I am M.Harsha Vardhan Reddy, currently working as Senior Engineer. I have an experience of 5.5 yrs in software Industry in QA/Testing. I am planning to enhance my career technically and Managerially.
I have considered PMP, ITIL (any one of these) to do so that i can get promotion and can work under that category. Please advice which to chose to set my career path as a lead, manager going forward. Though I am not expecting an immediate Manager position, but once I clear PMP, I am expecting a grade change (Promotion) where I can use the techniques learned and can gain some considerable amount of advantages (knowledge wise and financial wise as well)
If I am not considered for a grade change or promotion, how far my certification knowledge would consider to fetch a new job in the market as i have newly joined in my current company (6 months ago).
Please advice me on this as I am planning to go for PMP this October or in December. (Am i good at this position now to go for PMP... and similar questions revolving my mind)
I am totally confused to which to go...
coming to the technical certfication, i am planning for ISEB Intermediate level, Load Runner certifications as well before the financial year.
Please suggest on this...
Expecting a response from you...
Thanks in Advance,
Many Thanks,
Harsha
Hyderabad
India
Sainath's Advice on Sunday, October 03, 2010 :
Hi Harsha,
Firsty, let us understand the QA role.
What is Quality?The Quality Assurance role is the role which ensures that the end customer receives a quality product wherein his requirements are met and there are no bugs. This is facilitated by not just adequate testing but also identifying problems early in the SDLC so that the delivered software satisfies a minimum quality benchmark. The role is more than that of a tester.
Quality is planned in, not inspected in.There are 2 types of quality assurance:
(a)
Functional quality assurance - here we are more concerned with the proper functioning of the software as per customer requirements.
(b)
Performance quality assurance - here we are more concerned with whether the software meets the agreed performance benchmarks when no. of users or the load on the software rises.
Knowledge of performance testing tools like Loadrunner, Silk Performer,etc becomes important here.
Please refer to the below links on performance testing:
www.dotnetfunda.com/advices/a82-need-advice--software-testing-.aspxProcess knowledge - why it is needed ?Implementing the right metrics, check points in your SDLC,etc needs good process understanding and managerial expertise.
Specific to the confusion you have expressed, this is my opinion:
- Your long-term direction about becoming a Manager is clear
- But you are targeting too many things at the same time
- Quality is just 1 knowledge area for PMP, whereas Six Sigma focuses only on quality aspect. In my opinion you should check out Six Sigma as well
- ITIL is not really very relevant from quality perspective, it focuses on Service Delivery, unless you are measuring quality once the software is set up on production
- ISEB is also good, but in my opinion set small but strong goals rather than trying to do too much and accomplish very less.
In my opinion - target performance certs first, gain experience (enough scope in your organization to do the same), do not quit the existing job too quickly, target Six Sigma & then PMP. All this is not possible within the next financial year, it will take more time.
Process knowledge should be targeted once you have enough technical knowledge in all the areas, that way your process implementation will be closer to the ground realities. Most process implementations fail because people refuse to understand or do not have the technical knowledge to understand ground realities.
Regards,
Sainath Sherigar,
www.ugain.info