How to Learn Testing in 20 Days?

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):

  1. Book: Explore It by Elisabeth Hendrickson
  2. 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
  3. Advice from the Legend: Letter to the New Tester – James Bach
  4. Get a Feel by Watching / Experiencing Testing:
  5. 50 Software Testing Terms by Ashok T

Second Five Days (Week 2):

  1. Blog: 30 Things Every New Software Tester should Learn by Ministry of Testing
  2. Video: Becoming a Software Testing Expert by James Bach
  3. Practice: Testing Challenges
  4. Book: Agile Testing Condensed by Lisa Crispin
  5. Crash Course: Bug Reporting by Pradeep S & Santhosh Tuppad

Third Five Days (Week 3):

  1. Testing Curation: How they test by Abhijeet Vaiker
  2. Roadmaps:
  3. Practice: Weekend Testing
  4. Great Resources curated by Huib Schoots
    • HTSM
    • Oracles
    • Testing without a Map
  5. Popular Books for Testers curated by Huib Schoots

Last 5 Days (Week 4):

  1. Product Hunt: These products will appreciate your testing help.
  2. Testing & Productivity Tools: Ultimate Productivity Toolkit
  3. Tips: A-Z of Testing Tips by Ajay Balamurugadas
  4. Test Design: The Little Black Book on Test Design
  5. 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:

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