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1. Test the development background of the industry

The era of big testing led by Microsoft：

Most of the earliest explorations of IT engineering enlightenment and test positioning  came from Microsoft. The background of that year was that Microsoft deliberately allowed Windows to be pirated and actively exported its own IT ecological technology stack . From the government to the private sector , almost all of Windows is used.

The impact of Microsoft and its affiliated ecosystem on testing industry is briefly summarized:

• •The ratio of testing and R&D. Because they are all client products. If there is a quality problem when it is delivered, it is difficult to solve. So the test is placed in a very important position. The ratio of test to R&D was once 1:2
• •Outsourcing companies are growing rapidly. Just a few years. Neusoft, iSoftStone, Boyant and other companies have developed rapidly.
• •Enlightenment and development of testing technology. Mainly automation. In the era ten years ago, I heard some seniors say that when a company did performance testing, someone blew it down with a whistle, and then the whole room began to click together. So when QTP and LoadRunner appeared, they quickly took over the market.

Testing development in the Internet age：

When the internet world began to explode, the main changes in the testing industry were:

•Testing technology has developed greatly. Instead of simple automated testing, the technology began to become more refined. For example, unit testing, code dynamic and static testing, interface testing, continuous integration, and automated testing on various ends. People are no longer superstitious about UI automation, and the ideas of hierarchical automation, continuous integration, and testing as a service are becoming popular.

•Test engineer technology transformation. In the past, test engineers were just dots and did not ask for technology. But now all first-tier companies such as BAT have implemented technical written tests. It can be said that testers who do not understand the basics of development are already difficult to develop. The test engineer has degenerated to the point where it can only be used for functional validation on the user side.

•Test R&D ratio: from 1:2 to 1:3, 1:5.

Test development in the era of mobile Internet + entrepreneurial wave

During this period, the testing industry has undergone the following changes

•The number of test engineers serving domestic enterprises has begun to increase. Outsourced test engineers and white-collar test engineers working in foreign companies have been affected by the withdrawal of foreign companies and have begun to gradually transfer to domestic companies. The superiority of foreign companies is gradually lost, and domestic engineers begin to rise.

•Agile concepts are prevalent. The SCRUM and XP concepts were rapidly gaining popularity. Scrum caters to product management, and XP caters to engineering development. Each evolved rapidly, and then gradually evolved into deeper models such as CI CD and devops.

•The large mass department model was broken up. In order to improve operational efficiency, the QA or test engineer team is gradually split into specific business units. The disappearance of the large mass department model means that the development of test engineers is starting to hit a ceiling. Many people have not yet realized the huge impact of this model.

•New developments in testing technology. The testbed has been greatly developed. R&D engineers and technical test engineers have also begun to gradually exert their value. For example, new full-link stress testing, full-link tracking, test monitoring, various interface testing and mock platforms, and various cloud testing and special test platforms. Independent testing services companies are also emerging.

The era of big data and intelligence

Humanity has entered the DT era. Big data, machine learning, deep learning, graphics rendering and other technology stacks have also matured. This will lead to the formation of new productivity and the implementation of the testing industry, which everyone is just beginning to feel. I won't comment for now.

2. Summary of the development of the testing industry

The reason why I list past industry changes is actually to tell everyone not to think that the current model is the long-term status quo of the industry. At present, different enterprises are still in different concepts and different historical stages. There is no absolute right or wrong, only suitability and non-conformity.

These changes are developed around several core threads:

(1) Business development

Business development brings the pursuit of quality and speed. This is the main line of the development of the entire industry.

The demands of business development have influenced product development and testing. It is as greedy as capital, and it is always pursuing to break through the bottleneck. Pursue faster and better development. It determines the life and death of many companies and the future of engineers in many industries. R&D, products, and QA are all for the service of business.

(2) Technological development

Technology is an important part of productivity, and the development of technology is accelerating. Each qualitative change will bring about some major changes in the industry. The maturity of technology determines how much the test industry can achieve.

As a test engineer, you need to be good at leveraging your current technology stack to create solutions that meet your current needs.

(3) Management development

The main body of the company will never stop in the pursuit of simple and efficient management. Every step forward in technology and tools means that the ability of organizational communication is increasing. The direction of management will gradually flatten. There will be less and less top management. There will be more and more front-line management.

