The back-end edge

Shubhra Narang

Several new career options are emerging paving way for new opportunities. The IT or Tech industry is amongst the one that has a number of new careers available now.

Backend automation is one of them. It is bound to attract aspirants in the coming years and will be a top career field.  It is primarily the job of making sure that the software is 'fit for use' by the end-user or not. Most commonly it is also called 'Back End Testing' or 'Database testing.'

It is the perfect career option for those who have the ability to solve problems, creative thinking and have good communication skills to communicate with the development team.

Work profile

In this, the information entered from the client side is stored in the back-end database. The database could be SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, etc. The database is going to be organised within the tables as record, and it’s used to support the content of the page. The database is a vital part of any application. When the GUI and the DB interact with each other seamlessly your application works well. If there are issues or inconsistent results, security threats and performance bottlenecks arise. 

Test automation platform incorporates multiple checking tools and frameworks for System/Integration testing of applications. The goal of test automation interface is to change the method of mapping tests to business criteria. 

Test automation interface are expected to boost the potency and adaptability of maintaining test scripts. 

Database or backend testing is important because if it is not done, serious complications like deadlock, data corruption, data loss, etc can come up. 

There are various phases in back-end testing. The initial step is to acquire design specification for an SQL server. The next step is to test specification design, followed by implementing the tests in this design with SQL code.

Scope

Gone are the times when the entire testing was performed manually, with a human sitting and manually executing the testing steps on a computer. Nowadays backend automation that has taken over in most areas. Automation testing primarily comprises of automation software that tends to enter test data into System Under Test, compares actual and expected results and generates detailed testing reports.

The major benefit of testing software is that the test can be recorded and re-played if required. 

Academic background

Academic background of a backend automation engineer must be in computer science. A BTech/ B.E., MCA, BCA, BSc- Computers, can land you a good job quickly.

Remuneration

It is estimated that an automation engineer earns an average salary of Rs 3.6 lakh per year. Like in every job, experience strongly matters in this type of job as well. All this job wants is mastery in automated testing, test automation, selenium automated test tool, Java, and automation scripting. 

— The writer is Sr. Manager-HR, C- Zentrix

Skill set

The core skills required are-

1. Communication skill

2. Technical skills

Some of the testing skills are:

Project lifecycle | Testing concepts |  Knowledge of testing types | Programming languages familiarity | Database concepts | Test plan idea | Ability to analyse requirements | Documentation | Testing tool skill

3. Leadership quality

4. Analytical and judging skill

Getting in

Here are some tips for the aspirants: 

• Aspirant must be having unbeatable technical skills in order to survive in this field. He/she must have the basic knowledge of database/SQL.
• Aspirant must  have complete knowledge of Linux commands as most of the software applications like Web-Services, Databases, Application Servers are deployed on Linux machines. So it's crucial for testers to own information concerning Linux commands.
• Aspirant must be having a complete knowledge of test management tool.