How to start Your Career in Software Testing

In the expansive realm of software development, the role of a software tester is crucial. These professionals ensure that software applications are functioning correctly, meeting quality standards, and are free from glitches and errors before they are released to the end-users. If you’re considering delving into the world of software testing, you’re stepping into a field that’s in high demand and offers a promising career path. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to embark on your journey and establish a successful career in software testing.

Understanding the Basics of Software Testing:
It’s crucial to understand the foundations of software testing before launching into a career in this field. Software testing involves examining software applications to detect defects or malfunctions. Testers analyze software requirements, design test cases, execute tests, and report defects. They play a pivotal role in ensuring the reliability, functionality, and performance of software products.

Acquiring the Necessary Skills:
To excel in software testing, you’ll need to develop a diverse set of skills. These include:

Analytical Skills: Testers need to be highly analytical in order to break down complicated software systems, spot possible problems, and create efficient testing plans.
Technical Proficiency: A solid understanding of programming languages, databases, and testing tools is indispensable for software testers. Proficiency in tools like Selenium, JIRA, and TestRail can significantly enhance your testing capabilities.
Attention to Detail: Software testing demands meticulous attention to detail to uncover even the most subtle defects. Testers must possess a keen eye for spotting anomalies and inconsistencies within software applications.
Communication Skills: Effective communication is essential for conveying test results, collaborating with development teams, and articulating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Problem-Solving Abilities: Testers encounter various challenges during the testing process. The ability to troubleshoot issues, think critically, and devise innovative solutions is invaluable in this field.
Educational Pathways:
A career in software testing may not always require a formal degree, but obtaining the necessary academic credentials can increase your employability and give you a strong foundation. Take into consideration enrolling in quality assurance, software engineering, or computer science degree programs or certification courses. Additionally, you can acquire the skills and information required to succeed in this area by enrolling in specific courses in software testing methodologies and tools. Comprehensive programs designed to satisfy industry demands are offered by Software Testing Training in Delhi, Noida, Agra, Vadodara, Mumbai, and many other Indian cities. These programs give participants practical experience and insights into the newest trends and approaches.

Gaining Practical Experience:
Practical experience is crucial when working in the software testing industry. Seek internships, co-op programs, or entry-level positions to gain practical exposure to testing methodologies, tools, and industry practices. Embrace every opportunity to work on real-world projects, collaborate with experienced testers, and hone your skills in test planning, execution, and reporting.

Building a Strong Portfolio:
As you gain experience in software testing, compile a portfolio showcasing your projects, achievements, and contributions. Include details about the types of testing you’ve performed, the tools and methodologies you’ve utilized, and the impact of your testing efforts on software quality. A well-curated portfolio serves as tangible evidence of your capabilities and can significantly bolster your job prospects.

Networking and Professional Development:
Networking plays a vital role in advancing your career in software testing. Join industry forums, attend conferences, and connect with seasoned professionals in the field. Engage in knowledge-sharing activities, participate in discussions, and stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in software testing. Additionally, consider obtaining certifications such as ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) to demonstrate your expertise and commitment to professional growth.

Job Search Strategies:
When embarking on your job search in software testing, cast a wide net and explore diverse employment opportunities. Look for openings in software development companies, IT consulting firms, quality assurance departments, and software testing service providers. Tailor your resume to highlight your relevant skills and experiences, and customize your cover letter for each application to demonstrate your enthusiasm and fit for the role.

Continual Learning and Adaptation:
The field of software testing is dynamic and constantly evolving. Embrace a mindset of continual learning and adaptation to stay relevant in the industry. Keep abreast of emerging technologies, testing methodologies, and industry best practices. Pursue advanced certifications, attend workshops, and engage in online courses to expand your knowledge and skill set.

Conclusion:
Embarking on a career in software testing offers a wealth of opportunities for growth, learning, and professional fulfillment. By acquiring the necessary skills, gaining practical experience, building a strong portfolio, and networking with industry peers, you can pave the way for a successful and rewarding career in this dynamic field. Remember to stay curious, embrace challenges, and remain dedicated to honing your craft as a software tester. With perseverance and determination, you can embark on a fulfilling journey towards becoming a seasoned and sought-after testing professional.

