Even though graduate programs and courses exists at some
universities, it is for some reason still a field you move into
from somewhere else. (Read
Software Testing Story by Adam Brown). In my team we have very
few with computer science or development backgrounds, at some time
we had a journalist, a history major and a chemist. One of the key
questions before moving into the team is still
"Are you OK on working on a range of
things?".
Business skills or domain know-how - For our
team the scope is business facing integration test, so the testers
where initally drawn from the customer service department.
Currently our testers understands the range of our
customer's commercial products, as seen from many angles (billing,
provisioning, self-service etc).
Application skills or technical know-how - To
understand the range of applications and technologies in
play (and the technology facing tests) testers needs
application and technology skills. Some teams hire from a
development background to test engineering positions - as Michal
Bolton writes on his blogpost
Encouraging Programmers to be Testers. In other
teams application details can be achieved afterwards.
Besides considering what is most aproachable - a
current business skilled person gaining more
technical knowlegde, or a technical person gaining more business
knowlegde - the skill of software testing
itself and the skill of software testing tools has to
be considered. Every team have each their flavour of test
processes, frameworks, tools - Agile or waterfall
etc. IMHO the ISTQB
certifications in testing or likewise certificate programs
can provide some introduction into areas of the software testing
domain, but certification is not a stand-alone an entry point.
Project management or task coordination
know-how - To work as a test manager you need some of the
skills areas above, and additionally a background in project
management. Test management has a lot of similarities to project
management. In agile projects, I reckon scrum master training
will be of similar benefit to the test lead. Remember
that even projects come in a range small/big,
business/technical etc. The project manager must be able to see
through the project details and recognize the best applicable
steps to take in the situation.
Andréas Prins has a blogpost on
Master the test profession with additional angles on how
to be a good tester and he provides a good illustration as to what
other things that can go into the testing "thinking hat".
Notice that the above skill areas are very "hard"
skills as compared to "soft" or personal skills. All
kinds soft skills come into play in software testing for me to
single out anyone. Some situations you have to be flexible, others
stern. Some situations require results orientation and some
situations require attention to all details. I can see the
skills of all personality in play in software testing - as software
testing is a skill of many skills.