Use Sophia to knock out your gen-ed requirements quickly and affordably. Learn more
×

Learning Opportunities and Challenges for QA Engineers

Author: Devmountain Tutorials

what's covered
In this lesson, you will learn how to list some challenges for a QA engineer. Specifically, this lesson will cover:

Table of Contents

1. Challenges for QA Engineers

While overall, I love my job, sometimes testing manually can get boring, especially if I need to do the same thing multiple times. If I get too bored, I know I’m doing it wrong. I can take a break, test something else, or change up my testing approach.

Taking the time to keep myself engaged helps keep me alert to spot problems. Managing and maintaining test cases can be a bit bland, but I’ve started having jam sessions with Jose (Product Manager) where we update our documentation together and it makes it more fun.

I love that we have the autonomy to control how we do our jobs. I’d rather take a proactive approach to my test cases so I’m not delayed by out-of-date information when I’m trying to execute a test. When that happens, I have to review the changes, identify any impact, and update my test case before I can move forward with the testing.

My least favorite aspect of the job is when I have to speak up because I disagree with moving forward on a release. It can be intimidating to disagree when everyone else is on board to release a new feature. I make sure to let everyone know about the problem I found and the likely impact it will have on users. Usually, our team is able to have a conversation about the risks and come to a consensus, but that doesn’t always happen. The more we work together, the more we are learning and the better we get.

Like many QA Engineers, I’ve found it challenging to test the different types of products we have. Even though the experience for users between the website and the mobile app feels very similar, the technology that powers them is different, and that requires a different approach to testing. Camilla, our iOS Engineer, is amazing, and she has helped me learn so much.


2. Learning Opportunities for QA Engineers

Since Camilla helped me to see that there are many options out there, I’ve been doing research online to find tutorials on different types of testing.

Here is a list of topics I’m learning more about:

  • UI Automation, Web, Mobile, and Desktop
  • Continuous Integration and Delivery
  • API Testing
  • Database Testing
  • Contract Testing
  • Security Testing
  • Performance Testing
  • Accessibility Testing
  • Usability Testing
And that’s only a few of the topics I’ve found. An engineer can specialize in any of them. Personally, I’m trying to pick up the different kinds of testing that Poodle Jumper might need, at least at a basic level. The more ways I can test out our product, the happier our customers will be, and the more valuable I am to my team. I’ve been focusing a lot on automation to speed up the testing process. I was surprised to learn that even great automation can’t test everything. Usability issues are identified most effectively by manual testing.

I’ve had a few peers transition from being QA Engineers into various development positions. An entry-level QA position was a great starting point for their careers. I was planning to transition into UX when I started, but I realized how much fun QA is for me, so I think I’ll stick with this for a bit. If I get good at automation, my salary potential is pretty great.

summary
This lesson explored the challenges and learning opportunities for QA engineers. QA engineers may find their job monotonous when testing manually, but they can take breaks, change their approach or test something else to stay engaged. Maintaining test cases can also be a bit dull, but it can be made more fun by collaborating with the product manager. Speaking up when disagreeing with moving forward on a release can be intimidating, but it's essential to ensure quality. QA engineers can specialize in different types of testing, and automation can speed up the testing process, but manual testing is still effective for identifying usability issues. QA engineering can also be a starting point for other development positions, and there is great salary potential in mastering automation.

Source: This tutorial was authored by DEVMOUNTAIN and Sophia Learning. Please see our Terms of Use.