35 Interesting types of Software Testers
Software Testing is an important activity in the software product cycle. Well, everything needs to be tested for the sake of quality. What if you deliver a product sans quality?- Well, your customer would definitely be upset with you then. The trust factor would be annihilated and they would stop trusting your work. Software
Testing is the most monotonous activity that requires tedious efforts. It’s like following the process even for the infinitesimal elements. Another important term that I encountered in this field is bug or defects or incidents or issues or failures – whatever you call it! It all may seem the same to a layman but there is a wide difference between these terms. Today I would enlist a few types of Software Testers that I encountered in my Quality Analysis career.
1. The Serious Tester
‘Dude, what should I do?’ the serious tester says.
‘This application seems too buggy.’
‘Do I raise a bug?’
Welcome to a serious testers’ life. Testing for them is a serious activity. They will perform their work meticulously for they don’t want to be bombed by their boss when the code bursts in production. They would sit whole day and perform their work as slow as a slug and try to execute all kinds of test cases even if they fall in the same category. Equivalence Class Partitioning and Boundary value analysis mechanism would die when it comes to knowing about these kinds of testers. They are full of doubts and seriousness haunts their face every then!
2. The Serious Passer
In Software Testing, some QA managers think that a tester’s capability is measured in terms of the number of test cases he passes. A Serial Passer would only fret about his test case count. Once he settles with the target test case counts, he jubilantly writes a status mail to his boss, bragging about the number of test cases passed. The boss is impressed and hikes the test case execution count for him. This is the life of the Serial Passer.
3. The ‘Fake’ Serious Passer
In order to meet the deadlines given by their boss, these kinds of testers often pass the test cases even without looking at the test steps. It’s said that fake serial passers trust their developers a lot and hence they blindly pass the test cases even without executing them. They do all this to meet their per day target without knowing the consequences. If the tests covered few defects and if they were discovered in the production, then this “fake serial passer’s” career could be at stake. Along with it, don’t forget the penalty and the reputation of the tester’s organization. I know a friend who does it and loves his developers!
4. The Slug
Like the Slugs, these breed of Testers are not agile enough to test applications and software. The test needs you to be agile and smart. These are the kind of testers who usually lag behind and fail to achieve their goals in their life!
5. The Enthusiastic Tester
These testers unleash the zest in their life when it comes to testing. They are fully pumped up when it comes to testing. The zest quotient in them is too high and they are like eagles ready to tackle their prey. Just give them the software build and they are ready to break it
6. The Passionate Tester
Passionate Testers are similar to Enthusiastic Testers. They love testing and their passion for testing is promising enough to bring them glory. These are the ones who get awarded during Quarterly awards with different kinds of fancy awards like – Pat on the Back, Rising Star, Valuable Player, Cookies, and Rookies, etc
7. The ‘Yes’ Man
They are the boss’s favorite. They want to please their boss and will do the work for them by any hook or crook. They are the ones who get good increments during appraisals. If the boss says anything, then they would answer it with ‘Yes’. They could also be labeled as the Obedient Testers as they never say no. Oh, my dear Boss Pleasers!
8. The Flirty Ones
These testers are mostly men. They just need an opportunity to ping their female software developers without any reason. In the name of potential defects, issues, and whatnot, they would ping them and irk the female developers. They would invite them for lunch, tea, coffee, etc. They just need a reason to ping the lasses!
9 The Smart Tester
Smartness is his mantra. They don’t follow the breed. They will be creative and innovative in their approach. They are the ones who can create scripts and snippets to increase the efficiency of their testing. The bosses usually have huge expectations from this type of testers.
10. The Fighter
These testers fight with their developers for no reason. They feel that by raising their voice, most of their work can be done. These are the ones who escalate issues for no reason.
11. The Delegator
They would delegate their task to any junior who joins the team and assign them their tasks under the context of practical experiences. They just need to get rid of their responsibilities. They would nicely cajole their juniors and get their work done from them.
12. The Bugster’s
The primary motto of Software Testing is to deliver Quality. These kinds of testers just perform Testing to find defects. We could further subdivide this category into Severity 1, Severity 2, and Cosmetics. I was known as a Severity 2 specialist in my previous organization.
13. The Weekend Tester
These testers prefer working on a weekend for completing their testing. They don’t have any social life and work is worship to them. During weeks they are chilled out and their work hormone flows well during weekends!
14. The Playful types
They are least bothered if the deadlines and timelines are nearing. They won’t give any shit to processes. They will do all their work on time and would be found in the recreation room playing Table Tennis, Carom, Chess, or Foosball.
