How do you find great QA engineers who can keep problems from slipping into production before they impact your bottom line, brand reputation or development capabilities?
What qualities do they possess that elevate them above just average testers? We’ve compiled six traits of a great QA engineer.
1. Inquisitive
Asks, “What if…?” to better understand the product or the requirements.
- Questions bad practices.
- Finds defects by wondering what will happen if you do things differently.
2. Thorough
Obsessed with checking work, recreating defects to verify them and testing everything that needs to be tested.
- Not bound to test to the “letter of the law,” but testing the spirit of the requirement beyond what’s written.
- Tests to break to find flaws so they don’t make it farther into development.
- Cares about quality. Doesn’t want things to just work, wants them to work well.
3. Diplomatic
Great communicator. Clear and concise when reporting on issues.
- Able to judge an audience (developers, project managers, product owners, etc.) and adjust communication as needed.
- Cognizant that QA testing is a team game and the ultimate success is team success.
- Can negotiate and make a strong, informed case for why a requirement should be a certain way or why something really is a defect.
- Doesn’t play the blame game and understands that everyone makes mistakes. If not, they wouldn’t have a job!
4. Creative
Unconventional thinking helps test the usability of an application and hammer out all use cases.
- Thinks on their feet to create solutions if Plan B or C don’t work.
- Improves process by finding better ways to do things.
5. Perceptive
Can get into the mindset and understand how developers, product owners and users view the product.
- Sees/pinpoints where the issue happened, often without help from the log.
- Knows what’s important and what’s not. Sometimes you need to decide what you are going to test next based on business priority or need.
- Understands how software development works outside of just their QA role.
6. Skilled
Great at finding glitches/bugs/defect.
- Can read and write code to fully understand developers work and make changes as needed.
- Writes and runs automated tests.