Possibilities vs. Experiences from Amity’s Development Manager and Product Owner
July 15, 2020
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The roles and responsibilities of a QA (Quality Assurance) Engineer is ever changing depending on a variety of factors, from the type of company, to the team size, to the product itself. However, the one thing all QAs have in common is that they are hired to find bugs and report them to the developers to be fixed. Simple, right? That was my understanding too before starting my career as a QA Engineer. In reality, finding bugs is just a small part of a QA engineer’s day at work.
Honestly, when I decided to pursue a career as a QA Engineer, I just did it based on hearsay that QA is the easiest way to get into the IT Industry. With just the basic understanding of what is expected (typically, finding bugs) I jumped in on this roller coaster ride. Soon enough, I realized that it’s not just about finding bugs. It’s about a whole lot of other things that sadly not a lot of other teams are aware of about the QA process. Just to give you a brief understanding about what actually goes on in the QA Engineers day at work, here is a list of things he/she has to prepare for a particular sprint/project life cycle.
- Gather requirement specifications
- Documentation
- Write test conditions and test cases
- Run test cases (manual, automated or both)
- Discover bugs and report
- Retest
Additionally, a QA has to be prepared to always learn new things. Whether it be a new QA tool or a new product that your company has decided to launch which has no similarities with the old product whatsoever. So now you have to think of new testing techniques, think of new and unique use cases and possibly new tools (Automation, Test Management, etc.). And of course, the QA has to have a basic understanding of all different teams and what they do (For example: Backend, Devops, etc.) so that he/she avoids sending the bug report to the wrong person, costing time to the entire product life cycle.
After having a bumpy ride, I found Eko and the first time I saw the product, I just wanted to work for this organization. I have to admit it’s the best career choice I have made so far. Eko has not only encouraged me to learn crucial elements that I want to develop further for my role, but it has also made me love my job as a QA Engineer. I feel the autonomy that I have to achieve my objectives. Eko gave me a team that I had always imagined to be a part of. From the Development team, to the PMs, to the QA team, to the leads. Everybody is so encouraging and supportive in your effort to learn and to develop into a better QA.
Our QA process continues to improve every day and we definitely have a great mindset to continue learning. Tthat is exactly why I decided to continue as a QA Engineer.
