New Year Resolutions Of Every Website Tester In 2020

Were you able to work upon your resolutions for 2019? I may sound comical here but my 2019 resolution being a web developer was to take a leap into web testing in my free time. Why? So I could understand the release cycles from a tester’s perspective. I wanted to wear their shoes and see the SDLC from their eyes. I also thought that it would help me groom myself better as an all-round IT professional.

I may have made a few bad decisions in 2019 but being a part-time web tester was not one of them. On the contrary, it worked like a charm. I was able to provide better development estimates after relating to loads associated with a tester’s bandwidth. I also made sure to follow best practices for avoiding cross browser compatibility issues and ended up saving a considerable lot of time for my testing team.

The trick about working on new year resolutions is that you need to start taking ‘incremental steps’ to bring the change as breaking the shackles is always difficult. Mind you, it is difficult but definitely not impossible!

I don’t want to sound condescending, I love being a web developer, however, I am also becoming fond of web testing. Now, my job being a full-time web developer helps me to catch up with the recent trends of web development. This is why I decided that this year I will be venturing more as a part-time web tester to become a more productive resource for my team.

Now, what should I target as a website tester for 2020?

I thought this question would be best answered by my tech team at LambdaTest and so I went to every person on board and asked them about their targets and new year resolutions for 2020?

I came up with some intriguing pointers and interesting targets. This article, I will be sharing these new year resolutions for every website tester who is a part of the LambdaTest crew.

I Will Follow The Latest Trends In Web & Technology

It is important to follow the happenings in the outside world, especially about your line of work. There is not a single source of information on the internet that can provide you will all the information and you need to spend effort discovering those ‘gold mines’. Follow thought leaders in the field of web technologies, automation testing, etc. on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. You can also join/subscribe to communities/groups like Google Groups, Reddit, Stack Overflow, etc. and consume information that is relevant to you.

Even if you are a newbie in website/web application testing, you should try answering questions on Stack Overflow even if you have partial information about a potential solution to the problem. Most importantly, make sure to follow these top 21 Selenium automation testing blogs of 2020.

I Will Venture Into Automation Testing

The field of website testing is constantly evolving and demand for automation testing of websites/web applications is picking up pace. There will be demand for manual testers as not all testing activities can be automated. However, the demand for automation testers will comfortably outpace the demand for manual testers. With emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), etc. in automation testing, enterprises will be willing to invest more in automated testing than manual testing.

Manual Testing vs Automation Testing: Check Out The Differences

SDETs (Software Development Engineer in Test) or full-stack QAs are considered as advanced versions of software testers. They are in huge demand as they have knowledge about software development and testing. It’s never too late to start something! Getting started with automation testing will be the best thing you can do to kick-start your career in 2020.

Role Of Automation Testing In Agile

I Will Learn Different Programming Languages

The Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019 has an insightful list of most loved, dreaded, and wanted programming languages. The survey results could be a good starting point to know from a tester’s perspective about the programming languages that are in demand.

Each one of us in the automation testing field would be highly proficient with maximum 1-2 programming languages but you can never be complacent with the same. Learning new programming languages will keep you more prepared for rapid changes in the software testing industry.

It is a known fact that shifting gears from one programming language to another is not that difficult as the basic concepts of programming still remain the same. Automation tests for testing websites/web applications can be written using different programming languages like Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, Python, etc. Being proficient in different languages will help you outclass the rest of your team and set new standards for them in the long run.

I Will Blog About My Learnings

The fundamentals of the statement – There is something to learn from each one of us that still holds good. In 2020, make it a point that you document your experiments, learning, and experiences in a technical blog. Getting started with blogging and sticking to a schedule will be extremely difficult in the beginning but slowly it would become a part of your routine.

There is so much to learn from other’s experiences and starting a blog will not only help you improve your soft skills but also help you network & learn from other testers. Start a blog with a free blogging platform and slowly move to a custom domain once blogging becomes a part of your lifestyle.☺

Just like you might be searching for solutions to a technical snag that you are facing, there might be many others who would have written about a potential solution on their blog. Blogging on different topics related to website testing will help you in your professional journey as it has innumerable and intangible returns!

