5 Important Skills for Automation Experts to Have

IT testing automation is an important concern of businesses, and a growing field in which

IT professionals are able to make a name for themselves. If you are not already involved

in automated IT testing, here are a few of the most important skills to have when holding

an automation related position.

1. Configuration Management (CM) Software Experience

Mitigating development drift is essential for implementing reliable automated procedures,

so familiarity and skill with some of the more common CM tools is important. These

programs include names like Puppet and Chef, and they help to manage large systems

and high volume databases. Without these tools, managing complicated systems can

take untold amounts of time, and as more staff would be needed to complete the project,

there would be a greater chance of issues arising within the setup. One or two small

issues can result in automated procedures failing to work correctly.

2. Troubleshooting

Testing in general is the use of troubleshooting methodology on a large scale to find

errors that have not been made apparent, and automated testing is the use of

programming tools to facilitate this troubleshooting process. For this reason, it stands to

logic that if you intend to design systems that automate troubleshooting, you should

have a firm grasp on the technical aspects of troubleshooting. Since it involves both

routine steps in addition to ones that require more intuition, troubleshooting knowledge

will better enable you to make a functional and useful automated assistant.

3. Development Methodology

Far beyond the need for technical knowledge, proper testing design requires integrating

a large number of systems together, while incorporating a multitude of workers and

inputs. For this reason, familiarity with processes and standards, such as ITIL

and DevOps philosophy, play a role in the proper development of testing software. In-

depth knowledge of these processes will help your production speed, make sure you

deliver a quality program, and ensure that it is in compliance with any standards.

4. Coding and Scripting Expertise

There are a few programming languages which are essential when dealing with

automated tests, or simply automation in general. These are generally object oriented

with powerful functions already included, or they are designed for easier understanding

and to ease the integration of coding from multiple programmers. Luckily, the languages

used for automation are relatively common: C and its varieties, Python, Perl, Java, Ruby,

and Shell. Expert knowledge in one or two of these is necessary. There are programs

that may alleviate the need for extensive programming knowledge, such as ScriptRock.

That said, not every situation can count on an outside resource to work perfectly, and

programming knowledge is a generally helpful information set throughout IT.

5. Certifications

While certifications are mostly official recognition of skill with certain hardware or

software, the importance placed on them by businesses indicates how important the

skills are, even in specific fields, like automation. The top certifications include ones such

as PMP, MCSA, VMP, CCNP, various standard certifications, and CompTIA Server+.

The PMP (Project Management Professional) certification also relates back to number

three on this list.