Hard Skills that Make a Good QA Specialist
When it comes to hard skills, the demands can vary from company to company. Besides, a required skill set also depends on a particular profession. In general, the must-haves for an average candidate are:
- Knowledge of software testing types, methodologies, and techniques.
- Familiarity with certain bug tracking and test management tools.
- Understanding of different SDLC models.
- Knowledge of a particular programming language (for test automation).
To understand better what hard skills will help you get a particular job, you can simply look through job postings in the niche. HR managers keep job descriptions relevant, so you are likely to find the latest information on this. It is also a good idea to scan job offers from different regions and countries. It may help to decide where to develop professionally and what to study next.
Soft Skills that Make a Good QA Specialist
In addition to strong technical knowledge, a specialist should also possess certain personality traits to become a valuable addition to the team. We believe that the soft skills listed below will remain relevant and sought in the future.
The thing is, the active automation that already occurs in many industries will increase the significance of soft skills. People will need to cover the tasks that computers won’t be able to do. On the one hand, the demand for specialists who can create and maintain automatic solutions will increase. On the other hand, a lot of tasks computers cannot perform are related to soft skills.
A study by McKinsey predicts that around 5 million occupations will no longer exist by 2030. Robotics and AI technologies will replace human workers. Meanwhile, we can expect the emergence of new professions, where uniquely human skills will become more valuable. Accenture makes similar predictions and supports the idea to upskill staff in soft skills since they will be more in-demand in the future.
In other words, technology isn’t meant to replace or eliminate people. It is likely to make a shift in priorities, so that leadership, creativity, and other uniquely human skills will play a greater role in professional value. Ultimately, people with math and soft skills seem to get better career prospects in the future.
Let’s start with a list of the soft skills that are already a bonus for candidates looking for QA jobs.
Communication skills
Communication is everything. An ability to express one’s thoughts clearly is a key to productive cooperation. It is essential for a QA engineer to explain the nature of defects and describe the steps to reproduce them in detail. It includes both oral and written communication. Without comprehensible reports, the rest of the team would find it difficult or even impossible to implement changes.
Empathic approach
The concept of empathy is essential for a variety of industries. Basically, empathy means an ability to understand other people, to walk in one’s shoes. In the case of QA and software testing, empathy is a desire to understand client’s objectives and share their values. Once you manage to see what’s the priority for a client, you’ll be able to ask the right questions and present your ideas in a way that can benefit an end product.
Analytical skills
In their daily work, QA specialists work with software products, deconstructing their features and behavior to find flaws in the system. The ability to collect and process information is the core of such activities. A set of analytical skills include logical thinking, critical reasoning, research, data analysis, creativity, and problem-solving.
Attention to detail
A QA engineer should pay attention to ins and outs and issues that are almost imperceptible. It’s a meticulous job that requires significant concentration and a little bit of suspicion. Attention to detail allows noticing weak spots in the system that seems to work well. It encourages checking and rechecking those areas that are generally prone to defects, even if there are no evident defects at the moment.
Focus on quality
When the deadlines are tight, a QA team may be urged to check complicated functionality quickly. Even under such circumstances, a person should understand the quality implications and communicate their thoughts to a client. A QA engineer’s task is to check a product thoroughly. It is essential to estimate correctly the time required to do this and inform a client. Remember that your mission is quality assurance, and it should be the priority regardless of the situation.
Reasoning ability
Reasoning requires a solid technical understanding of the processes. When you explain the necessity of a particular procedure to other team members, you should provide relevant arguments. Telling a client something like “We need to run performance testing because it will be better this way” is something you should never do. Every piece of recommendation should come with convincing evidence. It is also necessary to be able to explain complicated things in a way people without a tech background can understand.
Diligence
Patient work and willingness to learn and develop professionally are essential for many professions. It is impossible to become good at what you do without effort and studiousness. Meanwhile, technology keeps evolving, and IT specialists should keep up with the trends and new practices. If a person likes to attend field-specific events, improve their hard skills, follow industry news, etc., they increase their value as a professional. Being stuck with one product, on the contrary, interferes with one’s skills and career prospects.
Teamwork
If an HR specialist says they are looking for ‘a team player,’ it isn’t just another cliche in a job description text. There are people with impressive skills and expertise that find it difficult to cooperate with others. Software testing is work for a team. Even if a client requires one specialist to work on a project, this person is supposed to work in close collaboration with developers and stakeholders. Depending too much on one’s individual skills can affect the result. When there are several QA specialists engaged in a project, smooth teamwork becomes even more significant.
Relating to end-users
QA engineers view every software product from a professional perspective. Looking for vulnerabilities is the primary goal that tends to become a professional hazard. Product owners view software from the business perspective. Meanwhile, end-users are likely to have yet different approaches, expectations, and experiences. Therefore, QA specialists need to abstract their minds from previous experiences and interact with a product like real users with diverse backgrounds and varying levels of digital literacy.
Commitment
Willingness to give your time and energy to improve the quality of a software product is the only way to become a good QA engineer. A person should understand their role in the process and take full responsibility for their actions and decisions. Whether we are talking about communication with a client, interaction inside a team, or personal time management, commitment and responsibility are crucial.
Essential Hard Skills of the Future
We can’t be certain about what technologies will be in demand in a decade or two. That’s why QA engineers should keep up with the market news and tech trends. For now, we can only assume that some of the domain knowledge in the following areas will be good to have featured in your CV.
Artificial intelligence
AI tech is becoming more mainstream. Apparently, the need for specialists that can work with natural language processing, speech and image recognition, and related smart technologies will keep increasing in the future. Most likely, they will become default features for the majority of applications.
