A tester is a specialist who is engaged in testing software (software) in order to identify errors in its work and then correct them. However, there is a slightly different name for this profession – QA Tester (or QA Manager, Engineer), which usually includes a wider range of responsibilities. The tester controls the quality of the product after its development, while the task of the QA tester is to ensure product quality at all stages of software development, release and operation.
Quality Assurance engineer (QA engineer, tester) is a specialist whose main tasks are to improve the software development process, prevent defects and identify errors in the work of the created IT product.
Main responsibilities of a tester
The main task of a QA engineer is to work on quality assurance. This specialist is focused on software development processes, he is engaged in their improvement and prevention of problems and defects.
In the company, the tester is engaged in the following:
- clarifies with the customer the requirements for the product and analyzes them;
- plans and prepares the product testing process;
- writes special test cases;
- tests the functionality of the site or application;
- monitors the lifecycle of bugs;
- conducts a re-test of defects that have been repaired;
- optimizes the testing process;
- analyzes the work process;
- maintains documentation.
A typical working day for a tester looks like this:
- he writes test scripts and documents bugs;
- checks the bug-tracking system to find out if there are fixed bugs or not;
- participates in rallies with the team or the customer;
- studies the requirements for the IT product, clarifies them and the project manager or customer;
- prepares the relevant documentation.
How can a QA engineer develop?
A tester can develop in three directions:
- Grow vertically at the following levels: junior, middle, senior, team lead, QA-manager, head of testing department.
- Growth in automated testing – this will require deeper technical knowledge, which is why you will need to receive appropriate training.
- Parallel growth – retraining as a programmer or business analyst.
Becoming a tester today is very simple: just complete a QA course, which will become the main step in mastering a new profession. Good luck!
What kind of testers are there
There are many of them. The situation is further complicated by the fact that in different companies essentially the same roles can be called differently.
Functional (manual, manual QA engineer) testers are most often found on the labor market. This is a person who invents tests and “manually” checks programs for bugs and vulnerabilities.
An automatizer (test automation engineer) writes code that automates testing processes.
These two specialties are the most common, and we will talk mostly about them below.
Sometimes a security tester — a person who checks security systems — is assigned a separate role. BI (business intelligence) is a tester that works with large volumes of data. Some companies have entire departments of performance testing — control of software performance and application loads. Usability testers check how easy the product is to use and attractive to the user.
There is a trend to mix different specialties and testing practices. It is beneficial for companies that a specialist knows how to perform various tasks.
Who are QA and QC
One of the most frequently asked questions in tester interviews is: What is the difference between QA and QC? The question is philosophical, and I had to hear very different answers to it.
Traditionally, QA (Quality Assurance) is understood as something global: ensuring the entire development process, starting from the choice of methodology and specialists and ending with general quality control.
QC (Quality Control) – this is sometimes called an average specialist in functional testing, who checks to what extent the development of the product meets all the requirements.
There is also a third concept — Testing, or the process of product testing.
In a sense, QA, QC, and Testing are just different stages of work performed by a tester. Some large companies have QA departments where specialists do not do functional testing at all: they know the customer’s standards well and ensure that the entire team works according to these standards.
In vacancies on the labor market, a functional (manual) tester can be called QA, tester, and test engineer. These are different names for the same profession.
There is also the concept of “universal tester”. In a professional environment, we call such people “mixes”. These are testers who know almost everything: they know the theory and various types of testing, they know how to come up with and design tests, they know programming languages and automate processes. Today there is a great demand for such specialists. From my own experience, I can say that the presence of a “mix” in a team dramatically increases work efficiency.
There is also such a concept as TestOps (by analogy with DevOps). Sometimes the terms DevTestOps and DevTestSecOps are used. He is a specialist who, in addition to testing, also supports the entire infrastructure: deploys and maintains servers, automates tests and the process of compiling the program.