In Quality Engineering, job roles change. It is inevitable. And although change can be scary, there are a lot of positives about having a QE role, versus an old-style QA role. Here are the key ways that QE roles differ:
More team interaction
With the traditional developer/QA split, it was set up for conflict. “Why can’t you test faster” screamed the developers. “Why didn’t you code better in the first place” scream back the QA team.
It is less like that in a QE environment. With QE, there is less “them and us” and more “us”. Quality Engineering professionals are part and parcel of the delivery team. It means that better interpersonal skills are required, compared to an often solitary QA role. As illustration of that, many teams would take a strong communicator over a solitary technical genius.
More involved in the defining structure
In a QE role, you will be pulled into building parameters, both for testing and development. One of the very first roles will be to define and design the testing environment before a single line of code is written.
It is important to be analytical in reviewing the requirements or stories that are proposed. Any ambiguity can cause problems for you and the rest of the delivery team later.
More focused on test automation
Test Automation is fundamental to the QE role. The exact parameters of a QE role may differ from business to business, but knowledge and comfort with test automation will be pretty difficult to do without.
In many Agile shops, developers will be well used to creating their own unit tests, though it is unlikely that they will be as familiar with every type of testing and test automation they will need. For those of you who are less familiar with test automation, it is important to re-skill and re-tool to keep up with the inevitable progress to an increasingly test automation focused development world.
More exploratory testing
While much QA testing can be rigid and routine, that is not always the way in QE. As Test Automation takes the place of many routine testing tasks, it opens the door for more exploratory testing
In essence, it can be a much more creative and self-directed role. It can also require more thinking on your feet, as you need to work out creative solutions to new problems as they emerge.
Get in contact with us to see how we can help you move your organization from QA to QE.