and even find the keys in the apartment. This shift to digital tools has also affected education, communication with people, and work. It is possible to get an education or get a job without being tied to a place, because communication takes place in messengers, and the workspace can be made virtual.

However, not everyone understands and sees the downside of such large-scale development. This does not refer to the shortcomings of digital communication, but to the problems of its implementation. Every application, software or additional tool has been created by IT experts. With the help of coding languages, data analytics, and web design, companies create useful software that makes life easier for the audience. It takes a lot of time to develop any software, as entire staffs go through a lot of bugs or technical malfunctions.

Often in app stores you can see applications in the Beta version, and other new offerings attract volunteers for alpha testing. The same situation applies to ordinary sites as well - sometimes when a visitor goes to the site, they see a notification about possible platform instability. An attentive audience sends error reports, and this helps the company's experts quickly and in time to correct undetected flaws.

If a number of employees work long hours to create a project along with its design, sometimes errors in the code are hard to spot. This also applies to overall usability when it comes to design and frontend. Users have definitely encountered a problem where a particular button on a site or in an application is not responsive. Along with this, one request could automatically change to another, or the entire workspace stopped responding. The cause of such a problem could be one small error in the code or an incorrect arrangement of design elements.

However, enthusiastic users and alpha-testing participants are not enough for comprehensive work. IT departments or other specialized Digital companies have a staff of testers who look for problem areas and check the system's performance. Product testing helps find hidden flaws, as well as seeing a number of other tools that need to be added for correct interaction.

QA testing and the situation in education

Training in the basics of testing does not take place in standard universities or specialized training centers. In the categories of IT education there is no separate specialization that refers only to testing web applications or studying data analytics. Most current educational programs do not provide training for this profession, and it is considered one of the building blocks of any IT department. Without a mobile app testing expert, all of the popular in-store applications didn't work as smoothly, and updates often wouldn't fix current flaws.

Coders work on writing the foundation on which the user interface will be laid in the future. Designers develop a user-friendly workspace for the audience, taking into account the requirements of the software and the wishes of the CA. Data science analysts collect large amounts of data, as well as generate general statistics on specific indicators. Each structural element of the digital department performs its own job profile, and there is almost no time left for product testing. Just for this there is a profession of a QA-engineer, who looks for vulnerabilities or bugs, and localizes the defects found. If the defect is more extensive, the tester prepares a report for proper communication with other parts of the IT department. This profession is called "an easy entry into IT," but it also requires creativity from the employee.

Job search platforms have more than 8,000 job openings across Russia as of the end of November 2021. This category includes testers of mobile applications, web projects, games, interfaces, and so on. Companies are looking for interns, experts with work experience, as well as employees with basic coding skills. The salary level of a QA-engineer in the country is up to 250,000 rubles per month, which is comparable with the salary of a specialized IT-sector. Some testers came to the company with knowledge of the Junior level, but constant project work and new skills contribute to moving up the career ladder.

You can only learn the profession of a QA Engineer by yourself or at various online training centers. Universities and colleges have no QA-testing department, and knowledge in other specialized departments will be superficial. Against this backdrop of the education field, new online schools are being created where practitioners and core educators teach newcomers how to do comprehensive web product testing. To understand and be able to compare the overall usefulness of testing courses, you need to break down the structure of the profession step by step.

Types of tester job profiles

The first step to understanding the field of software engineering and the differences in professions can also be made on job search platforms. Most often there are open vacancies on the job market for experts in manual QA, or "Manual". This type of employee manually generates test cases and checks the finished web product for possible bugs or code defects. Manual testers do not need to know languages, as he may not write scripts to do the work.

If we talk about coding, Test Automation Engineers work with it. Their profile is aimed at creating test documentation, as well as test automation. To prepare correct algorithms for automated problem retrieval, knowledge of the language is required (the right package depends on the product foundation). Automators qualify for a higher salary, as their profile includes customization of additional modules.

At the same time, job search aggregators are flooded with ads for vacancies for Usability testers. These experts help designers and the frontend department to check the finished product layout for usability and correctness of basic functions. Verifying ergonomics is usually part of the UX sector, but testing engineers are often needed for more in-depth analysis.

Developed large companies often divide the roles of engineers into narrower roles to reduce the workload and give each department a specific phase of work. In such organizations, the job seeker will see offers for the position of Security Tester (analysis, verification of project security branches). This category similarly includes the Performance Engineering specialization, which focuses on examining software capacity and working with loads on the resulting applications.

More often than not, employers combine the functions of employees by opening a general QA engineer position. It compiles all the skills of a tester, including automation, usability, and basic analytics. Based on the demands of the job market, popular online schools are developing QA testing training methods. For example, on the educational portal Yandex.Praktikum (go online) there is a comprehensive software engineering course for 4 months. In this program, the student is trained in the areas of test analysis, test design, working with APIs, and SQL queries. The course package similarly includes learning the basics of Java along with the Puppeteer library.

There are also a number of more targeted training programs online that focus on the specific job profile of a software engineer. To match with the current job market, the prospective employee needs to compare the requirements of employers with the capabilities of online schools. The main criteria for finding a good testing engineer can be highlighted as follows:

• Knowledge of software test techniques (Smoke tests, load tests, integration tests, etc.);
• skills of working with specialized software (Git, Jira, gitlab, Postman, Charles);
• the ability to conduct all phases of the beta test with the involvement of various focus groups;
• creation and formation of tests, writing technical scenarios;
• help in developing or debugging load checking scripts;
• development of adaptive checklists, test plans, techniques for work;
• Preparation and formation of final reports for transfer to other departments;
• skills in participating in the initial launch of the project with the ability to quickly find obvious shortcomings;
• Basic knowledge of coding languages (for automation engineers);
• A high level of English (for communication and reporting).

