Software Testing is a budding and growing field. With so many new resources, tools, technologies, and learning platforms available, It can be an overwhelming experience for any beginner. Most of the google/youtube/bing searches for the phrase “software testing” do not land you at the right resources. Moreover, most institutes charge a big amount of money and provide substandard (partially erroneous) knowledge on testing.
With the above in our mind, I and Ajay Balamurugadas decided to create a Testing Learning Syllabus for Newbies (who believe in self-learning /self-education).
What triggered us? This question at The Club by Ministry of Testing.
Here is our day by day syllabus:
First 5 Days (Week 1):
- Book: Explore It by Elisabeth Hendrickson
- Foundations:
- Course: BBST 3.0
- Black Box Software Testing – Foundations (Notes Here)
- Black Box Software Testing – Bug Advocacy (Later)
- Black Box Software Testing – Test Design (Later)
- Video: Explore It? Explore It! by Elisabeth Hendrickson
- Course: BBST 3.0
- Advice from the Legend: Letter to the New Tester – James Bach
- Get a Feel by Watching / Experiencing Testing:
- Report: Katalon Experience Report by Michael Bolton
- Video: Pair Testing Videos by Bug Hunter Sam
- 50 Software Testing Terms by Ashok T
Second Five Days (Week 2):
- Blog: 30 Things Every New Software Tester should Learn by Ministry of Testing
- Video: Becoming a Software Testing Expert by James Bach
- Practice: Testing Challenges
- Book: Agile Testing Condensed by Lisa Crispin
- Crash Course: Bug Reporting by Pradeep S & Santhosh Tuppad
Third Five Days (Week 3):
- Testing Curation: How they test by Abhijeet Vaiker
- Roadmaps:
- Practice: Weekend Testing
- Great Resources curated by Huib Schoots
- HTSM
- Oracles
- Testing without a Map
- Popular Books for Testers curated by Huib Schoots
Last 5 Days (Week 4):
- Product Hunt: These products will appreciate your testing help.
- Testing & Productivity Tools: Ultimate Productivity Toolkit
- Tips: A-Z of Testing Tips by Ajay Balamurugadas
- Test Design: The Little Black Book on Test Design
- Future References: Short Bytes on Software Testing (YouTube):
- Testflix by The Test Tribe
- The Test Chat
- Agile Testing Alliance
- Ministry of Testing
Bonus Tips:
- It might look like a huge list at first but it’s definitely doable. START!
- Good Reading Habits will help a lot.
- Be Consistent!
- Document your notes / blog about your learnings (20 day challenge for you).
- Put 7-8 hours everyday.
- Practice Often. All learning will fade without practice.
- Spend Weekends on Revising / Practising.
- Have an Accountability Partner.
- Have a mentor to unblock you if you get stuck.
- Invest on Productivity.
- <<I will add more, this list will improve further too>>
Here is a mindmap of the testing syllabus:
Link to mindmap: https://www.xmind.net/m/FpC8Xf
And how we arrived at the mind map: