Lessons Learned by a New Functional Tester: How to Avoid Common Pitfalls

The author records personal experiences as a new functional tester, aiming to help other newcomers avoid common pitfalls encountered during early testing work.

1. Senior guidance is crucial – mentors point out recurring bug‑prone areas and emphasize “key points” that, if ignored, lead to repeated issues.

2. One‑to‑many communication is inefficient – relaying bugs through planners and programmers creates misunderstandings and wastes time; grouping relevant stakeholders in a chat enables faster, clearer problem resolution.

3. Unclear requirements hinder testing – vague or incomplete requirement documents force testers to guess intent, leading to extra clarification cycles; direct communication with planners is essential to obtain precise specifications.

4. Courage to question requirements – testing should consider player experience; if a feature (e.g., an ink‑screen mechanic) confuses players, testers must raise concerns and suggest improvements such as clearer guidance.

5. Avoid “fixing one bug creates another” – before fixing, assess side effects; the article illustrates an “air wall” bug that, after removal, revealed a better design solution preserving intended gameplay.

6. Remember older requirements – newly assigned work may overlook legacy features; revisiting existing test cases ensures hidden bugs from past requirements are caught.

7. Effective learning through asking – when stuck on technical issues (e.g., missing return statements), seeking help from experienced colleagues saves time compared to isolated trial‑and‑error.

8. Automation testing pitfalls – common mistakes include mis‑identifying data types (treating a string as a number) and neglecting existence checks before comparisons. The following code snippet demonstrates a proper guard clause:

if tonumber(v.endByTime) and tonumber(v.endByTime) < 0 then

Overall, after four months of testing, the author reflects on growth from hesitant newcomer to confident collaborator, hoping the shared insights will guide others to a smoother testing journey.