How to understand if a person can do testing?

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xSkyFoXx2012-07-16 21:59:02

Software testing

xSkyFoXx, 2012-07-16 21:59:02

According to a well-known law, I have reached the maximum level of my incompetence and now I am interviewing applicants for the position of developers. But then I was given the task to communicate with the applicant for the position of tester. Moreover, testing should be understood not as unit- or unit testing, but as manual testing. Those. poking into our interfaces with a mouse and checking the functionality by a person.
I don’t understand at all what to ask such a person, how to evaluate his knowledge and competence. It's easier with developers. Give advice.

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4 answer(s)

D

denver, 2012-07-16
@xSkyFoXx

I would ask, for example, how would he test a 2-elevator system in a high-rise building, with no specification, expecting perfect behavior. There are enough cases there - which one will arrive first, and if one is up, and the other is down, and if it is empty, down, and if it is empty, up, and if you press two buttons inside, and if you press and exit, but enter and do not press. The more cases he comes up with in 15 minutes, the better.

A

aANDREIQA, 2012-07-16
@aANDREIQA

Give him a task like:
We have a form with two input fields and a button. The program that uses this form is designed for that. Text is entered in the first field, soap in the second. Ask him to test this product. Pay attention to what kind of data will be entered, whether boundary conditions will be checked, whether the input of meta characters, various code, etc. will be checked. Everything depends on the task.
By the way, it is easier for a programmer to interview a tester than for a programmer's tester.

M

marklarius, 2012-07-16
@marklarius

Ask " how would you test a kettle? ".
Although seriously, you need to make sure that a person is able to think . Build the conversation so that you understand: will the candidate be able to understand the purpose / main functions of the systems he is testing? Does he have experience with similar systems? Will he be able to simulate (on a piece of paper) the process of interaction of a "regular" user with the system?

F

Funcraft, 2012-07-17
@Funcraft

I did this: I drew a simple interface on the board (starting from two fields with some arithmetic operation and the “Calculate” button, and ending with a calendar), and asked me to create test cases. Quite interesting results are obtained.
ps
Not quite in the subject, but about “thinking”: I like to ask a question on abstract thinking in the spirit of “what do skis and heights have in common”. Sadly, 100% of interviewees are unable to use abstract thinking.