Manual software tester with 5 years of experience is paid the same as fast food manager in Australia
Background
5 years of manual testing experience at a single company and have the ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) Foundations certificate.
Process
The software developers add new and improve existing features created by the Product Owners and fix software bugs which are managed in Jira. Once a ticket is 'In Testing', I assign the ticket to myself and start testing it. Once testing is complete, I add my testing notes to the ticket with the version I tested, detailed steps on how I ensured the bug was fixed with screenshots and screen recordings. Otherwise, I reopen the ticket explaining why.
I perform regression testing by comparing the version of the upcoming release and the last major release in seperate web browser windows simultaneously, noting any discrepancies in a text editor and with screenshots, before being raised as a bug in Jira.
Tools I use:
- an IDE to record and update manual test scenarios
- Git for managing branches of the manual testing framework
- SQL Management Studio for base configuration database restoration and backup, and for searching table columns for values
- Web browsers (Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge) to access the web application for regression testing and web browser feature compatibility
- Postman to send and receive API calls
General regression testing steps
- A ticket is created in Jira called, 'General regression testing 202x.x.x'
- A branch is created with Git called, 'general_regression_testing_202x.x.x_name'
- The version number and test outcomes of the manual test scenarios are updated in the IDE
- A commit message is provided giving a high-level overview, '<feature> manual steps'
- The changes are pushed to the testing framework and the other QAs are added as reviewers.
- A table showing the test case scenarios with their outcomes are added to the ticket
- Once reviewed and accepted, the changes are merged with the main branch and the new branch is closed
The other 4 QAs and 1 Test Manager are not updating the manual QA framework when they've performed regression testing either generally or for feature upgrades when I've showed them numerous times in a group and individual one-on-one video calls. This frustrates me as knowing which scenarios were performed or when they last tested a particular feature difficult especially since I wasn't included for a few of the latest general regression tests.
My supervisor, Test Manager, should be the one ensuring that the testing team updates the framework and keeping updated with the testing process at the company which was set before I joined the company.
$77,600 (excl. superannuation) before taxes, which is the same wage as a fast-food restaurant supervisor for 'Guzman y Gomez' in Australia. I feel like my monetary compensation (my work is undervalued by the executive team) is low considering the work I have to constantly do everyday during the work week from 9 AM to 5 PM.