Working in a team of testers is a dream come true. All testers work and collaborate to achieve the same objectives. Someone always cheers you up when you’re having a tough day. Similarly, you will brighten someone’s day when he/she is just feeling right. One of the best aspects of the tester’s job is being surrounded by intelligent and hardworking people.
Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky enough to get this luxury at their office. Some testers work on projects where they are the lone tester. They may also be the only employee in the business who does some testing. There are teams out there with a lone person doing testing duties, whether it’s due to financial limitations or a general lack of awareness of why testing is so critical to an organization with a product of technical nature.
Don’t be alarmed if you find yourself in this case. It doesn’t have to be all doom and death all the time. You don’t have to spend the majority of the time at the organization in solitary confinement. It can be a fantastic experience for you and your colleagues if you approach it correctly.
Here are some survival tips for you and all other lonely testers out there:
Professional Communication Is Paramount
Constant contact with the rest of the team is essential in this position, as it is in any other. It’s much more important to make sure you’re enjoying it because no one else on the squad is in the same boat.
Your team should have a strong understanding of the kind of work you do on a regular basis. In most cases, only a few individuals in the company are aware of what you do. It’s not their responsibility, and it’s not their task to see what you’re up to. It is, however, your responsibility to ensure that others are aware of your work.
More specifically, your peers must understand how your talents will support their business. When you can be of use to others rather than doing activities on your own, you’ll have an easier time. They’ll return the favor and help you with your job until they see how your talents match theirs.
It’s up to you to prove not only what you’re capable of, but also that your performance is similar to theirs. You have a rare ability as a tester to positively affect the efficiency of everyone’s work. You will assist engineers in discovering secret glitches, warn product managers about holes, and keep the company’s customers satisfied.
What better way to communicate than a test management tool like Kualitee? Having all your dev and product delivery team on one platform provides you the liberty to share testing reports, make changes, and increase testing efficiency even when working alone!
Recognize Your Limitations
The majority of people overestimate their capacity at any given time. We’ve also seen frustrating situations where we keep putting on more and more work until we can no longer do it. When you’re the only one who can handle one thing right, you’ll find yourself dealing with this issue on a daily basis.
You can’t do everything. Nobody should ask you to do so. It’s fine to look at other options if you find yourself drowning in projects and can’t handle them efficiently.
Find individuals inside the organization who are able and motivated to assist you, as previously said. Seeking help from others alleviates much of the stress, whether it’s intermittent or you wish to include them more often.
When you’ve had a chance to catch your breath, you should look for opportunities to change things. Examine the working process and test suite for places where you can develop both the project and yourself.
Are there any manual test cases, for example, that takes a long time to complete? Investigate how you can simplify those cases to save time. Maybe you’ve expended so much time on shaky exams. Taking the time upfront to isolate and overcome the issues.
Examining the existing process is another area to change. Analyze how things are going now to see if there are any opportunities to make them better. Perhaps there are enhancements to some of the software and libraries you’re using that make test execution faster, or improved continuous delivery tools to run the builds more efficiently.
If you take the time to look, there’s almost always something you can enhance, particularly if you haven’t changed your current workflow in a long time.
For example, you can use bug management tools to automate repetitive tasks and focus your time on doing the less-occurring tasks manually.
Here’s a great article on test automation and how it’ll help you save time among other helpful tips:
How To Make Your Life Easy As A Software Tester? | Kualitee
If it still sounds daunting, it’s likely that you have too much work for one person or team to manage. Under these situations, the company should consider calling in extra staff to help lighten the burden. It may be a one-time hire, such as a manager, or a long-term investment, such as another staff member. Discuss it with the manager. You don’t have to be overworked for a long time.
Learn To Tell Stories To Members Of The Company
Testers who work alone get less input than those who work in small teams. When a single tester tests, testing concepts pop into their brains, which they then add to the software. Other people are totally unaware of this operation. No one is permitted to challenge, condemn, or have input on invisible testing. This is particularly true if the lone tester isn’t very good at tracking or reporting their work. As a consequence, the sole tester must ensure that they are interacting successfully with others at all times.
If you have the opportunity to sit with your team’s engineers, tell them about the testing you’re doing. This might be as easy as getting a quick chat about what you’re testing, what you’ve found, even whether you’re stuck and don’t know how to measure something unique. Testability is something that creators care deeply about. They would want to make testing their code as quickly as possible for you, and they might have some tips. The worst thing a lonely tester can do is endure in silence. Don’t keep your issues to yourself; talk about them.
Conclusion
There’s no reason to be concerned if you consider yourself working alone as a tester. And if you’re the only one in the organization who plays a particular role, you’re still an integral part of it. Never feel alone due to your working status or commitments.
Your colleagues must be aware of what you do and how everyone will assist one another with their work. Projects aren’t something you do yourself. And if they follow different paths along the way, everyone can aim for the same goal.
Within their skills, you may ask the staff for assistance with any of your activities. They’ll also lend a helping hand if they have the time and emotional resources to do so.
Even, bear in mind that you’ll be responsible for the rest of the testing. You are now at the crossroads for both consistency and testing roads.
It’s likely that it could get stressful, so look for opportunities to make the work simpler. Examine the working routine to find places where you can save time and effort with your everyday activities.
