Careers in Software Quality Assurance

Software quality assurance (QA) is a technological field of saas that majorly focuses on making sure that a software applications works , fulfill all user expectations, and are free from any major defects. The job of a quality assurance professional is to examine websites, mobile applications, and computer programs before they are released.

Career Opportunities In Quality Software Assurance 

1. Software QA tester: the responsibilities of a quality assurance tester is to check software to see if there are any errors, broken feature or unexpected behaviors. They follow test instructions, record defects, and assist developers in resolving problems.
2. Manual software tester: these professionals test software applications without using any automated testing scripts. They make use of software the way an ordinary user would, this allows them to be able to identify usability issues, incorrect result, and other defects.
3. Automation test engineer: automation test engineers make scripts that can automatically test the application. They use tools and programming languages that help them to reduce repetitive work and increase testing speed.
4. QA analyst: QA analyst study software requirements, develop plans for tests , document their finding, and figure out if the application is up to the quality standards.
5. Performance test engineer: performance test engineers examine how the software application would work under different conditions like heavy traffic and having a large number of users at a time. They check if there is a slow responses time, performance bottleneck, or any system limitations.
6. Mobile application tester: mobile testers examine applications on smartphones and tablets. They check to see the compatability across different devices, operating systems, screen sizes, and network conditions.
7. Security QA tester: the work of a security quality assurance tester is to evaluate applications for any signs of weaknesses that could leak any sensitive information or allow access to unauthorized users. Sometimes, they work with cyber security specialists to find and document vulnerabilities.
8. QA lead: a QA lead coordinates all testing activities, assigns tasks to the software , reviews test results and make sure that the testing meets all the requirements of the operation . To work in this position you may need some previous experience in software testing.

Qualification and Required Skills 

You will probably need a degree In computer science, software engineering, information technology or any other discipline that is related to the job . However, a few entry-level QA positions take candidates with some useful practical skills, professional training, and industry certification instead if a university degree are still useful. Some of these skills include:

• Analytical thinking: this is being able to find the problem and find out why the software is behaving the way it is.
• Attention to detail: this means paying enough attention so you can be able to find small errors that could affect the user.
• Communication: being able to explain the errors that have been detected to developers and other team members.
• Technical knowledge: the understanding of software development, databases and operating systems clearly.
• Problem solving: this means being able to discover the problem and help the developer find out the cause.
• Programming: this means learning programming languages like python or Java is useful for automation testing.

Certifications that can help you

These certifications can help you demonstrate your knowledge on software testing

• ISTQB certified tester foundation level (CTFL) : this covers the fundamentals testing principles and terminologies.
• ISTQB certified tester advanced level: this is a certification that offers specialized knowledge for experienced testing professionals.
• Certified agile tester: this certification provides training and assessment related to testing in agile development environments, depending on the certification provider.

Practical projects that demonstrate testing skills are also very important when applying for jobs.

Tools used in software quality assurance

Quality assurance professionals make use of different tolls depending on their responsibilities.

• Selenium: this automates browser based testing.
• Postman: test API’s and check if softwares produce expected results.
• Jira: this tool tracks defects, manages tasks, and supports project collaboration.
• Jmeter: this tests the softwares application performance and load handling capabilities.
• Cypress: this supports automated testing of web applications.

If you are a beginner you don’t need to master every tool, you can try learning manual testing, then you can move on to API testing or automation, these can give you a starting point.

How to start a career in software quality assurance

You can start by learning some of the software testing fundamentals, like test cases, tests plans, bug reports, and regression testing. You can practice testing websites and applications, documentatiing the defects you have found and explaining how to reproduce them. Next, you can build a portfolio with sample test cases, bug reports, and testing project. You can also learn tools such as Jira, follow it up with Postman for API testing. Once you have learnt the fundamentals you can learn python or Java script and automation frame work. You can also try entry level positions, these can give you valuable experience.

Conclusion

Software quality assurance offers alot of opportunities for individuals interested in problem solving, technology and improving digital products. With the right skills, experience and certification, you can enter this field and progress into a more specialized role.