One of the more embarrassing aspects of the testing industry is the disappearance of the large quality department model, which has caused the development of the testing industry to begin to hit a ceiling. If you can't hold on to R&D and products, people who develop in the testing industry will not be able to get a good promotion.

3. Key factors for the career development of test engineers

Salary data reference

Based on the basic attributes of the tested talents and summarizing them with practical examples, I summarized the career development status of some typical talents in the industry over an 8-year span.

I also have more data in my hand, and I have always wanted to create a decision tree model, but I have not been able to make it completely. This time, I will briefly list these typical cases and briefly analyze the key factors of the career development of the test person.

Key factors for career advancement

•Technical skills determine the acceleration of your salary growth. In the middle of the monthly salary of 1-3w. There will be more technical capabilities.

•Management ability determines your salary tier. Monthly salary 2-5w is the basic salary of management. The latter depends on the company's stock and bonuses.

•Business capabilities determine your status and long-term returns. Control of the business determines your influence and importance on the team, and also correlates with the number of options and stocks.

•Luck and choice determine the trajectory of your life. Choose well to get the maximum return.

•The return of stocks or options exceeds the salary. It is important to choose a reliable and sustainable company.

As a personal development, my advice is to solidly improve your skills and cultivate your connections and soft skills. As for luck and choice, don't worry, if you have the ability, there will naturally be experts to win you over. For example, friends often contacted me before, saying that XX company was going to issue options, XX company was going to go public, let's do it with us. Good character, good technology, everyone will like to be with you.

Workplace development suggestions

•Don't pursue rights at an age when you shouldn't be

This will ruin your entire future. In some interview situations, if the interviewer asks you if you want to be a manager, if you answer yes, then the interview is basically hung up. Be sure to confirm that the person interviewing you really wants you to go the management route. Most of them are just tests to see if you're really a doer.

Early participation in management can also lead to unsound personal skill development. This will bring hidden dangers later. Excessive pursuit of power will inevitably lead to office politics and various interest struggles. So be cautious in the face of this poisonous apple.

•Make a reasonable trade-off between salary and job opportunities

Each company has its own payroll system. You need to refer to this data to reasonably determine your salary, don't have illusions. Don't feel that others are upset because of a successful fooling and getting too much.

An excellent and solid work experience will benefit you for a lifetime and will add a lot of glory to your resume. It is also worth going for this opportunity to take a salary cut.

A reasonable rhythm is that the first 1-2 years of employment are mainly to accumulate ability, and the salary can make ends meet. 2-5 years, you can appropriately change jobs to pursue better treatment or a more shining work resume. More than 5 years, it is to find a good opportunity.

If you change jobs too much, some large companies will also be very concerned, which will affect your interview. For example, people who change jobs after less than one or two years of work experience are easily considered frivolous by BAT.

4. The development of the current testing industry

The testing industry with a surface "fading"

In view of the changes in the past situation, test engineers who do not understand technology will gradually be eliminated. A wave of unemployment of test engineers is inevitable. Although I also called on people around me to quickly get rid of the backward business system and backward testing skills, it is also very heartbreaking to see that many people are getting more and more difficult to live.

Including the decreasing demand for test engineers, fewer hiring positions, and the typical up-and-coming giants like Facebook didn't have QA in the early days. There was even a debate about whether QA teams are worth existing in previous years. On the surface, it looks like the testing industry is in decline.

Interestingly, the original intention of discussing whether QA teams are worth existing is to better ensure quality. This is quite intriguing. The vast majority of companies are very supportive of the existence of QA departments, and the question is whether the value of the existence of QA teams is large or small.

Outdated testing systems, backward tester capabilities, and lengthy testing processes are a key to being criticized by the entire IT industry. When the productivity of R&D is gradually improving and the deployment of operation and maintenance is gradually automated, the value and cost brought by QA cannot be ignored more and more. It has even become the biggest cost of a project.

This is a problem that no company can ignore. In the early years, Alibaba executives collectively went to Silicon Valley to visit the rising giants, and the conclusion was that their process and execution were much stronger than those in China. Even Facebook grew into a big company without QA in its early years. So Alibaba quickly promoted the cutting of the process. This part includes eliminating SQAs, eliminating demand analysts, eliminating project managers, and cutting QA slots. The simplest mode of entering products, R&D, and testing.