15. The Crybabies
I’m so sad, they put me into testing.’
‘Chee, who would do testing, it’s ridiculous.’
‘I always wanted to be a developer dude.’
If you hear such statements, then know that they are fresher’s who were forcibly put into Testing. They don’t have any intentions of testing and everything seems out of compulsion. But eventually, they cope up and turn into the obedient kinds.
16. The Automator
They believe in automating each and everything. They would even automate their timesheets to ease their efforts of filling it every day. These are the species of Testers who impress their boss very much. The boss cites them as an example to the other manual testers. The Automators face brims with pride whenever their boss talks greatly of them. QTP, Selenium, Load Runner are their favorite tools.
17. The OverTimer
They would work overtime daily for no reason just because they are addicted to working late hours. They love hanging out with their friends from other teams during the normal working hours and their actual work begins a few hours before the shift gets over. Given the fact that these testers would stay back late and believe working in a peaceful environment.
18. The Secret Agent
These testers believe in doing all kinds of works discretely. They would silently prepare for interviews during office hours and search job portal sites from their mobiles and laptop. They would talk about openings from different Testing Organizations with like-minded people. They love doing everything secretly.
19. The Guru
Guru’s are like mentors. They are senior ‘Baap’ testers in every testing Team whose door we knock during the time of catastrophe. They never hesitate to help their juniors but they do give their piece of mind as advice to their juniors who ask for help.
20. The Onsite Coordinator
They are the channel between the Clients and the Offshore Testing team. The irony is that some of them don’t even know what exactly happens in the team. They represent the offshore team at onshore. During calls, they talk nicely as if they know everything. Some of them are really kind but some of them really don’t know much.
21. The Panwala’s/ Tabacco Chewer
These testers have the habit of chewing tobaccos at their cubicle. They are normally found in the Noida region of India. They are extremely rare to find. They would nicely chew the tobacco while testing and spit it in the dustbin, thus making the janitor’s life miserable.
22. The Developer’s brother
The Developers’s brother is those who secretly help the developers by telling them about the different defects even without logging a formal defect report in the defect tracking tool. They are mostly good friends and some of them would drink together. I know quite a few of them. They believe in maintaining a healthy relationship with their peers.
23. The Gamer
Testing is a stressful activity and sometimes you may get tired of finding defects and executing test cases. So these are the kind of testers who play different android games like Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers, and Temple Runs etc as a stress buster. Quite Interesting no?
24. The Workaholic
They would remain at their desk every time either working on their testing activities, test estimations, management, or some other work. They just want to keep themselves busy. They are an asset to the organization. But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy? 😉
25. The Outstanding Types
In contrary to the Workaholics, these kinds of Testers are never at their desk. They are usually found outside smoking cigarettes or sipping tea. Some of them are even found at the premises walking with their female friends, strolling around and discussing about their next job.
26. The Jokers/ Wannabes
These testers are hilarious souls. They would crack up funny jokes and even their act or two would be funny to lighten your mood. Every software team needs a tester like them. It’s fun to have them around. They provide you with the much awaited break. Funny Testers they are!
27. The Certified Testers
These testers who have done all kind of testing certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, etc. They let the certifications talk for themselves and then there are some who don’t know much but still fall in this category. LOL
28. Installer
Well, these testers’ sole job is to install the build and make the environment available to the testers. They will not do any other task.
29. The Smoke Tester
Like the Installer, the Smoke Tester’s job is the do a smoke testing of the build whenever it is deployed by the Installer. In some organizations, the Installer and the Smoke Tester are the same person
30. The Email Sender
These guys are often annoying because they will send out an email to the Product Owners and the developers for every issue they discuss. Well, why do we have meetings then?
31. The Meeting guy
These are usually the folks at the lead and the management level. They consume most of their working hours in attending different types of meetings.
32. Please Help me types
Well these guys ping you whenever they are stuck in something and ask to help them. They are usually in Panic mode
33. The Learning document
In order to avoid the ‘Please Help Me’ guys, there is another interesting kind of testers who create Learning documents or articles for the former. Are you one of them?
34. The YouTube Freak
Any given time of the day you could find a secret browser on their workstation with YouTube music or series! That’s their way of improving their efficiency. Haha
35. The Procrastinator
These guys are too lazy and they delay their tasks to a later time. Well, you’ll have a rough time working with these guys!
So now that you have read the list of different types of testers. Which group do you relate to?
Testing is not responsible for the bugs inserted into software any more than the sun is responsible for creating dust in the air.
Dorothy Graham, software testing consultant
