Great Testers. A viewpoint

The question of “What makes good tester a great tester?” is one of those that concern every decent tester. There is no single “correct” answer to this question, but I guess many testers do have an opinion regarding the subject. I do.

If someone asks me the question, I will mention the following points (maybe some others as well, but the following ones for sure):

- The ability and desire to learn (the great tester must be proactive and have a thirst for knowledge in order to succeed; he must learn new things every day and never stop in his quest for apprehending the art of testing)

- Strong communication skills (every tester must realize that he works with people; communication is a key to enjoying your time at work; communication within the team, communication with customer, mentoring - e.g. workshops, seminars – it’s all very important for becoming a true guru of testing)

- Understanding of QA and Testing theory (the deeper the understanding the better - good tester must be able to study and analyze the process and to introduce improvements)

- Knowledge of testing-related areas (development, management, marketing, sales, psychology - it helps to better understand the business ideas of projects to effectively direct the testing effort, to improve communication and understand the decision-making bias of other team members,…)

- Responsibility (the decent tester must be responsible for what he's doing and be ready to accept responsibility that exceeds his jurisdiction, the more complex the tasks are the more responsibility they require - the more business value the tester adds to the project)

- Attention to details (it this case I mean not only the attention to detail used in testing but the one that is used for the whole project – e.g. noticing the mood of a teammate to determine whether it’s the right moment to talk and resolve some issue)

- Organization skills (self-organization first of all, the great tester must be almost pedantic when it comes to organizing the aspects of his work)

- Stress-resistance (it’s no secret that the first one to blame in case of any kind of failure is the testers; in order to save nerves for some other occasions :) the tester must be resistant to stress)

- An open mind (out-of-the-box thinking, an excellent tester is not just using someone’s methods and theories, he tries to think of something more, he's reinventing testing in some of its aspects)
- The desire to share knowledge (no knowledge ownership regarding the project, the tester should be willing to share his knowledge and ideas with others - to make a difference)
- An enthusiasm for breaking things (that one by J. Whittaker, can listen to it here; a great tester always enjoys what he’s doing, he is passionate and inspired when it comes to testing; a great tester loves testing)