With the fast-growing need and demand for new technologies, services, and products, there’s an equal demand for quality software that is bug-free and focuses on customer satisfaction. They are an essential phase in a software development lifecycle that you cannot skip. It’s the job of a QA engineer to ensure the system complies with the requirements and regulations set out by the developer as well as the end client.
If breaking things and pointing them out to the developers doesn’t make you interested, then this will. According to Forbes, it’s also considered one of the happiest jobs in the world.
Before we take a close look into why QA Engineering is a good career choice, let’s understand the roles and responsibilities of a QA specialist.
Roles of a QA Specialist
QA jobs come under various names and levels, with different activities that entail. Let’s look at them.
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QA Testers or Software Testers
It’s a QA Testers’ responsibility to perform invasive testing in each phase of the software development process. They use test cases and various strategies to detect bugs and defects in the software and document it accurately and partner with developers to make software error-free.
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QA Engineer or Software Developer in Test
SDETs are developers who are not only responsible for writing code, but also for testing it. They are required to continuously write, test, and fix their code and this sits well as part of an Agile lifecycle model. They are responsible for managing testing environments and test frameworks for their company. They also aid in building robust test automation solutions for various forms of regression and performance testing.
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Automation Engineers
The role of an Automation Engineer is to identify the automatable parts of the software testing and design QA scripts that test the entire functionality without human intervention. They are also responsible for executing, monitoring, and analyzing bugs from the test reports and working closely with the rest of the QA.
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Test Analysts and Architects
Test Analysts are responsible to understand the functionality and feasibility of the system and decide on what to test and how. They need to have an eagle-eye view of the entire business logic and define appropriate tests to be carried out.
Now, that we’ve gone through the different activities of a QA specialist, let’s understand why they are a happy profession to pursue.
Why you should be a QA Professional?
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High Demand
There has been a high demand and always will be for quality testers. As long as the software is being developed, testing is involved. In 2017, QA was identified as one of the fields with the highest demand and lowest supply by Stack Overflow Blog.
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Become Domain Expert
Since a QA specialist’s job is to understand the software over the technical details, they will get gain functional and domain knowledge. They will get an overall understanding of the system rather than just the feature being developed.
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Easy to Train
Typically, with the right resources, manual QA can be learned within a month and be able to kickstart a testing career in a short time. Also, acquiring this knowledge is usually affordable through courses and online materials.
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Not very Exhausting
Though some QA specialists find their jobs demanding especially when it comes to the final months of the software release, it is not very overburdening. The stress-free environment is a huge plus for QA and that’s why it’s highly preferable to many women who desire a work-life balance.
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Competitive Salary
QA Engineering is a well-paid job which can also come with multiple benefits. Since IT itself is growing rapidly with a huge demand for quality testers, there will always be opportunities to perform well and climb the ladder.
When is QA not meant for you?
While I’ve listen all the pros of QA, I need to tell you the other side of this field.
If you are in the beginning of your career and looking to build yourself a broad technical belt, this testing may not the one for you. Like we discussed above, QA specialists become domain experts rather than gaining technical expertise. This can be very difficult for someone who’s just starting out or whose interest lies in the programming side.
The other highly prevalent opinion is that the work becomes boring because of doing certain things repetitively. This can be very stressful at times when it is added with poor work ethics of other teams that undervalue testers.
Conclusion
Being a software engineer is not easy. Whether it’s developer or a software tester or an analyst, everyone’s important for the software lifecycle with the unique roles they play. With increasing demand for seamless and enjoyable user experience, there needs to be a constant supply of testers who can assure it. A QA’s job is to prevent any software of poor quality falling into the hands of the customers.
Now, that you’ve understood the importance of QA, I hope you make an educated decision if it’s the right fit for you or not.
