I have to apologize to all specialist from the software development industry because I successfully completed BBST test design course. I need to be a little bit ironic, but we have to be open and blunt and admit that software testing is not acknowledged and recognized as it should be. What are the reasons for this situation?
Can we blame any of software development professional who has worked with not skillful tester and because of that does not recognize software testing as skillful and valuable craft? Software tester is responsible to educate software developers about software testing. But it must first educate himself.
I recently talked with one excellent software developer.
Me: How do you test your product?
Great dev: Oh, we are writing cucumber and rspec tests.
Me: Great, what else?
Great dev: What do you mean?
Me: For example, what about risk analysis?
Great dev: Say what?
Software testers are also responsible for this situation. I also had been responsible in my past, up to the moment when my colleague questioned my software testing skills asking one simple question: "Have you ever read any book on software testing?"
So, my fellow testers, what is your answer on that question? We can expand it. "Have you ever read any book, blog post or article on software testing? Have you ever listen to any podcast about software testing? Do you share in your blog your testing experience and thoughts about software testing? Have you ever questioned statements read in those resources?" If your answer is no on all those questions, than my dear fellow tester, you are not doing anything good about making software testing a recognized craft. And please do not use lame excuse like "I do not have time for that!". Reality check my dear fellow tester, you will never have enough time as software tester! Time management is one of the most important software tester skill.
However, If you answered yes on any of my questions, than next step is to reconsider taking some of software testing courses. But which one? I am not against certification programs, I am against bad certification programs.
I recommend to every software tester AST-BBST courses. In this blog post I would provide all answers on my BBST test design exam cram questions. Just kidding, previous sentences was just to boost my Google page rank. I will describe what worked for me in order to pass BBST Test design course.
Course length is four weeks. I spent in average four hours per day on this course. Deadlines are on Wednesday and Saturday midnight. There are six lessons and exam week.
What I did. I first watched video, then went through presentation aligned with video. I started answering open book quiz questions that were mentioned in presentation. If I did not understand question topic, I started searching recommended reading about that topic. Then I went to exam cram forum and answered questions it that were mentioned in watched video lecture.
After that I started my lesson assignment. And that was my course pace.
Important recap, quizzes are open book, their purpose is not to grade you, but a mean to comprehend lecture materials. Quiz grade is not relevant for final pass/fail decision.
But there was more. I regularly checked what is happening in exam cram forum and I provided feedback to other students work (aligned with my total time resource). I also got feedback on my answers. Guess what, participating in those discussions is my greatest takeaway from this course. For example, in discussion with one fellow classmate, I successfully comprehend what is long sequence regression testing. But there is more. I worked four hours per day just for first three weeks. Using described pace, last week (exam) was an easy ride for me.
What I learned? Well, you have to find out this by your own by visiting BBST test design site. Psst! Yes, you can read all materials in advance. And practice on listed assignments.
Labels: BBST, learn testing
