what makes a great automation engineer?

This is a question that has been on my mind for quite some time.

While discussing with a bunch of interns at our campus there came a question as to how can one become the best Automation Engineers.

A fundamental understanding of how things work is sorely missing in among aspiring Test Engineers. When we understand the fundamentals it becomes easier to work with any software, code in any programming language, and solve problems quicker.

Computers are simply logical. The constructs of how things work are what matters.

Here are a few tips that I shared with the interns' team on how to get better at programming be it automation or development. Hope it helps you too:

1. Before you learn to code, understand how computers work

2. Understand how an operating system works

3. Understand how compilers work

4. Understand the fundamentals of a programming language. What is a data type, data structures, where to apply what...

4a. the building blocks of an application

4b. How to write code

4c. How to write clean code

4d. How to write reusable code

4e. Learn to unit-test code

5. Understand how browsers work

6. The building blocks of HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc...

6a. The building blocks of mobile application

6b. How servers and application services work

6c. What is an API, the constructs of an API

6d. Understand how API works

7. Understand how a UI function on a Web, Desktop, Mobile Web or a Mobile native application

9. Understand business

10. Understand use cases, understand the context

11. Learn to identify problems, solve them

To conclude: The website http://www.diveintopython3.net/ is a classic example of how a programming language can be taught. This should help deep dive into any language with a short learning curve and a deeper understanding of how things work.