How to perform well and become an exceptional Quality Assurance Engineer!
I always had this question, “How to perform well and become an exceptional Quality Assurance Engineer than just being a test executor?”
When I first started as a Quality Assurance Engineer (QAE), I thought, having theoretical knowledge, and testing skills were enough to excel in my career. But I soon realized I could not be more wrong 😊. Here is me trying to share the learnings which I have gathered over the past few years.
Perform well only with QA skills
Can we perform well by only having QA skills? For me, it is simply a NO.
After a few weeks from my first placement as a QAE, I realized before getting to show my skills in testing, I need to have a thorough understanding of the product/software end to end. This mainly covered the requirements, user journeys, application architecture, regulatory aspects around the business domain, and accessibility needs.
Before jumping into testing, I always used to create a system blueprint for myself. This was built up by exploring (existing system/s), research (similar systems, competitor products), and knowledge transfers. Then I present a domain demo to my team, sharing my understanding of the system. This is where having a blueprint comes in handy. Trust me this has always helped me to be on the same page with everyone else on the team. Bonus — this made the team build up trust in me.
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin a new, I wish that for you.” - Steve Jobs
Do not be afraid to ask questions and make sure there are no grey areas. This has always helped me to avoid being a spoon feeder.
- Be passionate about your product -
Attitude is everything
To me, a good tester possesses an eagle eye. He/ She is inquisitive and full of questions and believes the best way to learn is through doing. Most importantly don’t hold back to making initiatives and establish the right mindset.
With the right mindset, I always try to spread a positive attitude by keeping the team spirit within the team and making sure the team aligns with the correct processes for accomplishing quality tasks. If not, I would never hesitate to take initiations and engage team members to follow the correct processes from the planning phase to development till production.
On the other hand, balancing strong analytical skills with creativity and an open mind brought me success while working up with the team. I had to improve my communication skills a lot since I had to work inward and outward communication professionally and effectively. To make it more efficient pre-preparation with the facts and details, being confident and clear is important.
When we are discussing QA then the word “Defect” is inseparable. But I always act on “Preventing Defects over Detecting Defects” at the early stages in the software development cycle. Then it made me realize a QAE attitude should not be limited to finding bugs.
- The right mind directs you to your goal -
Go deep
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe” - Abraham Lincoln
I know, there is so much to learn, and sometimes it is hard to capture everything. But we should always try to save some time to explore what is happening in the QA world. This external knowledge has certainly helped me to think out of the box, not get stagnated, and find improvements on existing QA practices at the organization.
There were many instances in which I had to dive deep before reporting a defect. It was not limited to just informing the dev team “There’s is a bug”. Most of the time it included impact areas, app logs, crash logs, console results, network results, test data, queries tried and API responses. As many details as possible rather than showing screenshots as evidence.
As a smart key player in the team, I believe we must play Quality Assurance and Quality Engineering roles and it always helped to be up to date with what’s going on in outer space. Parallelly keep in mind that we QAEs must focus on both functional and non-functional testing when filling knowledge. Every day the world is updating, and we must walk with that. Therefore, like it or not, we must move with it.
- Think Smart and Work Smart -
Healthy relationship within the team
Indeed, maintaining a close and continuous relationship with product owners, the development team, business analysts, and project managers has always allowed me to be a step ahead with a better understanding of what business needs.
I always felt confident after clarifying things from the business analyst team from an end-user perspective while aligning with the business objectives. But I would like to call it more of a ‘Healthy Disagreement’ at certain times, as it only improves the ultimate user experience.
Once I spent the majority of the time with the requirement analyst, then my focus is to move on with the development team. When I am engaging with them, I always put myself in the shoes of the end-user and work alongside them by maintaining a good relationship yet not a blind relationship.
You may ask, what would you do when there are no requirement analysts? Well, as the first step I refer/refresh any related technical, non-technical documents. I make it a practice to always go to the root of the source of the requirements and prepare myself before reaching the dev team for briefings about requirements/change requests. Preparing myself with sufficient information can prevent a defect from being labelled as a feature.
- Always think as an end-user not just as a tester -
Finally,
Even though it sounds easy to become a tester, it takes a lot to become a GOOD quality assurance engineer. In this blog, I wanted to focus on how I managed and learned in my journey to less or no complaints from management, development, or other teams. This will help anyone planning to get their foot in the door, or an advanced tester trying to thrive in the tech space, as a software QA, understand how to utilize your skills and to build their career in the right way.
Have the eagle eyes to spot others who break the game rules, and enjoy your exploring.
