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Software Development Course Question

Kennykenken1

Hi everyone,

I not sure if this is the right place for this post, as it really a follow up post from a year ago.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with some advice. I've been offered a full-time Momentum course in Software Development (C#, Java, .Net). My long term goal is to become a software tester (Automated/Manual), and I was wondering if the Software Dev course would be helpful in gaining employment in this area?

Just to note: I already have completed a six month software testing internship with a software company based in Dublin; which didn't work out (i.e. I was replaced by more interns). Before that, I completed a full-time software testing course; and gained both the ISTQB and an MTA in SQL scripting certification.

I don’t have a degree, but I do have a (UK) HND in information Technology qualification and recent FETAC level 8 in Digital Media.

Any help in this area would be much appreciated.

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c_man

I'm not familiar with Momentum courses, so I won't comment on their quality, but I would say that yes a software dev course will definitely help with your goals.

As well as the other beneifts such a course will bring (better understanding of the dev process/challeneges etc etc), manual QA is on the way out in my opinion. Test automation is the future.

Kennykenken1

Many thanks for your feed back. I'm not sure that I totally convinced about manual QA testing being on the way out, even with my limited experience, I've seen that Test Automation is best suited to regression and retesting. Some initial builds can and do change so dynamically/radically it would be impractical to automate testing at that phase. However, I do think that future QA Testers will have to pretty adept at being able to do both manual and automation, i.e., using whatever method or tool that is best suited for the job at hand.

Anyway, I've started the course and have subsequently found out that we're covering VB, Java, C++ and Python in a 19 week period. There's also another 3 months work experience period at the end of that. My initial thoughts are that we'll most likely cover just the basics of each of the language (which is a start, I guess), but 3 months is a bit short on the practical experience side, but I suppose it's a start.

EganTheMan

Excuse my ignorance but I would feel that you would be better aiming for actual Software Development Role . . .

Testing, I would imagine, must be extremely monotonous and would definitely be held in less regard . . .

What Age Group are you?

Kennykenken1

Many thanks for your feed back. I'm not sure that I am totally convinced about manual QA testing being on the way out, even with my limited experience, I've seen that Test Automation is really best suited to regression and retesting on fairly stable builds/systems. Some initial builds can and do change so dynamically/radically it can be impractical to automate testing at that phase. However, I do think that future QA Testers will have to pretty adept and flexible to be able to both manual and automation, i.e., using whatever method or tool is best suited for the job etc.

Anyway, I've started the course and have subsequently found out that we're covering VB, Java, C++ and Python in a 19 week period. There's also another 3 months work experience period on top of that. However, my initial thoughts are that we'll most likely just cover the basics of each of the languages (which is a start, I guess), but 3 months I think is little short on the practical experience side of things, but I suppose it's a start.

Kennykenken1

Apologies for the double entry here, I went to edit and it went a bit pear shaped, an error I think, it was either the software or the user, or maybe both???

In answer to EganTheMan; I've just pushed the wrong side of 50, which I can assure you doesn't help that much with employers.

Regarding testing; just following other peoples test plans can be boring, but creating your own, and trying to figure out all the various ways to break a piece of software can quite interesting. It's definitely a different mindset to a Developer, as developer wants to make something work, and a tester wants to find a reason or find a way that it doesn't work, without of course stepping on too many egos on the way. On my internship, I saw that when certain pieces of software/packages weren't test properly, or enough (lack of time), and the results weren't pretty for the company or their clients.

Anyway, I'm not totally entrenched on testing, but I think it has good long term prospects, as I guess developing does as well. If I do find that I like the programming side of things more, then I am quite willing try to pursue a career in software development.

However, it seems that to break into either testing or development at the moment; you have to be 21, have 2.1 degree in computer science, and have 2 to 3 years practical experience, which I unfortunately lack at the moment.

Idleater

EganTheMan wrote: »

Testing, I would imagine, must be extremely monotonous and would definitely be held in less regard . . .

Wow, in an age of test driven design, test driven development and general agile team based work environments, I'm surprised that such viewpoints still exist.

I agree there is still the the Need for an associated "tester" role, but as a software developer, I disagree with that kind of attitude towards testing.

It's a bit like the old joke about Microsoft: release it anyway,let the customer report the issues and we'll fix them in sp1

croo

Idleater wrote: »

It's a bit like the old joke about Microsoft: release it anyway,let the customer report the issues and we'll fix them in sp1

Was that a joke?

Senna

No, it was company policy

beauf

Senna wrote: »

No, it was company policy

Its lot of places policy even now.