Now many people dream of finding a job in IT because of the relatively high salaries in this area, as well as the stable demand for such specialists in the labor market. Most often, these dreams are shattered by the need to receive specialized education, for which there is neither time nor money. But there are several specialties that allow you to slip into IT through the "back door", practically bypassing the stage of preliminary training and gaining experience. It is precisely to such “borderline” specialties that QA belongs.
Who is QA and what does he do?
The job of a Quality Assurance Engineer is more likely not to check quality (although this word is present in the title of the profession), but to control the correct implementation of all stages of development and the correct operation of the final product. Sounds a bit like a tester's task. But he only deals with checking the operation of the application and, based on the results (the presence of bugs and errors), accepts it or does not accept it. A QA engineer also monitors compliance with standards in the development of programs, interacts with developers, designers, customers, preventing the very appearance of bugs and errors in the software. True, in our country the professions of a tester and QA are most often perceived as a single entity.
If broken down by points, then the terms of reference of a QA engineer include the following tasks:
specification of requirements for the program (performed jointly with the customer);
analysis and calculation of the time needed to create an application or fix a bug (a task, of course, not for juniors, but as a person with an “outside view”, QA gives the most realistic time estimates);
development of test scenarios;
the testing process itself;
entering the detected shortcomings into the tracking system
discussion of fixes with all development participants;
tracking the remediation process;
re-testing problematic moments;
analysis of test results;
finalization of test scripts'
analysis of the team development process;
optimization of development processes to avoid the recurrence of detected errors (if errors occur due to inconsistency between the actions of different departments or because someone does not follow the established development standards, then it is the job of QA to point out this problem area and achieve its elimination);
maintaining test documentation.
At first glance, there are a lot of responsibilities, but in practice, some of them turn out to be the responsibility of testers, quality control workers, developers, business analysts, and technical writers. So in different companies, the duties of a QA engineer will be slightly different: somewhere there will be more work on planning work on the program and bugs, somewhere more emphasis is placed on tests and tracking fixes, and somewhere QA himself is involved in creating edits.
Accordingly, in each case, the working day will look different. In general, a QA engineer starts the day by working on tests and tracking development progress using a tracking system. During the day, he communicates with the developers (clarifying the development progress and problems slowing it down) and the customer (clarifying the requirements for the functions currently being developed). At the end of the day, all changes are made to the test documentation.
Pros and cons of the profession
What, besides salary, can QA work do? One of the most pleasant pluses is the awareness of your contribution to the creation and improvement of the product. This is an indescribable feeling when a product is born from the routine of everyday life, in which there is a piece of your work and ideas.
In addition, the advantage of QA is the possibility of close acquaintance with new technologies. If you want to move to another IT specialty, then the QA position is the best place to get to know your future job better. QA has only one minus - boring and monotonous responsibilities for manual testing and updating test documentation. True, they pester only at first, and with the expansion of the range of responsibilities, everything becomes more interesting and dynamic.
How to become a QA?
In fact, in order to step onto the path of QA, you do not need knowledge of programming languages or the structure of databases. The main thing is to have an idea about the structure of the software development process and understand the testing process. You need to read literature (mostly foreign), practice on “cats” (practice using a PC, trying to notice all the shortcomings and bugs in applications / sites). For greater confidence, you can take a couple of training courses on the Internet and / or internships in training centers (unfortunately, this specialty is not taught at institutes). Improve English (when selecting personnel, IT companies prefer candidates with knowledge of English).
In any case, a beginner QA is first of all checked for knowledge of the software testing process: what is it for, what types of testing are there, what is a bug, how to document it and what steps need to be taken to close it. At first, your lot will be just tests. And after you get used to this work and learn a little more about how software development is built in your company, you will move to a higher level and get your share of responsibility for the product being developed. The entry level for the QA specialty is significantly lower than for the programmer, which is why the competition for this vacancy can be very, very, VERY large. Therefore, for a successful interview, in addition to knowledge, you need to have a certain set of personal qualities. So, for QA, the ability to establish communication is important - he needs to interact with almost all development participants from the customer to the tester. At the same time, he must be able to convey to the performers all the nuances that the application must comply with. Attention, patience and perseverance are no less important - they are required in the process of testing programs. Of course, for successful testing, you need the excitement of a mushroom picker and the inquisitiveness of a child taking apart a watch or favorite toy so that finding bugs does not turn into an oppressive routine for you (if you have a couple of stories about successfully finding bugs, this can be a big plus for a recruiter). Analytical skills are also needed to identify ways to improve the development process and the application itself. which the application must comply. Attention, patience and perseverance are no less important - they are required in the process of testing programs. Of course, for successful testing, you need the excitement of a mushroom picker and the inquisitiveness of a child taking apart a watch or favorite toy so that finding bugs does not turn into an oppressive routine for you (if you have a couple of stories about successfully finding bugs, this can be a big plus for a recruiter). Analytical skills are also needed to identify ways to improve the development process and the application itself. which the application must comply. Attention, patience and perseverance are no less important - they are required in the process of testing programs. Of course, for successful testing, you need the excitement of a mushroom picker and the inquisitiveness of a child taking apart a watch or favorite toy so that finding bugs does not turn into an oppressive routine for you (if you have a couple of stories about successfully finding bugs, this can be a big plus for a recruiter). Analytical skills are also needed to identify ways to improve the development process and the application itself. so that finding bugs does not turn into an oppressive routine for you (if you have a couple of stories about successfully finding bugs, this can be a big plus for a recruiter). Analytical skills are also needed to identify ways to improve the development process and the application itself. so that finding bugs does not turn into an oppressive routine for you (if you have a couple of stories about successfully finding bugs, this can be a big plus for a recruiter). Analytical skills are also needed to identify ways to improve the development process and the application itself.
prospects
QA work, as one of the relatively easy entry points into IT, offers quite a few development options. You can stay in this specialty and climb the ladder: junior QA, middle QA, senior QA, QA team lead, QA manager, head of QA department. If you are more inclined towards programming, but are not ready to go to programmers, then you can switch to QA automation engineer. Then you can try your hand at app verification automation.
If you consider QA only as a springboard for a career in another specialty, then after additional training you can retrain as a programmer, business analyst or project manager. In new fields, additional opportunities for professional growth open up, but the level of responsibility there is completely different.
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