Who is a freelance QA engineer: the top qualities

The dozens of software appear every day, so the testing direction is developing rapidly. Few years ago it was possible to get a job as a QA manager almost without knowledge and experience but in 2019 it`s more difficult to do so. We have compiled a list of key skills and abilities each QA should have.

Firstly, let's point out who QA engineer is. The work of the Quality Assurance engineer is not to check the quality (although this word is present in the job title) but to control the correctness of all the development implementation stages and the accuracy of the final product. In a broad sense, QA engineer monitors standards compliance in the programs' development, interacts with programmers, designers and customers, prevents bugs and errors appearance in software.

QA develops test scripts, manages the testing process itself, keeps documentation on the found errors, discusses improvements with all the development group, re-tests problem issues, controls development processes to avoid the recurrence of the same errors.

In fact, to become a QA, you do not need to know programming languages or database principles. The main thing is to have an idea about the structure of the software development process and to understand the testing process. For QAs it’s easy to work remotely with clients from all over the world and deal with projects due to their interests. But to be a good QA you need to have the next key skills:

• be patient, attentive and able to look at the same thing from different points of view — It's the most important

• be able to express your thoughts in the text clearly

• to be an experienced user of at least one of the OS

• know what user-story, check-list and test-case are, be able to compile them correctly

• understand what types of testing exist and when to apply each one

• know how to use a bug tracker and what browserstack is for

• understand the principles of client-server interaction

• be able to deal with the product without documentation, to sniff and modify traffic, to construct queries in Postman

• create emulators in Genymotion, Android Studio, Xcode

• understand what cross-platform applications are and how they differ from native ones

• understand the working principle and know the basic git commands

• know how to manage security testing for a mobile or web application

• use specialized software (SnagIt, Jing, Camtasia)

• be able to record video from the screen when screenshots cannot show the problem fully

• provide informative bugs check-lists (the points where errors were found should contain notes. In the notes you should indicate the number of the error and give its title, etc.)

The highest QA level is when you can read, understand and even edit the code in addition to all of the above. Seems hard? Yes, actually it is so. But don’t worry! Develop imagination — the ability to see wider and go beyond will make you more competitive, especially if you are not an experienced tester. And remember, there is a shortage of good QAs in IT, so you have great chances to get the work, just be proactive! Or you can always ask our freelance QA testing specialists for help.