CNSS, or Computer & Network Support Specialist, is a type of general certificate many IT people acquire in the beginning of their career. But that is not enough to cover the whole range of information that Software Engineers as well as QA Analysts (aka QA Testers) need to know. Knowing how a computer works is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, you need to know how the Software Development Life Cycle works, how to test a software application for bugs, how to develop code, etc. Here is some basic information to start with:
- What is Software Engineering?
- Is a Career in Software Quality Assurance a Good Idea? Why or why not?
- CNSS: Bit Byte Conversion, Logic Gates, API, Bug Defect Life Cycle, etc.
- Computer Hardware: What is Motherboard, Bios, CMOS, CPU, RAM, etc.
- Layers of Programming: Machine, Assembly, & High Level Languages
- The 7 Layer OSI Model of IT Troubleshooting
- Networking: IP Address vs DNS vs DHCP
- TCP/IP & Subnet Masking Protocols – Properties, Calculation, etc.
- Prototype Vs Demo in Context of Software Engineering & QA Testing
- Unit Testing – Analogy, Purpose, Manual vs Automated, and in Java
- What is Smoke Testing, Sanity Testing, & Regression Testing?
- Build vs Version vs Revision vs Release vs Link vs Compile