I Will Automate Browser Testing

Testing of websites/web applications on different combinations of browsers, devices, and operating system is very important for ensuring a consistent behavior and experience to your website visitors. Cross browser testing is and will always remain relevant as far as websites/web applications are concerned. However, have you ever thought about how much time you devote to manual cross browser testing? For a simple regression testing round, you may have to test your web application on hundreds of browsers + OS combination. It sounds exhausting, isn’t it?

This is precisely why you should be focusing on developing a skill around automated browser testing. will open doors to new avenues of testing.

Selenium is the most popular test automation framework for web-applications and Appium is the most popular test automation framework for mobile browsers. Selenium 4 which is the upcoming release of Selenium has many enhancements and excitement around its release should get you also excited about the test framework.

Getting started with Selenium is easy as it is compatible with popular programming languages. Start with automated browser testing on local Selenium Grid and eventually shift to UI testing using remote online Selenium Grid such as LambdaTest.

LambdaTest can help you perform cross browser testing on 2000+ real browsers & operating systems hosted on the cloud. You can perform manual and automated browser testing along with the benefits of third-party integrations. The best part is you can leverage parallel testing with Selenium and reduce your test cycles by multiple folds.

I Will Be Super-Attentive In Product Meetings

Are you a fan of Agile Scrums? Well, so are many enterprises handling complex development projects and deadlines. The daily scrums definitely help to bring more transparency among the team. However, one may counter that too many meetings can kill productivity and may end up being monotonous. Nevertheless, there is always some take away from meetings, particularly product meetings.

Product meetings can be fulfilling as you get to know from the product owners about the nuances of the product features and what thoughts went about designing & building the product. You can build a product management mindset from such meetings and that mindset can help you come up with better scenarios that will eventually be useful in improving the product.

Add the resolution of staying very attentive and taking notes when in Product Meetings.☺

I Will Learn Various Test Automation Frameworks

Selenium is one of the biggest names in automation testing frameworks. The advantage of the Selenium framework is that it open-source, compatible with popular programming languages like C#, Python, Ruby, Java, etc. and major browser vendors like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc.

Being globally accepted, Selenium has a wide user community which has led to the introduction of multiple language-specific test automation frameworks compatible with Selenium automation testing.

Python, the programming language that is gaining immense popularity has a range of test automation frameworks like PyUnit, pytest, Robot, Behave, etc. Similarly, there are frameworks for other languages too. For example:

1. Top Java testing frameworks
2. Top JavaScript testing frameworks
3. Top PHP testing frameworks

So if you thought you are an expert in Selenium by working over a couple of frameworks, think again! There is still a lot to learn. Each framework has its own troubleshooting process, capabilities, and more. Getting started with these test frameworks might not be difficult as most of the test frameworks are compatible with Selenium WebDriver and prior knowledge of Selenium will always be an added advantage.

I Will Focus On Testing For Handheld Devices

The entire spectrum of web testing has changed with the penetration of mobile phones. Irrespective of the customer base, web-based businesses have to focus on mobile testing as mobile phones are becoming an intangible part of the business.

There are plenty of mobile test automation tools – Appium, Robotium, UI Automator, MonkeyTalk, Selendroid, etc. that will gain more prominence in the future. Appium is the most popular tool for automating native, mobile web, and hybrid applications on iOS, Android, and Windows desktop platforms.

Appium is widely used for automated browser testing on mobile devices. Cross browser testing with Appium can be further extended as it can be used with cloud based cross browser testing platforms like LambdaTest.

If you are an automation tester with knowledge of mobile test automation tools, you can do wonders in 2020 as mobile web testing is one of the leading software testing trends in 2020.

I Will Learn Nuances Of CI/CD

With continuous integration and continuous delivery, development teams are involved in frequent code changes that are pushed to the appropriate branch. Jenkins, JIRA, Travis CI, Gitlab, Bamboo, etc. are some of the popular tools used for CI/CD. Learning these tools will further enhance your skills and along with testing, you can also play a role in release management. This enables you to enhance your skill-sets as you can play the role of a tester as well as a release manager.

