QA Tester: Job Overview, Skills, Responsibilities, Salary And More

“Everybody can do testing, but only a tester does good testing.”— Melissa Eaden

No software is perfect and hence software and QA testing services are inevitable. Delivering a bug-free product and a seamless, effective application is what all customers look for, and reaching that goal is what software testers aim for.

QA testers are primarily responsible to ensure comprehensive testing and a defect-free application, through the implementation of modern-day QA testing tools. Becoming a successful QA tester is no child’s play, it is a highly responsible and tough task!

Implementing a defect-free and well-tested product has its own added advantage of gaining complete customer satisfaction and a huge loyalty quotient. And that is what a Quality Assurance tester is supposed to achieve.
Here is a detailed article on all facets of a QA tester, but prior to that, let us glance through what QA testing is and what a QA tester does.

What Is QA Testing?

Software testing solutions and QA testing services include a range of services like security testing, managed QA testing, software testing outsourcing, third-party software testing, software testing as a service, performance testing, automated testing, functional testing, and QA analysis.

What Does A QA Tester Do?

A QA tester is also known as a QA engineer or a software tester or a software test engineer. A QA tester is responsible for creating and implementing test plans for testing software, debugging code, and enhancing the usability of programs. QA testers work with the development team to stay in sync and offer completely functioning software.

They remove bugs, glitches, and other troubles that users can face. They execute different types of tests to ensure that the application meets the regulatory standards before giving it to the end users. They also generate a variety of reports that can help in understanding the problem areas and ensure the execution of debugging strategies to solve the problems.

Popular QA Testing Tools Used By A QA Tester

For a QA tester to successfully fulfill responsibilities and achieve success, QA testing tools are a must. These software testing tools catalyze testing automation, speed of delivery, and efficacy in results.

There are numerous QA testing tools that are accessible around the globe. Here are a few of the popular ones that are being leveraged by testers:

• Selenium

A popular open-source, testing framework that assists in writing tests and automating browsers to execute tests. Selenium IDE is an effective record and playback tool for the generation of test scripts.

• Appium

Appium is a well-known QA testing tool that has an easy setup procedure and facilitates the usage of your own test practices, tools, and frameworks. It is open-source and possesses great community support.

• LoadRunner

LoadRunner is an efficient software testing tool that is utilized for testing applications and performance under load. It has the capacity of simulating multiple users with concurrence making use of application software along with performance analysis.

• TestRail

A QA testing tool for web-based test case management that handles both – manual and automated testing. Offers detailed insight into the testing results through reports and dashboards. Increases effectivity through notifications, to-do lists, etc.

• Zephyr Scale

A robust test management solution with Jira for effective planning and reporting. Facilitates reuse of tests with optimal visibility and data analytics. Empowers teams with CI/CD, and automated integration through inbuilt testing tools.

QA Tester Skills:

Here are the different QA tester skills that must be inculcated, including technical skills and soft skills:

Technical Skills:

• Experience in project management and QA approaches
• Familiarity with agile frameworks
• Engineering or Computer Science background degree
• Working knowledge of testing tools, programming languages
• Error documentation and debugging
• Test management software experience
• Mobile development experience
• Knowledge to design and write automation test scripts

Soft Skills:

• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong organizational skills
• Written and oral communication skills
• Attention to detail
• Team working and critical thinking
• Professionalism with a team focus
• Interpersonal skills
• Capability for multitasking and priority setup
• Critical time and work management
• Understanding of customer requirements

QA Tester Responsibilities:

The bouquet of QA tester responsibilities includes the following activities, as a part of the roles and responsibilities that come along:

• Define testing objectives and the methodology to fulfill them
• Review, analyze system specifications, and test procedures
• Early testing of applications for early identification of errors
• See to it that the test strategy is aligned with the development requirements
• Report errors, document logs, and solve technical problems with the development team through bug tracking tools like Bugzilla, etc.
• Root cause analysis of errors and defects
• Executing debugging programs for fixation of defects and bugs
• Design and execute test scripts, and test cases, and evaluate results for manual and automated tests
• Carry out tests on source code and post-release testing
• Function seamlessly with cross-functional teams for enhanced quality
• Work with designers, developers, business analysts, and project managers to analyze business needs and estimate testing efforts
• Find out test data needs and extract necessary test data
• Carry out regression, functional, system, integration, smoke testing
• Monitor and measure performance with different tools
• Ensure security implementation to protect from malware attacks, cybercrime
• Measure and manage testing activities with test management tools
• Maintain test environments as per requirements

QA Tester Salary Structure:

Though the QA tester salary may vary from geography to geography and from time to time, the below figures give a general idea of how much it could be:

• Quality assurance testers make $74,140 per year on average, or $35.64 per hour, in the United States. Quality assurance testers on the lower end of that spectrum, the bottom 10% to be exact, make roughly $55,000 a year, while the top 10% make $99,000.
• The average Software QA Tester in the US makes $80,747. Software QA Testers make the most in Los Angeles at $86,318, averaging total compensation 7% greater than the US average.
• The QA Tester earns an average £33,775 in London, UK
• The average salary QA Tester in Australia is $111,734 per year or $57.30 per hour. The entry-level range starts at $85,000 per year, while the experienced workers make up to $140,000 per year.
• The average QA salary in New Zealand is $52,650 per year or $27 per hour.
• The average salary for entry-level quality assurance tester jobs is on average, $32,283 per year.
• In Canada, the average QA tester salary is $65,000 per year or $33.33 per hour.

QA Tester Interview Questions

For an aspiring QA tester, what matters most is performing nicely in the interview. Here are a few important QA tester interview questions that can be of great help:

• What is the distinction between QA and software testing?
• What are the automation challenges that the SQA team faces while testing?
• What is data-driven testing?
• What does the test strategy involve?
• What are the standards of software testing?
• Talk about the different types of software testing
• What is a bug in software testing?
• What are the contents of test plans and test cases?
• What is end-to-end testing?
• Explain stress testing, load testing, and volume testing
• What is configuration management?
• What is a Test Metric in software testing and what information does it contain?
• List out the software quality practices through the software development cycle
• What is a test environment?
• Explain what your QA documents should include
• What should the Software QA document include?
• Explain black-box testing, white-box testing, and grey-box testing
• What is the difference between Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Testing?
• How do you define a format for writing a good test case?
• Guess you find a bug in production; how would you make sure that the same bug is not created again?
• What is Verification and Validation in software testing?
• What is usability testing?
• Explain Bug life cycle or Defect life cycle
• What is coverage and what are the different types of coverage techniques?
• Should testing be done only after the build and execution phases are complete?
• On what basis you can arrive at an estimation for your project?
• Is Automation testing in agile methodology useful?
• Define bug leakage and bug release
• What is the rule of a “Test Driven Development”?
• What is a traceability matrix?

On A Final Note:

As independent testers, QA testers offer exhaustive software testing services with a committed and stringent approach, aiming toward perfection in quality. They follow organizational testing procedures and keep working towards the established testing goals by implementing cutting-edge QA testing tools.

The software testing services and QA testing services that the quality assurance testers offer ensure utmost quality at all steps of any project with almost zero post-delivery defects and nearly 100% customer satisfaction. It is inevitable to say that a QA tester is the foundation stone in building an accurate and quality-rich application.