Why is Testing Domain Knowledge is Important For Testers?

Quality Assurance? What’s great? Surely the argument continues since the developers run the code before the release and if anything goes wrong, the customers tell us, right? Unlike any other non-IT person, using apps which just didn’t work well or lag with performance is way too frustrating and inconvenient. Customers pay for our services thinking about the ease of use we provide with the numerous benefits it has to provide.
Have you ever thought about the factors that could be critical for the successful execution of the app you are running?
With today’s importance of QA’s in the software development life cycle (SDLC), there is also the need of testers with specialized domain knowledge.

Is Domain Knowledge Necessary For Testing
As the testing industry grows, the basic knowledge of testing isn’t sufficient to meet the growing market competition.  The industry now demands domain and subject matter experts. Domain knowledge testing is used to acquire business use cases and software testing knowledge is required to glean on the ideas of the software to its limits. Hence a testing domain knowledge along with the software testing skills is always a plus point to the industry.
The value testing domain knowledge adds to your team ensures your users are happy. Here’s why:

• To Built the Capability: Unless you are aware of the testing domain, you can’t write and execute test cases and codes to effectively simulate the end user. Its not about using it in a particular phase as it is required throughout the software testing life cycle.
• Understanding of the Technical Terminology: When an issue arises, your team has a clear understanding of the applications technical terminologies which are required to understand the functionality of the system. For example, if there is an error in the payment process of your food order application, your domain knowledge expert will have a clear idea about the process and the steps needed for a successful transaction.
• Increased Productivity of Team: Domain knowledge experts are high in demand due to their ability to understand the application beyond finding bugs. They can easily suggest and implement fixes in the most crucial times. This not only saves a lot of time, but thereby increases the productivity of your team.
• Clear Code Analysis: With a better understanding of the working of the system, the tester is much more familiar with the data structure. Hence, resulting in quick and efficient tests and bug fixes.
• Prioritize Bug Fixes: Since the test engineer has worked in the domain earlier, he will have a clear idea of prioritizing the bug fixes. While planning the bug fixes, the engineer not only saves the cost and time, but also refines and improves the product.
• Reduce Training Time: A person with domain knowledge can be more productive which adds value to the projector product. A good knowledge of the functional flow of the business processes and business rules will help better understanding of the product requirements.

 Conclusion
Being in an IT dominated world, the value of testing domain knowledge is incredible as it is undoubtedly the critical success factor for testers. While testing any app, it important to think about the end-user as quality assurance is directly related to business assurance. Therefore, its preferable to integrate domain and functional knowledge to your software testing life cycle for better results.