How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career

pallav has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Jun 15, 2005 at 11:42 UTC
I can't speak for the market, but if you wanted to work for me, I'd like to see: A sound understanding of general QA principles and the whole development life cycle. Good knowledge of QA techniques and when to apply them (e.g. Design for Testability, Mock Objects, Stubs, ...). An understanding of the different possible types of testing: unit testing, white box testing, black box testing, system testing, acceptance testing, stress testing, documentation-driven testing, exploratory testing, beta testing, ... A feel for what to test so as to get best value for money from testing (since there are an infinite number of things you could test). Knowing when to automate a test. Know how to ensure requirements are testable. Experience writing test plans. Experience with Test::More and associated CPAN modules. Experience with Test::Harness, Devel::Cover and the prove command. Knowledge/experience with tools, such as bug tracking, CM (e.g. Subversion), truss, valgrind, mech, HTML verification tools, lsof, ethereal, wikis, ... Ability to write automated test harnesses for black box and system testing. Ability to set up test labs. Reasonable sysadmin and build engineering skills and domain knowledge.	[reply]
Re: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by robot_tourist (Hermit) on Jun 15, 2005 at 11:38 UTC
It all depends on what you are testing and how you are testing it. Perl can be good for gluing application modules together, certain types of automated testing, working with results files and even manipulating manual test scripts. And you might have a better understanding of what's happening underneath what the program shows you so you can help the programmers debug. Being a tester should also be good for your software writing skills. When you write software, you will automatically think about boundary conditons and logic paths. If you're like me, even that might not help :) but I might be worse if I hadn't had any software testing training or experience. How can you feel when you're made of steel? I am made of steel. I am the Robot Tourist. Robot Tourist, by Ten Benson	[reply]
Re^2: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by pallav (Initiate) on Jun 15, 2005 at 11:47 UTC
Thanx a bunch for the information.. Well iam mainly into testing enterprise level softwares. So currently my context is that. Iam basically required to do some bulk loading onto the application..which requires some logic to generate the xml files..Hence i felt Perl would be the ideal tool to carry out this work and many more to come. Regards, PS	[reply]
Re: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by Ultra (Hermit) on Jun 15, 2005 at 14:06 UTC
Assuming you are not testing Perl programs, but binary programs (written in C/C++ or something else) There are some things that depending on the situation may be useful (they are useful to me): * knowing how to start programs (via system backticks or eval) * Expect module can prove useful for interactive shell programs (for UNIX at least) * Win32::GuiTest and X11::GUITest * knowledge of writing daemons (i.e.: using but not limited to fork) * wrapping your programs in Test::Simple, Test::Harness or other. Of course there are some other fine tools out there, it's up to you to find them ;-) Dodge This!	[reply]
Re^2: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by jplindstrom (Monsignor) on Jun 15, 2005 at 14:14 UTC
Test::DatabaseRow is also very useful for checking what happens inside a database after your calls to the application. I would also add to the list: Simple clients for all kinds of servers. These can then be used for testing the servers. Use Test::More to write the tests that use the clients. /J	[reply]
Re: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by kprasanna_79 (Hermit) on Jun 15, 2005 at 11:43 UTC
Hai pallav, As of my knowledge the perl is very useful in writing test cases, wat we do in our project. See this modules in cpan.org. This will give u better idea abt perl usage in testing.Apart from that a lot scripts are written in perl to test web based products. See this modules for more info. Please google more on perl testing materials..that will give u some ideas beyond ur scope... --Prasanna.K	[reply]
Re: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by GrandFather (Saint) on Jun 15, 2005 at 20:55 UTC
Out automated test person uses Perl to glue together TestComplete tests and to analyse and report on the results of the tests. She is also using Perl a little for managing data driven testing, although I'm not sure she has realised that that is what she is doing ;-).<.p> Perl is Huffman encoded by design.	[reply]
Re: How can I use Perl knowledge in my Software Testing career by adrianh (Chancellor) on Jun 16, 2005 at 22:16 UTC
Can anyone guide me as to whats the scope of my Software Testing experience and Perl knowledge in the current market. How much it will be usefule in the software testing field. Regards, PS I'd say Perl is a really useful tool for some kinds of automated testing, but Perl skills alone are not going to get you hired as a tester. The best language for writing tests in depends on (amongst other things) the language the project was written in, the tools available, and the environment you work in. Some of the time that language is going to be Python, Ruby or Java. If it were me I would keep an eye on Ruby. While it doesn't (yet) have quite as a large or sophisticated set of testing modules as Perl, it does seem to have acquired a certain cachet in the software testing community, and tools like WAITR are darned effective. If I was going for a career in software testing I'd learn Perl and Ruby for the scripting side, maybe Python too since it seems to be popular in Java shops, but I'd spend more time learning about testing. Lessons Learned in Software Testing is a good place to start IMHO.	[reply]