{"id":388,"date":"2011-12-16T13:21:07","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T21:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/?p=388"},"modified":"2011-12-16T13:22:29","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T21:22:29","slug":"the-ballad-of-the-senior-tester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/the-ballad-of-the-senior-tester\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ballad of the Senior Tester"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">I\u2019m a Senior Tester, don\u2019t you know<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Been testing software for five years or so<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">I got bills to pay and need a better job\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Looking for jobs with \u2018Senior\u2019 in the name<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Gotta\u2019s admit, they\u2019re all pretty lame<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Looks like I\u2019m over-qualified\u2026<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Someone (non-Microsoft) asked me recently what a \u201cSenior Tester\u201d does. I told them that I knew in the context of Microsoft, but really had no idea if the term meant <em>anything<\/em> in the industry. After a quick (and painful) trip to a jobs website, I was able to confirm that the \u2018Senior\u2019 title doesn\u2019t carry a lot of weight. Consider some of these quotes \u2013 all from positions advertised as \u201cSenior Tester\u201d, or \u201cSenior QA Tester (on a side note, wtf is a QA Tester?):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With minimal direction writes scripts and executes test cases during functional\/system\/integration testing.<\/li>\n<li>Modify existing test plans and testing information to correct errors, to adapt to new test scenarios, upgraded interfaces and performance enhancements.<\/li>\n<li>Monitor bug resolution efforts and track successes.<\/li>\n<li>Participates in analysis and design walkthroughs, as well as team meetings<\/li>\n<li>The Senior Tester will work extensively with the Test Lead to provide test estimates<\/li>\n<li>Complete knowledge of QA Best Practices and the full Testing SDLC<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Let me rant on the last bullet point first. Actually, never mind \u2013 anything I can say is something you\u2019ve probably already thought.<\/p>\n<p>As for the first five bullet points, are those really considered \u201cSenior\u201d activities? I was surprised that being able to cross the street by themselves or washing their hands after using the bathroom weren\u2019t required attributes. Then again, I\u2019ve been sheltered in the world of Microsoft for the past 17 years (and as a noob in a startup for 2 years before that), so my world view of testing has limitations.<\/p>\n<p>So, let me talk about what I do know. Here at the evil empire, we have standard titles for all roles (<a href=\"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/?p=163\">more details on test titles are here<\/a>). As I mentioned in the link (which I know you haven\u2019t read yet), we have a \u201cSenior SDET\u201d title at MS, and this is where we expect testers to exhibit some leadership skills (they learn how to find the bathroom by themselves at a much lower level). To be clear, leadership does not mean management. \u2018Senior\u2019 is the minimum level where we like people (who are interested) to move into management roles, but we have hundreds of non-managers at the Senior level (about 8% of the total test population if you\u2019re curious).<\/p>\n<p>My random search for Senior test roles wasn\u2019t entirely in vain. Consider the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Experience with leading testing efforts on integrated teams and developing and implementing sound testing methodologies<\/li>\n<li>This is a senior role that includes evaluating existing automated testing process and recommending improvements<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now those seem a little better \u2013 now the role requires some leadership and decision making, so let\u2019s look a bit closer at these a few other attributes I expect to see in Senior testers at MS.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Decision Making<\/strong> \u2013 senior testers make confident decisions, and do not rely on consensus for making (most) decisions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Influence<\/strong> \u2013 Dwight Eisenhower said, \u201cLeadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.\u201d\u00a0 Senior testers make their team better through influence rather than mandates \u2013 they are the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Point_guard\">point guard<\/a> of the test team.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Network <\/strong>\u2013 senior testers use their network to find answers (or knowledge), and connect their teammates with their network (i.e. tester matchmaking)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credibility <\/strong>\u2013 senior testers don\u2019t proclaim they\u2019re a leader, and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">no<\/span> title demands respect. Leaders know that respect as a leader comes through establishing credibility with their team and peers. For me, the moment you <em>demand<\/em> respect as a leader is the moment you <em>lose<\/em> my respect as a leader.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s not an exhaustive list, and each of those points could be (and may be) a post unto its own. But that\u2019s what \u2018Senior Tester\u2019 means to me (In my sheltered life). Undoubtedly, your definition is different, and that\u2019s fine. Regardless of where your opinions lie, I hope this provides some food for thought on your own views of what \u2018Senior\u2019 means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a Senior Tester, don\u2019t you know Been testing software for five years or so I got bills to pay and need a better job\u2026 Looking for jobs with \u2018Senior\u2019 in the name Gotta\u2019s admit, they\u2019re all pretty lame Looks like I\u2019m over-qualified\u2026 Someone (non-Microsoft) asked me recently what a \u201cSenior Tester\u201d does. I told&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}