Machine learning
Chatbots, smart assistants, predictive analytics tools, and a great share of smart tech rely on machine learning. Since machine learning can be applied to every industry, its possibilities are endless. Thus, the knowledge of ML technologies will be a bonus for QA engineers.
Data science
Banking, manufacturing, and governmental institutions are among those investing in data science the most. Healthcare, education, and many other niches can derive significant benefits from using these technologies, too. For as long as there is demand for data science tools, QA engineers will keep busy testing those software solutions.
Cloud computing
We don’t know yet what employment models will be dominant in the future. But even without going fully remote, companies understand the necessity of healthy cloud infrastructure that will keep the business processes functioning regardless of the team’s location. The widespread use of cloud computing tech will require proper QA expertise for maintenance and platform improvements.
Internet of Things
Smart gadgets, wearables, and home appliances have become widely used for business and personal purposes. Testing those relies on a lot of interactivity. For example, when QA engineers inspect fitness trackers, they have to run, jump, exercise, and track the measurements and showings under various real-life conditions. The same rule works for the majority, if not all IoT devices. Thus, niche expertise will be a great addition to QA engineer’s skills and career prospects in the future.
Robotics
Speaking about the interesting hardware to work with, more QA engineers can expect to get engaged with robotics. During software testing, you’ll need to learn how robots operate across a variety of terrains and environments under real-world conditions, experiment with different movement modes, etc. Whether we are talking about rethinking last-mile delivery or entertainment, the liking of robotic gadgets and their increasing popularity is undeniable.
Mobile testing
The share of mobile traffic keeps growing as well, thanks to both adaptive design and applications. People enjoy constant access to information and services and an opportunity to communicate and handle business tasks on the go. Though the influence of such a habit on our well-being is questionable, society isn’t going to give it up. The need for testing apps and digital services on mobile devices will remain among the priorities.
Network security
The more processes shift online, the more security threats will arise. Thus, network and information security practices will evolve together with digitalization. The need for security testing is likely to increase.
UI/UX design
Remember that there is a difference between these two concepts. UI is about the layout and correct functioning of the graphical elements of a user interface. UX is about the convenience of using a particular design and the emotions it causes. You don’t have to become a designer, but certainly, there will be many interfaces to test in the future.
Essential Soft Skills of the Future
It seems that the soft skills we’ve listed above will be relevant and in-demand. Meanwhile, the new technologies and realities will require some other activities in a QA engineer’s CV.
Adaptability
The pace of innovation keeps accelerating with every passing year. Nowadays, it takes less time to invent and implement new tech solutions than two decades ago. The world of the future will keep changing rapidly. It will be crucial for QA engineers to adapt to all the changes in technologies, software development methods, and related processes that are to come. Those who find it difficult to adjust to the new circumstances and realities risk ending up lagging behind.
Quick learning
As the technologies evolve, the QA methodologies, practices, and tools are to keep up. It means more learning than ever before. Many specialists already understand that continuous education is essential for professional growth. Those who can process information quickly and are eager to learn will have a considerable advantage in the future.
Cognitive flexibility
Cognitive flexibility is closely related to curiosity and desire to study. If thinking out of the box is more than another metaphor for you, you are ready for the future’s everyday work. An opportunity to look at problems from a different perspective rather than follow familiar rules will come in handy when facing future challenges. In a highly competitive environment, quality becomes the highlight for a business. An opportunity to detect the slightest drawbacks or the least likely scenarios that can break a system may become a game-changing factor. A QA specialist’s cognitive flexibility may be what helps to stand out and take a leading position.
Critical thinking
The overwhelming amount of information we are to deal with daily is likely to keep increasing. It will become even more important to distinguish between valuable insights and fake news. Critical thinking will help to keep a clear head, notice advantageous opportunities, and make correct strategic decisions in the future. Speaking specifically about QA engineers and their work routines, critical thinking will remain essential for smart prioritization and risk management.
Communication
We’ve already mentioned that communication skills are essential for QA specialists nowadays. While we expect the increase of automation and robotization across various industries, efficient collaboration and negotiation will become assets of even higher value. QA engineers will still need to communicate with developers closely and focus on releasing products of better quality.
Emotional intelligence
From empathic design to empathic banking, companies keep emphasizing how significant an ability to walk in a client’s shoes is. Understanding human beings who are going to use your products and services is key to creating exactly what the audience needs. It is especially important for quality assurance, the purpose of which is to help create usable and functional software products for vast audiences.
Creativity & innovation
The tech industry is driven by innovations. The future is likely to bring more extraordinary devices and applications. A specialist with a creative mindset will always have a competitive advantage. In fact, creativity isn’t always directly related to inventions. Being creative in quality assurance means, in particular, finding a way to work more efficiently and modeling a variety of typically occurring and unexpected use cases.
Complex problem solving
We expect known job positions to change at least a bit. New issues will require new approaches and solutions. In other words, a list of responsibilities and daily tasks of a QA engineer may go beyond software testing as we know it today. We are talking about a more balanced skill set that will come in handy since QA specialists will need to deal with more technically sophisticated tasks.
To Sum Up
For sure, hard skills make the backbone of a QA engineer’s skill set. However, soft skills are what often makes a person a valuable asset to a team. Usually, it is easier to teach entry-level specialists theory and take time to supervise their work than to foster and nurture the essential soft skills. In a perfect case, a QA specialist should have the hard and soft skills balanced and keep improving both.
We can’t be sure about what the future holds or how it will modify professions that exist nowadays. If you are a specialist eager to move with the times, follow the industry trends and do everything in your power to become a truly competent person. Keep learning and growing professionally, and you’ll be ready for whatever changes are to come.
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