Whether QA will be removed or not also depends on the value of this department. So don't take it for granted that "existence is reasonable", some companies are already experimenting with the "no QA" model. The only constant in the Internet industry is change

For example, a typical example is algorithm testing in the direction of search, recommendation, machine learning and other important fields, which requires the participation of professional test engineers. This industry can accommodate many test teams. However, the testing industry has not formed a correct test method for this field over the years, and finally lost this market. Now it is all research and development guarantees. Because there are no qualified test engineers to guarantee this business.

The same is true in the field of performance testing, with the emergence of technologies and services such as performance testing platforms, full-link stress testing, performance monitoring, AB Test, and cloud stress testing, the demand for performance test engineers will also decrease. Performance testing in more and more companies has become R&D-led. If this piece of business is lost, the demand for performance testing QA will naturally be affected.

It's important to remember that business space determines the living space of QA, and this is true in all industries. If you can't meet the needs of the business, you will be eliminated and will either choose to retreat or take on the challenge.

What the future of the testing industry looks like, many people will worry. But I'm still optimistic overall. Because I like the whole industry, I have been constantly thinking over the years. Here is my opinion.

Test the size of the practitioner

The size of employees is negatively correlated with productivity and positively correlated with business scale. How much it can be in the future depends on the dual factors of technology and business scale.

First of all, it is the general environmental factor. With the Internetization of various industries, the IT industry is expanding, takeaway, nail art, and even drones, and the automotive and aerospace industries will become technology companies. The R&D team will expand, and the QA team will naturally expand as a whole. The premise is that QA itself is up to date.

Secondly, with the improvement of productivity, there will naturally be no need for so many people. This is the case in any industry, and the testing industry is not special. Just like in the automotive industry. In the early years, people were piled up, then tools, technology, robots, and processes were improved.

Industry technology improvements, testing technology improvements, testing tools and testing services will improve testing efficiency and reduce costs to a certain extent. This improvement leads to a more refined and efficient team for QA.

A large number of people means that everyone's value is as cheap as the workers in Foxconn's factory. The pursuit of high added value is the right way. It's a win-win for both the company and the testing team.

The third factor is industry status. The popularity of Devops is driving close collaboration between R&D and operations. Once this stage is completed, the production deployment of the product will be very smooth. Subsequently, the problem will be exposed earlier and earlier, and everyone will pay more attention to quality. When the time comes, we will enter a new era, DevQA.

Operations will gradually become pipelined, and Dev and QA will become the new protagonists. However, it is not necessarily the current software test engineers who can support the overall situation at that time, but the test engineers of the new era.

The testing industry will become more and more professional. Talents, technologies, tools, open source platforms, and services will become more and more. More and more perfect. There are specializations in the art industry, and the division of labor is still a general trend.

There will also be innovation at the technical level. Previous tests can only leave test cases and business knowledge documents, and there is no continuity accumulation.

With the breakthrough of interface testing, quality monitoring, coverage analysis, business modeling and other technologies, QA will also form its own stable and accumulated business data, and gradually form its own platform and business.

The dual factor of business space + technical threshold is a core reason why I firmly believe that the QA department can exist for a long time.

5. Embrace changes in the testing industry

The management of the testing industry will gradually flatten

Almost all internet companies are spinning off their businesses and QA teams to improve execution. Therefore, there will be fewer and fewer directors with hundreds of people, and more and more directors with less than 100 people. It is not ruled out that a small number of Big Macs remain unchanged. Or some money-burning startups go against the grain.

Among them, these test managers will encounter some new challenges, such as the higher level is mostly from R&D. If you don't understand the R&D system, there is almost no room for development. The test management system has lost its superstructure, and the impact on the future is still far-reaching. There will be labor pains, but the result will definitely be good.

The demand for testing technical talents has increased

The reasons are manifold. Large companies because of the problem of spin-offs. There is no longer a unified test technical support department, so each team after the spin-off needs to form a corresponding functional team, and the demand for test technicians will increase.

Small and medium-sized companies also demand quality assurance results, not only to be good, but also to be faster, and also need a large number of technical talents. It can also be seen through the description of JDs recruited on various job boards in recent years.