Literature review and proposal as PL/SQL Developer

Literature review
It is vital to choose the right programming language that helps the programmer carry out transaction processing and the one that supports procedural constructs, and robust error handling (Wichmann, 1995). That programming language also needs to incorporated variable declarations and general high performance. The PL/SQL programming language has database basis, and it is also an application development language that supplements the SQL programming language with standard programming feature. It is the superset of SQL programming language. The features that this programming language adds to SQL include block structure, flow control statements and loops, customized error handling, structured data and variables and constant types (Feuerstein & Pribyl, 2014). It makes it possible for the one programming to store the compiled code into the database directly. With that possibility, the any number of users and applications can share the same functions and procedures. As a matter of fact, once the loading of the code takes place onto the memory, multiple users can use the same code simultaneously.

The users can also define triggers to enable the database execute them automatically in response to the specified events (Sharma et al., 2011). Pl/SQL is an exclusive product from Oracle Corporation and not an industry standard. The language helps in bringing efficiency to programming because if the user compiles it prior to runtime, there is high efficiency ensured in that code or program. It groups its statements into some units that we can refer to as block just like any other programming languages groups the statements into some units (Gupta, 2012). Those blocks can be anonymous or named as subprograms of procedures. There is the usage of a function in an expression, and it returns a valued top the expression before the invoking of a standalone statement. It then passes the value to the calling program using parameters only. It is also possible to nest those subprograms into one another and then into larger units known as packages. The daily responsibilities of a PL/SQL programming entail writing programs, queries, and functions so as to manipulate the structure and data of a database.

There is also a responsibility of querying databases and then generating reports that is vital to the decision-making process of an organizations or any business (Parker & Ottawa, 2006). PL/SQL ensures that those tasks take place in the required manner so as to deliver a high-quality code that lead to the delivery of high-quality reports or queries. Pl/SQL development takes place on the Oracle database, and the developers may also work with MySQL and the Microsoft SQL Servers, or any other database system (Hellstrom, 2015). It requires the SQL developer to have a thorough knowledge of SQL programming analytics ability and a strong logic. The software development arena requires that the developers report to the managers and the software development team leads. Because of that, it is a requirement that a PL/SQL developer handles the successful delivery of the development projects for software as well as support the production development. Those are the responsibilities that I will ensure that they take place while working in the i5 Tech Company as highlighted in my introduction and methodology.

The PL/SQL developer requires having active participation in software design and solutions while ensuring that he/she develops the company systems forward to deliver a high quality managed solution. PL/SQL language offers to the developer elements that are imperative to the software or application development task (Gupta, 2012). One of the elements includes organized code management packages that serve the purpose of making the locating of the code easy as well as its understanding and reuse. There is also the easy of top-down application design. That is because a separation between the public interface and the implementation if a crucial feature required for any package. That ensures that the programmer can code and compile a package with the absence of the body. When there is such vital separation of the public interface and the body, there is the possibility of developing an application in a modular fashion and not face bottlenecks. The bottlenecks arise due to incomplete implementation details in the code or application.

Both the bottom-up and the top-down development approaches are strategies that are useful for the processing of information and knowledge ordering (Dell Corporation, 2006). These tasks are vital in many areas such as software, scientific theories, humanistic, management, and organization. The top-down approach to PL/SQL development also known as decomposition, it is vital in breaking a system down to gain more understanding of the same regarding its compositional structure. In this approach, there is formulating of a system, making specifications although there is no detailing of any first-level subsystems. There is then the refining of the system into greater detail, and sometimes this may take place in many additional levels until the developers reduce the system into its base elements (Wile, 2002). It mean than the PL/SQL language helps in the reduction of the complexity of the task of development as in the case of bottom-up approach. The latter approach is where there is the piercing together of systems to form a more complex system meant for making g the original system be a subsystem of the emergent one.

