In 2 weeks, I will be starting a new job as junior software tester. I sat down today to think about what I could do during the first weeks. I think I can use MIDTESTD heuristic as a guide (mission, information, developer relations, team, equipment and tools, schedule, test items, deliverables). I learned about it from RST course. Would love to hear your suggestions, maybe some specific questions to ask employer and team. What areas to focus (or not worry about too much)? Any other advice. Thank you!
Some context: I am relatively new to testing and I come from non IT background. I’ve been working in a small startup remotely over the last 2 years (part-time, WFH, mostly autonomously). The company I will be working for was founded 5 years ago, has around 300 employees and growing fast. Currently, testing team is very small, and they decided to expand it. From what I heard so far, I concluded there is no mature test strategy, and test team in place.
For a junior I think it’s better that you are in a team now, rather than working solo, try to pair often with your co-workers, not just testers but developers and non-technical people as well, if possible.
Try to sit down with other testers and the rest of the team and work towards a common agreement on the process-related topics:
• How will bugs be reported
• How will test data be generated
• The testing environment(s)
• What tools will be used
• Automation strategy in broad strokes - what to automate and what not to automate and how
• Coding conventions for automation
Analyse the product so you can ask the right questions.