Disasters and rebirths of outsourced testing

It turns out that companies that do outsourcing business in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea will gradually decline due to the development of the domestic Internet, and they need to transform into domestic. However, most of the domestic outsourcing business is also rejected, and the outsourcing business has many disadvantages in terms of efficiency, communication and management. It itself cannot carry the training and long-term development of test engineers. Therefore, there will be a large number of outsourced test engineers in the next few years.

This requires new and excellent outsourcing service companies. It can have its own testing services, testing technology and advanced test research engineers. For example, Neusoft has also begun to make its own various cloud testing platforms, which is a kind of change to cater to the new era.

Test engineers who don't understand development are already illiterate in the new era

The first is that there is no longer much room for promotion at work. The second is that it is also difficult to change jobs. The best result is to switch to management with years of experience.

I have talked to many test managers in the industry, and most of them who have worked for more than 6 years will burn out in test execution and can no longer get started in improving testing technology, so it is better to recruit interns. Relatively speaking, people with a technical foundation will still maintain their enthusiasm for learning after working for more than 8 years.

Therefore, the future structure of the test team will basically be the management model of most business test engineers + a few test experts + test managers.

In the past, illiterate people were illiterate, and later illiterate people were illiterate, but after countries called for greater attention to IT technology, the illiterate people in the new era are almost people who do not know how to develop.

The threshold for testing the industry has increased

In the past, in the development period, the industry's strict demand for talents came first. Now with the stable development of large companies, recruitment has been stable.

They are basically only recruited in 211 colleges. Social recruitment also depends on academic qualifications. Most startups are mainly financing and burning money, and they are also highly regarded in terms of education and experience. There will be fewer and fewer companies that can reduce talent in an eclectic manner.

I have recommended many students to go to other excellent companies before, and some of them have good skills, but their academic qualifications have not passed. Therefore, I hope that everyone can pay attention to this issue in terms of skills and education. In addition to the academic threshold, there is also a technical threshold as mentioned in the previous article. So go for it, teenager!

Salaries in the testing industry are increasing

The testing industry will be reborn after its own purification and washing. A typical change is that salaries have increased from the previous range of 3k-15k to between 1w-3w.

The improvement of technical content and responsibility will inevitably bring overall returns. Now test engineers have no problem as long as they have good skills and academic qualifications. It is common to get a monthly salary of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan after working for 3 years.

R&D engineers enter the testing field

In recent years, the entire IT industry has been very dissatisfied with the development of the testing industry. The mood of R&D and submitting projects for testing is the same as going to the train station to queue up to buy tickets. To apply for testing resources, explain the business and implementation to the test, and when encountering relatively low or new employees, they can't even build an environment, and they have to teach them step by step.

R&D is just a line of code, QA or testing will be fried. Various processes are enough to make R&D hair fall out of several hairs.

As a reference and comparison, think about O&M. Deploying an environment back then was very similar to submitting tests. To apply for O&M intervention, you need to apply for machine resources, then submit deployment documents, and clarify the version number of various details such as the basic environment and dependent libraries.

When encountering problems such as not working in the local release environment, you have to fight with O&M. At that time, there was still a popular saying in the operation and maintenance industry, "people" are the most critical release guarantors.

And now with the popularity of continuous delivery and DevOps. The release has been "silky smooth", one-click release, free choice of grayscale, and the usual release does not even require operation and maintenance participation. After trying the sweetness of the new model, the disadvantages of the testing industry are already unbearable.

Therefore, when it is difficult to find excellent test engineers and test architects, more and more companies have chosen to directly use R&D engineers to top. Their pursuit is simple. Single test - > interface test - > basic smoke test, it can be automated. It would be perfect if it could be done as a test as a service like O&M.

summary

I have always believed that the value of QA is very great, and the testing industry will develop well after this adjustment. As for how brilliant the future can be, it depends on everyone's efforts.

6. Test career development advice

There is no essential difference between the development of the testing industry and other industries. It has been standardized over the years. Generally, companies will have two routes to develop. One is the technical route of P or T abbreviation, and the other is the management route of M.

There is a lot of room for development in each direction, and there are many levels, and the annual salary is also from 20W to more than 100W. Slightly larger companies mostly develop in parallel. Small companies may only have management routes. Therefore, it is best for technical students to develop in large companies, and when they go to small companies, they must adjust their work focus appropriately.