The other powerful element of the PL/SQL is what the programmers call painless implementation changes because the language helps to eliminate the havoc or making changes to the subprograms. In many of the programming languages, making changes to a subprogram creates havoc with the other programs that might be referring it. With PL/SQL, there are no changes required in the dependent objects if only the there is the changing of the code in the package body (Tutorialspoint.com, n.d). It is also possible to ensure security and maintainability in the code when using this application language. It makes it possible to specify which of the items, types and subprograms that is private or public. Also, the ability to have in a package some private portions makes it impossible to access them publically. That is essential as it helps in protecting the integrity of that package as well as simplifying the maintenance.

PL/SQL also incorporates session-wide persistence of the public variables. That means the package public cursors, as well as the variables only, persist as long as the session is not over. They let the programmer to maintain the data across many transactions without the need for storing it in the database. They help in the storage of the values that have session-wide relevance like the debug/trace options. Better performance in PL/SQL language is possible through the loading of the package into the memory after the invocation of the packaged subprogram for the first time (Urman et al., 2004). There no disk I/O operations required for later calls to the subprograms that are in the package. All this translates to better performance than the SQL itself and other application programming languages.

Proposal
In the i5 Tech Company where I will be carrying out my research as an intern, I will have involvement in many tasks as highlighted in my introduction and methodology. Those tasks will relate to the PL/SQL development as I will be working as a PL/SQL developer in this company. I will have involvement in vital projects development with this language in question and in all those tasks I will be interacting with various teams of experts so as to understand what is in the requirement of me. Other tasks I will be in the requirement to carry them out alone while others I will be working with other teams or groups of professional for the purpose of quality and accountability. All those tasks have a division into five iterations including orientation, training, gathering and understanding the user requirements, coding, and testing and implementation. Those iterations have an explanation in the following paragraphs.

Orientation
The orientation session is where I will have the explanation of how the organization works, its structure, models of operation, management, working procedures and guidelines among others. I will have to know the limits of my duties and conduct so as not to have trouble in failing to adhere to the company rules and regulations regarding conduct and internship responsibilities. There will also be the issuance of the intern card that I will be using to identify myself as a legally taking my internship in the company.

Training
In the training phase where will be the task of helping me to know the areas that I will be handling during my internship in the company wherein, I will be taking my internship. There will be through training on the PL/ASQL coding principles and the rules that I ought to follow to ensure that I am in line with the international standards of coding in this language. There will be an assessment at the end of the training to test my understanding of the basics in taught during the training session as this will determine the project that company will assign to me.

Gathering and understanding user requirement
During the session of gathering and understanding the user requirements, I will have involvement in meeting and interacting with various end users of the application to have development. That will be helpful to me as I will understand the requirements clearly so as to code in light of those requirements. The development team will have to verify the data after analysis before giving me a go-ahead with the development. The company will assign to me one of the PL/SQL developers and one of the project development team members to help with the consultation services.

Coding
In the coding phase, I will begin the process of developing the required application that is the actual project development. It is the phase where I will have much work. It will require me to have regular contact with my supervisors so that I will carry it out in the required way and deliver unit within the specified time and quality.

Testing and implementation
In the testing and implementation phase, there will be the testing of the developed application for errors. The task will have performance in collaboration with the project development team and after the testing there will be the implementation of the developed application. It will be the last iteration in the company.

Literature review

Daily companies based on information technology are facing a lot of issues and computing challenges due to the data management. There is the wide usage of cloud and mobility, and it is opening up new opportunities for that information technology companies to be more service centric and productive. The database is the hidden workhorse that many businesses’ IT systems, storing critical business intelligence and bearing out hundreds to thousand so transactions each day (Cheung et al., 1996). Many companies are storing their information on relational databases, and they anticipate taking advantage of the emerging technologies such as XML or object-based databases. Instead to discarding the previous RDB or building non-relational data on it, it becomes better to convert the old data and applications onto a new environment (Maatuk et al., 2008). However, the question that remains is which of the databases is the most appropriate to migrate? That is the reason there is a need for an integrated method that handles database migration for it to be a success.

