Software Testing Training of a different kind

Ever dreamed of being personally trained by Cem Kaner? How about Doug Hoffman? No? Ok, maybe Scott Barber is more your style?
Any tester would, but it would be expensive? I mean these guys would typically charge thousands for this kind of training. Besides, they’re all in the states, so airfare, accommodation.  Your company would never pay for it, right? Especially not now the training budget is cut.

Well, I’m being personally trained by these great testers, right now and even better, I’m doing it for FREE. No that’s not an acronym for  Footnote Really Exorbitantly Expensive,(I know its not very good, come up with a better one and let me know !)  it really is FREE.

I’m on the bug advocacy course run by the association of software testing. (note, the website is currently going an upgrade, but you can still become a member etc).

It’s an online course that’s free to all members. Yes you do have to be a member. Yes it does cost money. $85 US dollars for a year. So, if you want to split hairs, you could argue the course costs $85. So what?

Anyhow, I wanted to talk about this course, because its content is really excellent. First of all, lets deal with the title.

Why BUG ADVOCACY?

Because our focus as tester’s is not about raising bugs, but ensuring they get fixed. Its true!  Think about it. That way, not only does the software improve, but we as testers gain credibility too.

So, in order for us to get our bugs fixed, we need to make sure we sell them well and we anticipate and preempt any objections people may have about our bug report.

Its about communication effectively and communicating to the right person. Its about creating the ultimate bug report.

There is a lot more than that in the course. I suggest you take the course and find out for yourself.

The recommended hours per week is 6.  I would suggest you allocate more time.   The course content is practical and you are given assessments that involve commenting on actual bug reports. Some of the assessments can take longer if you allow them too. You work with testers around the world, some I knew of because of their blogs.  Personally, I’ve learned as much from other testers feedback as I have from the trainers.

Make no bones about it though, its a demanding and challenging course and if you are just looking for a piece of paper for your resume, this perhaps is not the course for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking to improve your software testing skills and having a highly respected certificate matters to you, then I suggest you join the AST and take some of their courses.

It doesn’t matter what environment you work in, agile or waterfall, process or exploratory, the skills you learn on this course are relative to all testers out there.

So, if your company doesn’t have a large training budget (or even if it does) this is the perfect solution. Your testers get some really great training, and you get kudos to boot.

Note:  This is my own personal opinion, I get nothing out of posting this on my blog.