Test skill development

First of all, skills and technology are just processes, and the quality of business is the goal.

A qualified and excellent test engineer should be able to do the following:

•Understand the business. It can solidly ensure the quality of business. Do not exclude the use of mental and physical strength to ensure quality.

•Understand technology. Capable of in-depth automation or analysis work. Ability to solve problems with tools and techniques.

•Understand architecture. It can communicate normally with R&D and products to ensure that product requirements and realization are no problem. It can lead the team to better development.

Grow as a test development engineer

With the popularity of agile development, DevOps, and continuous delivery, software testers must grow to become test and development engineers, and have certain development and operation and maintenance capabilities.

Test development engineers will be more involved in the development work by shifting the test to the left, formulate test plans with developers in advance, and promote code review, code audit, unit testing, automated smoke testing, accurate test analysis, and R&D self-testing to ensure the quality of the R&D stage.

Test development engineers will also participate in configuration deployment through test rightshift, configure automated test cases into the continuous delivery chain, and monitor the quality of the application after release throughout the process. In summary, as a key role in DevOps, testers drive development and operations to achieve the goal of delivering high-quality products efficiently.

But I would like to emphasize here that I am not optimistic about test development engineers who only develop test tools. Develop a testing tool, design a better testing framework, and invent a more advanced testing method. This is a natural result of personal growth, but not a goal.

Many people think that the test development of development testing tools is promising, but it is not. It's just that he happened to catch up with the needs of the technology transformation period in the testing industry. I remember when I was at Baidu, many maintenance teams in charge of single test tools and single test frameworks were often fixing bugs at two or three o'clock in the morning. But as the years passed, most of these people's efforts did not pay off well.

This is because they are doing things that are too far from business goals. Once the goal is completed, they are also prone to being "pipelined" and become marginal roles. Except for a very small number of technology enthusiasts in this industry who can find their technical position in the industry, most people should follow the development of the business. Business is the foundation of testing.

The testing industry, like the previous Warring States period, is worthy of respect to become a general with a commanding team or a blacksmith who builds weapons with craftsman spirit. In the era of cold weapons, formation management is king, and in the era of hot weapons, technology and technology are important forces. This needs to depend on everyone's hobbies and pursuits. Just clarify your development direction and hobbies.

Regarding the test technical route, my suggestion is:

•Read more. I can understand a lot of things systematically.

•Read more about other people's code. Stones from other mountains can attack jade. There is a lot of experience and wisdom hidden in other people's open source code. Be good at learning.

•In the early days, more wheels were built. This is an intensive exercise with constant exercises. You can strengthen your skills.

•Undertake more open source maintenance work. Participate in the maintenance of the open source community as much as possible. You can learn a lot of useful practical knowledge by working with these people. Be able to strengthen your communication and coordination and architecture design skills.

•Multi-bubble forum exchange. Behind closed doors, cherishing oneself, and resting on one's laurels is not growing. You can't learn much by communicating with these conservative people.

•Monster Fight Upgrade. Start with the improvement of each department to realize the transformation of technology into productivity.

Test management development

It is estimated that it is difficult for people who used to be purely test team managers to adapt to the changes in the Internet industry. There may be many challenges. Capacity building needs to be strengthened.

Many students who were managers in their early years are now starting to regret it. The phenomenon is that the director cannot be promoted. The manager level has no bright spots and cannot be promoted. The business development is average, the team has not changed, and the most fearful of encountering written tests or technical tests is the most fearful of changing jobs.

There are still very few elites who can really do a good job in test management. If you step into this industry, you should pay more attention to the following things

•Talents and teams that can help you do things: A team without a strong team will not do well.

•"Mix Circles": Meet higher-level CXOs. This is what future development needs.

•Read more: Learn more about the management and communication experience of predecessors to keep up with the pace of industry development.

•Self-cultivation: Charm, aura, fame, strength, and character are all the keys to gaining people's trust.

Management is relatively difficult to develop upwards in large companies. Generally, it is easiest to monetize when you move to a startup. For example, a BAT test manager has a monthly salary of just over 2w. Jump to a startup to do test management. The monthly salary is 3w-5w. Even in terms of ability, there are many people who directly changed jobs to become executives and CTOs. If I manage this piece, I won't be in the class.