What is the most important skill a software tester should have?

What is the most important skill a software tester should have?

In the below video are the answers from a conversation with Tony Bruce at EuroSTAR 2011 last November.

Following are the answers:

0:33  Communication- Fred Beringer @fredberinger

1:14 Ability to Think

1:30 Analytical and Technical 

1:50 Objective look, think(+1) and present his/her thought - Fiona Charles @FionaCCharles

2:20 Communication (+1) 

2:30 Communication (+2) 

3:20 (depends) Critical and Through (for some domain)

3:32 Passion and Enthusiasm  

3:48 Knowing what battles to pick

4:14 To learn - (Andy Glover @cartoontester)

4:43 Has to have many (Curiosity, Intelligence, desire for better software/world  )

5: 25 Question every thing

5:32 Think out side the box (+2)

5:46 Think (+3) - Nancy Kelln @nkelln

6:00 Communication (+3) - John Stevenson @steveo1967

6:12 Not an agile tester (coz it has become a hype)- Stefaan Luckermans @stefaanl

(please let me know if you can identify anyone else or for incorrect identification(s) :D)

Thinking and Communication are the winner.

I believe testers should have technical skills, and thinking is pretty much required in any technical job (O.K. in almost any technical job) but see how many people are saying "Communication".

Communication is important, it's real important for a good tester and doesn't only include the formal, template filling kind of communication i.e. Test Plan, Test Cases, Session Reports, Bug Reports or any  other mode of sharing your findings, but informal kind of communication is equally important.

The informal chit chat with a developer or any other team member about the product, process bug or bug fix helps us a lot. Similarly how to be team member rather then acting like quality police, how to help other team members and how to seek help from other team members (yes any team member with any specific role, developers, DBAs, System Administrators included). 

Similarly we should be able to communicate with other testers to learn from them and we should be able to share our views and opinions about testing with other testers.

No matter how good we are, we can not work in isolation.

Google Crisis Response - Pakistan Floods

Google Crisis Response - Pakistan Floods

Google Test Automation Conference 2009 - Zurich, Switzerland

Google Testing Blog: Google Test Automation Conference 2009 - Zurich, Switzerland

The word is out, We will be having my all time favorite conference i.e GTAC on October 21 and 22 at the Google offices in Zurich, Switzerland.

I am sure this time we gonna create some noise on twitter with #gtac.

Selnium On Rails- by Eric Smith

Eric Smith the current maintainer of Selenium On Rails delivered a presentation on it at Scotland on Rails.
I found it pretty informative and loved it's integration with rails. As a selenium RC user I like to have more control over the entire configuration but its not the easiest thing to do with RC.

On the other hand if you are using Rails, Selenium on Rails is the easiest way to have Automated Acceptance tests.

Check out the video (this and rest of the videos of Scotland On Rails are hosted by engine yard).

Top 100 Blogs for Developers (Q1 2009) from Jurgen Appelo

The updated list of Top 100 blogs for developer from Jurgen Appelo for Quarter 1 2009 is out, I have always enjoyed reading posts on http://www.noop.nl.

What exactly is there for a software Tester:
There are many reason a Tester should follow these blogs just for example:

1. Its such a Treat to read: Beautifully written, ranking have been explained and blogs which are not recently updated are no longer part of the list.

2. One can find a great list to follow on twitter: Just clicked on the link at column Author / Twitter in from of the blog.

3. You will find some great software testers in that list: (Though this has nothing to do with their credibility as a Tester or as Tester's Mentor) Its good to see James Bach’s Blog among top 30, Tester Tested! have made to the list (last time he was in bonus 25 blogs worth reading)

Thanks a lot for the effort Jurgen Appelo.

Time to sync the list in my rss reader :)