It’s not always easy to start working as a tester.
Each day web communities all over the world receive learning material of different kinds and various review articles.
It’s very easy to be lost among this huge amount of information.
And here so-called QA communities can help you get answers to almost every question, save time spent searching for unnecessary material and protect you from taking unnecessary actions.
We can divide current QA communities into groups: the ones that are located on social networks and the ones that represent highly specialized forums.
Further, we’ll analyze each group in detail.
Social networks
The first example of communities is specialized groups in social networks that are completely dedicated to software testing.
Though not all channels are popular among QA engineers but Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn look different from others, thanks to their focus on text interaction.
Other channels that pay attention to graphic content only (Instagram) are not very good to discuss something.
This social network is probably known by everyone and everywhere.
The community is based on user accounts but created groups are also used to exchange data.
The biggest testing communities:
An indisputable benefit of such groups is that a user can easily create a necessary question and receive direct consultation.
A drawback lies in the fact that such communities sometimes are used for marketing as courses or blogs, therefore, exchanging necessary information is not a primary task.
But this can be bypassed by having discussions in personal messages and sending requests to friends.
This social network is focused on exchanging information through a strictly limited length of messages.
Twitter is quite popular among technical specialists — new information is easily published and commented on.
Twitter can actually be seen as a platform used for asking questions but only if you already have a group of subscribers.
To start learning the necessary material, you can start following the accounts of Andy Jones, Joe Colantonio, and Tristan Lombard.
Twitter is an efficient way to be aware of the latest news from QA lab communities.
It includes not only accounts of famous test influencers but also numerous communities that offer the latest trends in the field and innovations in software testing implementation.
It’s probably the most professional platform among all popular social networks.
Here you can find answers to questions of any kind that are in some way connected with the career of a tester.
LinkedIn contains numerous thematic groups where vacancies are posted, courses are sold, and blogs are created that can be helpful for newcomers to a QA field or experts in testing.
We can distinguish 4 most popular communities:
- Software testing & Automation;
- Test Automation;
- Software Testing & QA;
- Software Testing / QA & Automation.
Forums and thematic applications
Slack
It’s the most popular communication tool that is very popular among business members.
It’s easy to talk to colleagues in it and it’s easy to use it on an everyday basis.
This software eventually became a global communication platform for a list of technical communities all over the world.
The most popular channels:
- Ministry of Testing;
- Test Automation University;
- TechWell Hub.
This is one of the biggest platforms in the world but it doesn’t contain a lot of information regarding a testing field.
You can ask questions in the subreddit r/Quality/Assurance, whose community has about 13, 000 users.
It also has a subreddit for people interested in test automation — https://www.reddit.com/r/testautomation/.
Meetups
They occupy a special place among channels used for searching for information in a software testing field.
They help rapidly find new acquaintances and talk on selected topics.
You can also find good material and connect with authors directly.
Here https://www.ministryoftesting.com/meetups you can find the meetups that are the closest to you.
Conclusion
To conclude, we‘d like to say that a software testing field gets numerous blogs and learning resources every day.
It’s hard to find something useful and relevant.
[highlight dark=”no”]QA communities are a great place to search for answers to any questions.[/highlight]
Of course, each channel/group has either benefits or drawbacks and you need to post questions in channels yourself, thus making your own point of view with the help of received answers.
You can find your path in test communities and maybe, contribute to developing the IT industry.
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