There are many MOOC courses on these topics. Start with a free-course to get acquainted with the subject and opt for a paid-course when required.

What Is Continuous Integration And Continuous Delivery?

I Will Garner Skills in AI and ML

AI and ML are now being used in codeless test automation, including the latest Selenium IDE. With the rising demand of project methodologies like Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, etc., enterprises are looking for flexible QA approaches. The usage of Machine Learning (ML) for automation in testing will garner more attention in 2020 as it helps dynamically write test new cases based on user interactions by mining through their logs and behavior.

AI and ML algorithms are great at further optimizing the process of test automation and can be used in conjunction with Selenium framework to accelerate the automation testing process.

Having know-how about machine learning algorithms that can be used for automated browser testing will give you an upper edge in this hyper-competitive industry.

I Will Pay More Attention To The Performance

We don’t have to reiterate the importance of performance for a consumer-based website/web application. As web testers, you already know the implications that a slow page load or any other performance can have on the business.

Irrespective of whether you are working on the client-side testing or server-side testing, adding complementary skills will definitely help you scale up your profile. Learning server-side/back-end testing would require a considerable amount of effort. Hence, you should break that task into smaller sub-tasks.

Some of the popular server-side tools are Locust.io, Multi-Mechanize, Apache Bench, Httperf, JMeter, etc. Google PageSpeed Insights is one of the best tools available for gauging performance on the client-side. In fact, you can measure page load times with Selenium as well. If you are familiar with the Selenium framework, it could be a great starting point to venture into performance testing.

Learning these tools will improve your depth & understanding in automated testing as you can visualize the clear a wholesome picture from the client-side as well as the server-side.

I Will Build My Personal Brand

There are some things that will reap positive results after many years and one of them is your personal brand. Personal branding has become extremely important and the best manner to do the same is by letting relevant people know about your skills and spreading your knowledge.

Present in relevant conferences, upload your presentations online and start uploading your learnings/code to platforms like GitHub so that others can also benefit from your work. It also helps you improve your own skills.

I Will Improve My Soft-skills

When you are in a discussion, it is important to step into another person’s shoes and maneuver the language as per his/her skill-set and position. When you are presenting something to stakeholders in business (i.e. product managers, QA managers, VPs, etc.), it is important to make them aware of the business side of software/web testing.

Instead of big presentations that contain defect conversion charts; convert that information into a 1-2 page slider that walks them through the business risks and delivery timelines. This is not a simple task but it should be learned. Good communication skills (oral and written) are important traits for being a good tester as testers have to constantly communicate with relevant stakeholders in the team.

I Won’t Miss Out On Exploratory Testing

Sometimes, it is perfectly fine to venture into unknown territories and the same principle can also be applied to testing. As a tester, you keep performing your day to day duties of test planning, execution, and test case enhancements. Sometimes, you can also look at testing some features that were developed a long time back, have not been updated and are still being used by your users.

In 2020, make it a habit to take some time out from your busy schedule and perform exploratory testing of certain features in the product. This will help you improve the understanding of the product and vitalize your creativity and lateral thinking.

It’s Curtains

These are the New Year resolutions that were addressed by the tech team and I believe they would be valid for every website tester who wishes to thrive in the industry. The software testing field is going through a rapid transformation and you should have realistic deadlines to complete these goals☺.

“If you are not learning something new each day, you are not testing.”
-Jerry (Gerald) Weinberg

One thumb rule that has followed is making sure that there is some progress every single day so that you are in a comfortable position to achieve the New Year resolutions.
As website testers, what are your top resolutions for 2020? Do share your key resolutions by leaving a note about them in the comments section of the blog. Happy new year and happy testing! 🙂

Nikhil

Experienced Frontend Developer and UX Designer who specializes in HTML5, CSS3 SASS/SCSS, Bootstrap 4, Materialize, Semantic UI frameworks, Javascript, Jquery, Ajax, React JS and APIs.

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