Quality Assurance Engineer: що це таке та з чого почати?

We have already talked about C++ , Golang and Python – you can find these materials by following the links. Today we will talk about another very popular industry for “starting in IT” – quality assurance engineer, or as it is usually called, Quality Assurance Engineer. We will consider the position of Manual QA Engineer, because Automation QA has a different specifics, which we will consider in another article. Let’s go!

Where to start?

The very first step should be to ask yourself – is this right for me? Ask yourself if you have ever checked the world around you for usability. Simple questions:

• For example, why does the cap on a water bottle always unscrew clockwise? What if some company tried to change the rules?
• Do you notice any simple, construction “bugs” – for example, laying tiles, where one of the bricks is clearly out of place! 

Attention to detail and the ability to analyze the environment and the system for “reliability” as a whole are inseparable traits of a tester.  

If you have already firmly decided to take this path, let’s talk about the advantages right away. The Manual QA Engineer path has the following advantages:

1. Low threshold for entry into the specialty. No so-called “hard skills” are required from the start – knowledge of programming languages, as for a developer, or hardware, as for a sysadmin. 
2. Wide market demand. There will always be a project to your liking, because manual testers can adapt to almost any environment. There is no rigid attachment to technologies and their changes, like developers or automated testers. The project can be written in any programming language, and this will have minimal impact on the testing approach itself.
3. Various development vectors. You can dive into any specific area you want: from game development with rules that change almost every day to medical projects with very stable and regulated rules, but with a lot of formal documentation. From security testing to focusing on UX, i.e. user experience.

How to prepare?

Priorities in preparation for the first QA job can be arranged according to the following list:

1. Knowledge of English. First place, because it is the foundation. Of all the skills that are usually needed in IT, and in QA in particular, acquiring this one requires the most effort. Of course, it is possible to find a project without English. But then the number of possible positions will be greatly reduced to local projects or to projects where understanding only English documentation is required (Google Translate can also help here, but do not forget that the technology is not yet perfect, and time is also a precious commodity). 
2. Understanding the testing process. The ability to navigate the project and understand what is required of you will make life easier not only for you, but also for your customer. However, be prepared that you will not get a full understanding of what is involved until you start working on a real project. The author of this column has only formed an image of the profession in the second month of commercial experience!
3. Knowledge of quality assurance terminology. Here you will be helped by the only international certification of this profession ISTQB Glossary . This certification practically guarantees you a QA position. Attention! You should not start with it without practical experience, because you will fail the test and lose 195 dollars. Why is that? Because the correct answers require good knowledge of English in a specific area of ​​the profession. And also studied ISTQB Syllabus . So just study this certification for general understanding. 
4. Understanding any SDLC or, simply, software development process. Start with the principles of Agile on the official website. The basics are even in Ukrainian. The most popular SDLC is SCRUM , this variety of methodologies is easy to understand ( and we have several articles about this methodology – editor’s note ). 
5. Bug tracking system. This is a common feature that is needed by both QA and BA and even PM positions. Of course, the most popular here is JIRA . It is not free, but there is a trial version, so you can learn how to create/fill in tickets yourself. 
6. A rough orientation in Automation. This is a big plus. You can get it using Selenium IDE – fortunately, it now exists for Chrome.
7. Other: Any additional skills, as required by the project. 

 How to study and list of materials

When studying anything, you need to take into account your own mindset! For example, I learn best from videos, so in today’s conditions I would concentrate on YouTube, or even TikTok. The difference of the latter is speed and simplicity – all information is accessible and broken down into short passages, which simplifies the process of learning information.

So I decided to start explaining QA theory on TikTok 🙂

You can ask questions about theory and practice, and I will prepare material on your question!

Anyone who likes to read books should try reading them. I advise you to start with

•  Roman Savin – “Dot Com Testing”
• James Whittaker, Jason Arbon, Jeff Carolo – “How Google Tests”
• Sam Kanyer, Jack Falk, Ang Quoc Nguyen “Software Testing” – it is quite academically written, it may seem boring, but it provides fundamental knowledge. If you master it – you will be fine!

If you prefer more classic social networks and, for example, can’t tear yourself away from Instagram, then this is not a problem – even there you can find the necessary information. The main thing is to search persistently.

However, when it comes to searching, you also need to know how to search correctly. There are even courses on how to Google correctly (and it’s not as easy as it might seem). In addition, the vast majority of information and knowledge is available in English, so this is also a necessary skill if you want to find relevant and complete information.

However, the most important thing is to love what you do, be interested in it, and don’t be afraid to experiment!