How to learn in phases?
Phase 1
Learn the basics of a programming language
Examples: JavaScript, or Python, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: You can create and run a program, that use any choices you want, that asks you to input a word of your choice and a web page URL of your choice, then fetches that URL and prints true or false depending on whether your word of choice is present in the web page URL's web content.
Learn the basics of a web browser automation framework
Examples: Selenium, or Playwright, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: You can create and run an automatic test, that uses any choices you want, that fills out a web page form of your choice with at least three kinds of inputs, then submits the form, then verifies the response contains a word of your choice.
Learn the basics of an AI assistant
Examples: Google Gemini, or Anthropic Claude, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: You can demonstrate that you can provide your web browser automation code to the AI assistant, such as via copy/paste or your editor or command line, then ask your AI to explain the code and suggest areas for improvement.
Phase 2
Learn the basics of a text editor
Examples: Visual Studio Code, or vim, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: You can create and edit files, search for text in a project's files all at once, use the editor's auto-suggestions as you type, view diffs between two files, and use the editor's AI to make changes.
Learn the basics of a version control system
Examples: GitHub, or Azure DevOps, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: You can use a version control system to browse files, view existing branches and commit messages, create a topic branch and commit a file, create a merge conflict then resolve it.
Learn the basics of a manual-to-automatic conversion
Examples: Gherkin to Selenium, or User Story to Playwright, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: You can transform an existing manual test into a new automatic test on a new topic branch, committing the test, running it, and getting a successful result.
Phase 3
Learn the basics of a software automation book/video/course
Examples: Automation Full Course, or Test Automation Guide, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: Explain the top three specifics that are relevant to you, in writing. Ask your AI assistant to assess your answer then suggest improvements. Create a topic branch with programming code and automatic test for one of them; commit it and run it.
Learn the basics of a sector quality standard
Examples: ISO 9000/9001, or IEEE 730/1012/1028/1061, or whatever specific published worldwide standard your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: Explain the top three specifics that are relevant to you, in writing. Ask your AI assistant to assess your answer then suggest improvements. Create a topic branch with programming code and automatic test for one of them; commit it and run it.
Learn the basics of an IT management framework
Examples: ITIL 5, or COBIT, or whatever specific published worldwide framework your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: Explain the top three specifics that are relevant to you, in writing. Ask your AI assistant to assess your answer then suggest improvements. Create a topic branch with programming code and automatic test for one of them; commit it and run it.
Phase 4
Learn the basics of software stage metrics
Examples: Flow metrics, or DORA metrics, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: Explain the top three specifics that are relevant to you, in writing. Ask your AI assistant to assess your answer then suggest improvements. Create a topic branch with programming code and automatic test for one of them; commit it and run it.
Learn the basics of quality line metrics
Examples: Six Sigma, or Value Stream Map, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: Explain the top three specifics that are relevant to you, in writing. Ask your AI assistant to assess your answer then suggest improvements. Create a topic branch with programming code and automatic test for one of them; commit it and run it.
Learn the basics of true value metrics
Examples: Public Value metrics, or Health Economics metrics, or whatever your team uses. If you're unsure which one, then choose the first.
Goals: Explain the top three specifics that are relevant to you, in writing. Ask your AI assistant to assess your answer then suggest improvements. Create a topic branch with programming code and automatic test for one of them; commit it and run it.