How to Learn Testing in 20 Days?

Software Testing is a budding and growing field. With so many new resources, tools, technologies, and learning platforms available, It can be an overwhelming experience for any beginner. Most of the google/youtube/bing searches for the phrase “software testing” do not land you at the right resources. Moreover, most institutes charge a big amount of money and provide substandard (partially erroneous) knowledge on testing.

With the above in our mind, I and Ajay Balamurugadas decided to create a Testing Learning Syllabus for Newbies (who believe in self-learning /self-education).

What triggered us? This question at The Club by Ministry of Testing.

Here is our day by day syllabus:

First 5 Days (Week 1):

1. Book: Explore It by Elisabeth Hendrickson
2. Foundations:
   • Course: BBST 3.0
     • Black Box Software Testing – Foundations (Notes Here)
     • Black Box Software Testing – Bug Advocacy (Later)
     • Black Box Software Testing – Test Design (Later)
   • Video: Explore It? Explore It! by Elisabeth Hendrickson
3. Advice from the Legend: Letter to the New Tester – James Bach
4. Get a Feel by Watching / Experiencing Testing:
   • Report: Katalon Experience Report by Michael Bolton
   • Video: Pair Testing Videos by Bug Hunter Sam
5. 50 Software Testing Terms by Ashok T
   • Blog Post
   • Mindmap Image

Second Five Days (Week 2):

1. Blog: 30 Things Every New Software Tester should Learn by Ministry of Testing
2. Video: Becoming a Software Testing Expert by James Bach
3. Practice: Testing Challenges
4. Book: Agile Testing Condensed by Lisa Crispin
5. Crash Course: Bug Reporting by Pradeep S & Santhosh Tuppad

Third Five Days (Week 3):

1. Testing Curation: How they test by Abhijeet Vaiker
2. Roadmaps:
   • Automation Testing Roadmap
   • DevOps Roadmap
3. Practice: Weekend Testing
4. Great Resources curated by Huib Schoots
   • HTSM
   • Oracles
   • Testing without a Map
5. Popular Books for Testers curated by Huib Schoots

Last 5 Days (Week 4):

1. Product Hunt: These products will appreciate your testing help.
2. Testing & Productivity Tools: Ultimate Productivity Toolkit
3. Tips: A-Z of Testing Tips by Ajay Balamurugadas
4. Test Design: The Little Black Book on Test Design
5. Future References: Short Bytes on Software Testing (YouTube):
   • Testflix by The Test Tribe
   • The Test Chat
   • Agile Testing Alliance
   • Ministry of Testing

Bonus Tips:

• It might look like a huge list at first but it’s definitely doable. START!
• Good Reading Habits will help a lot.
• Be Consistent!
• Document your notes / blog about your learnings (20 day challenge for you).
• Put 7-8 hours everyday.
• Practice Often. All learning will fade without practice.
• Spend Weekends on Revising / Practising.
• Have an Accountability Partner.
• Have a mentor to unblock you if you get stuck.
• Invest on Productivity.
• <<I will add more, this list will improve further too>>

Here is a mindmap of the testing syllabus:

Link to mindmap: https://www.xmind.net/m/FpC8Xf

And how we arrived at the mind map: