A good QA engineer takes full accountability for the quality of each product release. They put quality ahead of everything, even if it means having candid conversations with team members. They are willing to delay a feature release in order to uphold product quality.
A bad QA engineer thinks that their job is only about detecting issues. A good QA engineer looks at each possible area of quality: copy, usability, and customer experience.They are always keeping the users in mind when testing. A bad QA engineer thinks that programming is someone else’s job and conduct tests by clicking the mouse a lot. A bad QA engineer thinks regression testing is not their job. They don’t take responsibility for unnoticed bugs. A good QA engineer uses automation to speed up the release process and reduce repetition, yet realizes manual testing is the foundation of high-quality testing. They think of new ways to make testing more efficient and make every release more reliable than the last. A good QA engineer will work hard to write readable tests that can be easily understood and maintained by the team. They are always thinking about improving further their automated tests.
A bad QA engineer thinks that the end result is to automate everything and that manual testing is a waste of time. They think about the quantity of automated tests instead of the quality of the customer experience. They keep testing tools to themselves instead of empowering the team to test on their own. A good QA engineer wants to make testing a team sport, by writing tests that everyone can use.
A good QA engineer is highly organized, can adjust priorities, and has great attention to detail. They can compromise between a perfect vs. a good-enough result. A bad QA engineer has a single process for testing and is not willing to adapt to product or process variations. A good QA engineer works closely with the product team to mutually release quality features.They thoroughly document issues to minimize the time it takes a developer to resolve them. They love their job and are proud of what they do. A good QA engineer is constantly learning new skills to apply in the QA process.
A bad QA engineer views themselves as a separate resource to blame developers for crappy code. They see value in the number of issues found, rather than the importance or impact the issue has on the product. A good QA engineer is a partner to the developer, with a mutual mission of having the most painless release possible.
Originally published at wildbit.com on April 7, 2016.