Knowing the above criteria helps the job seeker find an open offer faster and accept an offer with a high salary. If the user has no experience with software, a number of software testing training offers can be found online. Educational courses are designed for a long period of time, as it is impossible to cover all the knowledge in less than 2 months. If we talk about comprehensive classes in QA-engineering, then good courses should include a theoretical basis together with the project work to understand the basics of this profession. For this purpose it is necessary to distinguish paid and free courses, their strengths and weaknesses.

Paid and free testing engineer training

Today QA-testing training is available only in online centers and special schools - universities or colleges do not train experts in this field. If a user enters "online tester courses" in the search, the results will contain offers from paid centers along with free materials in the public domain. Along with this there are often topical articles on various forums or in online magazines.

Colleagues and enthusiasts share with other users useful links to profile literature, slices of lectures, video lessons, and open webinars. Some educational centers similarly develop free training programs in which they introduce the audience to the profession or motivate listeners to enroll in a paid course. The strengths of free testing education are highlighted by these brief talking points:

• Freedom of action. Self-education provides for the absence of attachment to the schedule or place of training. The user makes his/her own learning plan and works only on the basis of personal interests.
• Variety of available formats. The future expert gathers information from different sources, and forms the best type of mastering the profession for himself. There are methodological literature, podcasts, seminars, workshops, and interactive applications with training available online.
• No need to pay for knowledge. This money can be left to find the best engineering course after learning all the basics or subtypes of the profession. At the time of learning the material, the student can change his or her mind, move on to other IT and Digital courses.

If we talk about the visible disadvantages of this format, it is written about them as follows:

• Lack of information structure. Free courses or open-access sources can be haphazard, which disrupts the order in which the profession is learned. Without a basic knowledge of the coding language, a future employee cannot start automating.
• No additional communication. Some of the free software testing courses do not provide feedback to teachers or the same students of the training base.
• No document of course completion. Watching videos on YouTube or reading threads on forums does not provide a certificate of proficiency in QA engineering. It affects the future job search as well as the overall value of the candidate for the position.

Paid training for a test engineer enters another area of the field of education. Training centers develop comprehensive programs and hire experts with experience and teaching skills. The pros of paid online tutoring:

• Creating a curriculum. In the course, the student learns the basics of the profession step by step, and consolidates the knowledge with project work within the school.
• Communication with teachers. Practitioners help students while working with the software, additionally explain the material covered, control the development of information.
• Additional knowledge. Many online schools supplement the standard base with useful lectures or seminars that relate to future careers. The student can take basic lessons on soft skills, or get a checklist with tips for the right interview.
• Working with specialized software. QA-engineering training includes learning how to work the programs that are needed to test a web product. Schools have tester simulators that help newcomers get up to speed more quickly.

However, paid test engineer training programs have notable disadvantages, including:

• "Expensive Training.". The average price for QA-engineering courses reaches 25 000 rubles, and some schools offer training for 60 000 rubles and above. The situation with payment is solved by drawing up an installment plan, but such an amount can cross the "psychological" factor.
• Loud Promises. Competent marketing, platform design - all this influences the first acquaintance with the training center. Schools often write about 100% employment, mastering a profession in 1 month, and high salary from the first month of work. Such false statements can spoil a student's expectations at the end of the program.
• Contents of the training base. Not all popular education courses contain only fresh and up-to-date information. This also applies to paid classes, so it is important to check their structure before applying, or to ask a manager for advice.
• Problems with returns. Some schools provide a refund option, if after the first lesson the student has applied for cancellation of training. However, it is necessary to study the terms of the user agreement, which specify additional rules for cancellation of services.

To these theses you can add your shortcomings and strengths, which the future student will highlight for himself personally. The criteria were selected based on expert reviews, alumni feedback, and the positioning of leaders among online education.

Career growth, prospects

Applicants are also interested in the career ladder that awaits them after training as a QA tester. The engineering expert's proficiency level is lined up according to Junior, Middle, and Senior criteria, where the latter qualifies for a salary of up to $4,000. To switch to a new job profile, a QA Engineer is trained in coding languages, learns the basics of big data analytics, makes adjustments to the design or structure of the interface.

If we talk about career transition to other professions, an experienced tester can try to apply his skills in web development. After working with automation, some QA goes into coding or begins the path of a test architect. At the same time, the creative part of the test engineer profession helps him become a Product Manager. The departure from the technical part is well compensated by management skills, as well as logical thinking.

Conclusions

Many schools talk about QA-engineering as an alternative to standard coding, or an "easy" start in the IT field. Such an opinion is wrong if you look at the profession separately from web development. A subject matter expert in testing has the flexible skills to quickly eliminate defects and optimize a preliminary product. Along with this, some employees are trained in the basic fundamentals of languages that are implemented to create automation. QA-engineer is a "universal soldier", as well as an important link in the staff of any digital company. Without his work new applications and interfaces are created and released, but it is impossible to talk about usability or correct interaction without QA.