The method of migration needs to assist in the selection of the most suitable databases when comparing the databases that are available in the market. It should allow the development of the required applications to provide the required functionality and high performance than the previous one (Vitthal et al., 2013). A canonical model can be useful in the intermediate stage of data conversion and schema from the input database to the various output targets. Many researchers have been researching on the database migrations while focusing on different areas. There are many assumptions in most of the literature that restrict the successful migration. For the migration to a new database to be successful, there is a need for further normalization to third normal form (Premerlani & Blaha, 1994). Many of the literature assume key-based conclusion dependency with key attribute consistencies while another assumption is that the design often initial schema is okay. In Kronsys, the migration has to take place seamlessly, and I will have to ensure the application of the best methodology while working with the company’s database managers and data administrators.

In that research, I will prefer the application of an integrated method for database migration that can preserve the semantics and structure of an existing relational database to generate ORDB/XML schemas. The method also provides an effective way of loading data into the target databases without the loss of unnecessary redundancies. The method is superior to many of the approaches proposed in many kinds of literature, and it leads to three types of databases including an object-oriented, relational database, and XML schema. The method also helps to exploit excellent feature provide to the target outputs. Because there is heterogeneity among the three data models provided as outputs, the method makes it possible to develop a canonical data model (Callan, 2006). That canonical data model is useful in bridging the semantic gap that exists between those data models and consequently facilitate the migration process. The canonical data model does preserve and enhance the target database’s integrity y constraints as well as the data semantics that fit in with the target database characteristics.

The integrated method will consist of three phases including semantic enrichment, schema conversion and data conversion (Maatuk et al., 008). The first phase produces a canonical data model that contains much of the relational database’s constraints and data semantics that did not have an explicit expression in it. There is then the mapping of the canonical data model obtained into the target schemas of the second phase. The third phase is where the conversion of the relational database data into its equivalent in the new database takes place. There should be early designing of the system architecture and implementing a prototype to demonstrate that process that should show the success of the whole process before the actual migration takes place. In a nutshell, the integrated database migration project should entail three phases including semantic enrichment, schema translation, and the data conversion (Topor & Tanaka, 1997).

The semantic enrichment of database migration is where the analysis of the RDB to understand its meaning and structure takes place. That means you make the hidden semantics explicit. For Kronsys, the semantics enrichment phase will involve the extraction of data semantics from the old database and then representing in relational schema format. After that, there will be the conversion of the data into a much enriched canonical model. The schema translation will involve the translation of the canonical model produced in the previous phase into its equivalent target schema (Maatuk et al., 2007). There is following of the necessary rules during the translation that are not in the scope of this paper. The data conversion as the last phase will entail the conversion of the existing database data onto the format required by the target schema. Te canonical data model created in the previous phase is useful in guiding the conversion process.

Proposal
The paper focuses on tracking the internship at Kronsys Inc. in database migration so as to ensure that the migration process takes place seamlessly, and there is no disruption of the business processes. During my internship, I will ensure that the migration task goes on according to the requirements of the business. I will also be in the requirement to explore various modules of the new database and integrate them to benefit the company business operations. While carrying out an internship in database migration at Kronsys Inc, the internship consists of various phases like orientation, training, gathering or understanding requirements, and testing and implements the changes. These phases have explanation below through iterations.

Iteration 1 Orientation
The orientation session helps in understanding the company and their culture. During orientation at Kronsys Inc., the primary goal will be to explore the company and understand its vision and the mission statement. I will also have a good understanding of the focus and key players of the company.

Iteration 2 Training
In this phase, Training on the database migration essentials and operations will have an explanation so as to understand clearly my role in the entire process. During training, there will be a brief introduction to the ethics and standards of the organization plus the provision of real time examples to work on before actually project assignment.

Iteration 3 gathering requirements
After the training, I will analyze the project and obtain a proper understanding of the requirements. There will be the understanding of the project and requirements for the changes through the data gathering process and after analyzing the requirements, I will identify changes and perform analysis on the proposed changes. Later in this phase, there will be making a decision on the changes and obtaining of approvals.

Iteration 4 Test and Implementation
In this phase, there will be finalizing of the database changes and applying them to the existing system and then proper testing of the new database will follow to check the functionality is working properly. The testing will also serve the purpose of finding out if other services are effective because of the change implemented.