Greenhorns Testing Survival Guide
Greenhorns Tests is the best way to learn on the job and get paid simultaneously. We’re all about delivering top-notch reports to our customers, so you’ll learn from the best.
For about a year, we’ve been showing you different examples of mistakes and bugs to help you understand the task. Luckily, you can quickly find them all in our Academy.
After such a wonderful year (Happy New Year 🎆), we realised that some essential things must be remembered for your subsequent test cycles and decided to put them in this newsletter.
These following tips will also come in handy when you’re testing for customers, and, you know, they’ll help you advance your career as a freelance tester with Test IO.
Learning from feedback
Did you know about the Birth of Google? Larry Page and Sergey Brin originally called their search engine ❝BackRub❞, which focused on the back-links of websites to determine their importance. However, a Stanford graduate student named Andy Bechtolsheim, after testing the search engine, gave them crucial feedback that it was "too slow and clunky." This prompted them to refine their algorithms and ultimately rename it ❝Google❞,leading to the internet giant we know today.
Feedback is crucial, and it is equally important to apply it effectively. This is how valuable feedback can be.
Apply lessons from team leader (TL) feedback to subsequent reports and tests. If you joined a customer’s test, reflect on the feedback received after understanding the scope of the test. Refrain from unthinkingly applying one suggestion to every test cycle, as they would most likely be different in one way or another!
Continuously refine your reporting approach for better efficiency; you can find excellent sources here. However, only reflecting on your work can make a real difference!
Following instructions
To spice things up, this one goes with a quote: ❝The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail❞ – Charles R. Swindoll.
Carefully read and follow test instructions to avoid unnecessary rejections, and if they need to be more precise, remember that you can always ask for help from Team Leaders, fellow testers, and even our entire community on Discord!
Thoroughly understand instructions to ensure accurate test completion, which will also help you work more productively.
One report at the time
The ❝one-step-at-a-time❞ approach is also one of our favourites.
For example, in a world dominated by expensive, closed-source operating systems, Linus Torvalds, instead of trying to build a complete system from scratch, started small, realising the initial version of Linux with just a bare kernel to invite developers worldwide to contribute improvements and new features:
Only submit one report for the same test, focusing on producing one excellent report at a time. Practice makes progress!
And if you are testing a customer's product, always look for duplicates to avoid unnecessary rejection!
Attachments
Source: JSTOR
Yes, this is the first report of a bug and the origin of the term of how we make a living and careers at Test IO today... Thank you, Grace Hopper!
So, attachments (screencasts, screenshots, crash logs and others occasionally) are only proof of what is written in a bug report; they do not replace its content, so remember:
Use screenshots for reporting content and visual bugs. For all other submissions, go for screencasts.
Keep bug screencasts under 1 minute.
Keep other screencasts under 15 seconds (User Stories, Reproductions, etc.).
Date and time of execution in screencasts.
Ensure taps are visible in screencasts (Android and desktop recordings).
Bonus
Test the default version of websites on appropriate devices.
Use an up-to-date browser and avoid downloaded website versions.