Page - 241 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

Next-Generation Software Testers: Broaden or Specialize! 241 Fig. 5 Test specialist “shaped” persons, a test specialist is an I-shaped person (see Fig. 5). A tester with adeep(vertical)expertise inone testingareaand lessknowledgeandskills inother testingareas, let itbeoutsidetesting.Theirexpertiseinthatonetestingareaismuch, much deeper than the expertise possessed by a T-shaped tester for the same testing area. As products are becoming more and more complex, and are integrated in an almost open environment, many so-called non-functional testing issues have become extremely challenging. You cannot just do this on the side, this requires much specialized knowledge and skills, training and dedication. To some testers it may not be their piece of cake, or may even be too (technically)difficult to master. As a result, to still beable to test an IT-industrynon-functionalcharacteristics such as security, interoperability, performance and reliability, or other complex aspects likesystems-of-systems,highlyspecialized testerswillbeneeded.Thesespecialists are typically full-time test professionals with in-depth knowledge and skills in one specific (non-functional) testingareaonly. Also fromacustomerpointofviewthatcomes tous fora solution, thecustomer maysometimescometo thedoorwitha problemthat is to be addressedbya single specialist only. It doesn’t require a team-based solution. It is with these kinds of problemsorquestions that the I-shapedspecialist clearlyhasmuchaddedvalue. So what are typical test specialists areas? Again, let’s look at the ISTQB product portfolio as a reference framework to identify some testing topics that are considered to beareaswherewe wouldbenefit fromhaving test specialists. ISTQB clearly points us in the direction of non-functionals (see Fig. 6), e.g. security test specialist, usability test specialist or performancetest specialist. Thesearevaluable test specialists in the context as defined above. ISTQB also mentions amongst others automotivesoftware tester, gambling industry tester and model-based tester. PersonallyI’mnotsurethesearetestspecialistareasthatcontainandrequireenough specialist knowledge and skills to be able to add value and survive as an I-shaped