A Day in the Life of a QA Engineer

A day in the life of a QA engineer is not really that different from that of a software developer. Each company you work for has its own style. Some may have an independent QA team, almost acting as external consultants to the development teams. Some may have just one or two people doing quality control throughout the company. The best have quality assurance staff built into each and every development team.

Scrum Meetings:

At my company, we are becoming more agile. Like most iterative companies, we meet every morning for a scrum meeting, also known as a stand-up, that is, whatever you want to call the morning meeting. This is the forum for everyone to report on what they have been up to, what the plan is for the day, and if we have had any issues. Likewise, if someone else has questions about work, this is a great place to ask them! If any discussion seems to take longer than a minute or two, we'll save it for later so that everyone can finish their status report and get on with the compilation task.

Teamwork:

The rest of the day could depend on where we are in the sprint. By working with the business analyst, I can clarify the requirements and acceptance criteria for each story or task that developers need to work on. Developers are great resources for making sure I understand how we're hitting the mark. These discussions can clear up any missing requirements or misunderstandings early on, saving a lot of effort.

Testing Stuff:

With my new knowledge, I will create or update test cases. We are building an automation framework, so testing will most likely be manual first and will join the backlog pending the transition to automation. Then as you can guess, I spend my time doing manual testing or, best of all, I continue to develop our automation and transition from our manual tests (in order of priority) to automated tests. Sometimes tests fail and I will have to talk to the task developer about where the problem is, or if the error is due to something different, I will open a new problem to incorporate into our workload.

I'll see where I am against the goals I've set for quality improvement, whether that's increasing the percentage of tests. I've automated or reducing the number of errors that get out of hand and reach the customer.

Other Stuff:

Sprinkled everywhere, I could have one-on-one meetings with my director or with the other engineers who report to me. Sometimes I'll be more directly involved with a software pilot program and have status calls with our clients to make sure we're on the same page and making them the best possible product.

Rewarding Work:

I went to school to be a software developer before I found QA. I love QA and it's nice to eliminate the coding problem by writing test scripts. I work with a group of like-minded geeks, from various departments of the company. At lunchtime, we usually get together and relax our brains with food and a board game. There are a surprising number of games that you can play in less than an hour, especially when everyone is at least technically minded.

Conclusion:

There is nothing more satisfying in my job than throwing a product into nature and watching it flourish. It's a great field to be in. No matter what product you are working on, you are improving people's lives by reducing the problems they have to deal with in their day. Depending on the product, you may well be saving lives by encountering problems and preventing them from reaching production. It's a great industry to work in and a challenging and enjoyable role to play.