Domain Knowledge and Software Testing

Domain Knowledge and Software Testing

Many times we have heard this sentence that Domain knowledge is important or not for a software Tester.

Recently one of my friend called me asked me that how important it is to have domain knowledge for testing?

This is what I told her:

Yes it is important to have domain knowledge but it does not mean that you need to be an expert of a particular domain. You can still test the Application if you have not worked earlier in a particular domain.

What I have experienced in my testing carrier is that it is important to have domain knowledge but it is just one skill out of other skills which are required for doing testing.

Skill Required for Software Testing:

There are many skills which are required in a candidate like:

Technical Skills (Testing)

Logical Thinking

Domain Knowledge

Programming knowledge (for automation)

Communication skill

Note: The list may include some other skill too

So if you are not expert in one of the skill then that is not a blocker; it’s just that you will have to work on that particular area. So if a candidate is having good technical testing skills then he/she can test the application with a little assistance.

How to Start Testing if you don’t have domain Knowledge:

I have worked in e-learning and payment domain and when I joined the organization I was not having any knowledge about these domains but I have done the good work; I learn about these domain after joining the organization; did lots of search and worked on the assigned project; So basically if you are new to particular domain then you will have to put the effort to learn that domain So it’s not something without which you can not do the testing.

Besides all these things when you get a project for testing then we get the Requirement document and from that document you can write you test cases for testing the functionality of the application and while you prepare your test cases you can learn the domain from different sources like document available in the company; search in Google; communication with the team members, business analyst etc.

Thanks Harish for reviewing the article