In the software testing industry, there are different types of projects such as web applications, banking applications, financial applications, depending on the domain of the product under development. Companies look for test engineers and software testing companies with experienced QA engineers having good domain knowledge along with excellent testing skills to test such applications. Let’s have a look at why domain knowledge is essential to test a product?
Suppose a software test engineer only has good testing skills and common sense to find most of the critical bugs. Is that much testing sufficient to release a product? Normally, this is not the case as there are domain experts who test the product before going to production.
While testing an application, test engineer has to think like an end user, but there is no assurance that you can think 100% like an end user using your application, unless you are yourself one.
There may be a possibility that the user who is going to use your application has good domain knowledge. Therefore, a test engineer needs to balance all skills (testing skills, domain knowledge and technical expertise) to uncover issues in an application. Most software testing companies ensure that they have resources with right balance of technical expertise and domain knowledge to cater to various domains.
Why domain knowledge is required?
If you are going to test a Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) application, you have to perform functional, load or security testing.
In this case, you should know the user’s requirement in banking, processes followed, etc. to test the application effectively, and hence, domain expertise becomes essential.
Let’s take an example: suppose you have to work on a finance domain project in which you have to validate the values retrieved for a data item using different parameter settings. If you do not have any knowledge about how the parameters work for a particular data item, then you are not able to test the product effectively, and thus, there are chances of overlooking a defect. So to test the financial data items correctly and effectively, knowledge of the parameters used in data items is required.
How to get enough domain knowledge to test?
How does a test engineer, who is allocated to a new project, get enough domain knowledge? In such cases, he has to quickly grasp as many concepts as possible related to the particular domain in a short span of time. If possible, he could to go through the customer’s site to know how the product works and the online resources available to understand the domain related to the application being tested.
There are many skills which are required for a test engineer, such as manual testing skills, automation skills, domain knowledge, technical skills, communication skills, etc. Very few are experts in all these skills. A test engineer has to gain expertise in one skill and have a good knowledge of all other skills.
To test a product effectively, a test engineer has to put himself in end user’s shoes and also consider the possibility that an end user may be a domain expert. If a test engineer does not have good domain knowledge, then he has to try to get as much domain knowledge as he can. It helps him to test an application effectively and the chances of escaping a defect are reduced.
