How does one become a good tester ?

For starters, formal training and gaining experience in both: 1. Manual testing, and 2. Quality Assurance Technical: 1. Understanding of systems and software 2. Programming skills are helpful Skills a good SQA person has to have: – ‘test to break’ attitude, – Ability to take the point of view of the customer, – Strong desire for quality, – Attention to detail. – Tact and diplomacy are useful in maintaining a cooperative relationship with developers, – Ability to communicate with both technical (developers) and non-technical (customers, management) people – Previous software development experience can be helpful as it provides a deeper understanding of the software development process, gives the tester an appreciation for the developers’ point of view, and reduce the learning curve in automated test tool programming. – Judgement skills are needed to assess high-risk areas of an application on which to focus testing efforts when time is limited. – You must be able to understand the entire software development process and how it can fit into the business approach and goals of the organization. – Ability to understand various sides of issues – Patience – Ability to find problems as well as to see ‘what’s missing’ is important for inspections and reviews. – Tenacity – Resourcefulness – Team spirit – Salesmanship – Ability to learn quickly – Ability to research – Perseverance