The value of effective communication skills for QA specialists

Communication is a vital skill, and its quality directly impacts success at work. Let’s see how communication can advance the competencies of project teams, including QA experts, to reach set milestones on time.??

Regardless of the project development methodology, the voice of QA engineers and managers matters throughout the entire process. They meticulously assess every aspect of the software from technical, business, and end-user perspectives, representing the last frontier before the target audience receives the long-awaited IT products.?

An ability to explicitly express thoughts, conduct open discussions, clarify diverse aspects with developers and business analysts is worth its weight in gold, allowing for streamlined processes on the project and high-quality software solutions.??

In this article, I’ll focus on the value of impactful project communication and best practices for reaching this target.??

What effective communication brings to the table?

Professional speaking and writing skills are the cornerstone of ensuring that words will reach their destination, be processed correctly, and will contribute to cohesive teamwork and smooth testing processes.??

Let me emphasize the advantages of QA experts being able to interact seamlessly with both each other and diverse team members:?

1. Better quality control process. QA engineers who engage in productive discussions identify and rectify software issues quicker and spend less time on resolving questions or the creation of accurate testing artifacts. They also promptly identify and notify team members of risks jeopardizing the QA testing process, freely discuss the current testing strategy, and participate in release planning. This increases the quality of their working process, optimizes time on performing QA activities, and contributes to a more robust QA process. ?
2. Improved interaction with clients. All projects presuppose talking to clients, this may include planning or discussing priorities, requirements, identified issues, and many other aspects. Therefore, it’s important to stick to a formal style (unless the relationships allow other variations) and avoid complicated technical language to convey thoughts in a simple yet productive way. This approach enhances the accuracy of communication and contributes to a more effective execution of project tasks. ?
3. Well-organized knowledge transfer. Sharing expertise requires a strong ability to explain difficult technical notions to ensure they are fully grasped by new team members. While communicating professionally, an experienced QA engineer can ensure that the client’s specific project needs, complexities of the software architecture and essence are fully understood and considered during the knowledge transfer process.??
4. Enhanced reporting. Accurate, detailed, and clear written language by QA experts enhances the quality of testing reports, contributing to quicker and simpler fixes. Well-established written communication also improves the effectiveness of build reporting. It provides stakeholders with increased visibility into the impact of issues and build quality analytics.? ?
5. Efficient problem-solving. Smooth interaction between QA specialists and developers, business analysts, product owners, or project stakeholders can increase the speed of addressing issues and ensure swift and in-depth provision of QA expertise required for performing project tasks. ?

High cost of neglecting communication skills?

A lack of professional and effective interaction between project members can lead to overall confusion, conflicts, decreased satisfaction and generate a range of major concerns, namely:?

• Productivity issues. When teammates don’t interact clearly, chances are high that some tasks may be executed twice, missed, or that priority of tasks may not be considered, leading to further rework, postponing of deadlines, decreased software quality, increased level of stress within teams, and higher operational expenditure.?
• Lost innovation potential. When project members don’t communicate their ideas for IT product improvements, stakeholders can miss an opportunity to advance software functionality with novel features or enhancement of current ones.??
• Trust issues. Be it personal or work relationships, it’s difficult to build trust without consistent and open communication. What colleagues say and how they say it is vital to fostering a cohesive business environment. Without advancing social competencies, being respectful, and showing empathy, the workplace may turn into a toxic and hard to survive environment.?

Advice on enhancing communication quality??

To prevent such negative consequences from happening, we need to generate effective discussions to improve overall team productivity and morale, therefore, QA specialists as well as other project members can bear in mind the following tips:?

1. Be a good listener?

Before getting involved in a dispute or while discussing working activities, challenges, and concerns, it’s vital to give the floor to other colleagues, focus on their words without any interruptions, and consider non-verbal body language. This combined approach helps to fully grasp the essence of the discussed information, make sure that you respect your colleagues so they feel appreciated and can rely on having their voice heard. ?

2. Do not feel ashamed to ask questions?

Asking clarifying questions is a perfect way to avoid any misunderstanding or ambiguity during a conversation and helps make sure a specialist grasps the essence of the project task correctly, which avoids the probability of any process- and technical-related issues in the future. In addition, this skill demonstrates a person’s curiosity, willingness to learn and practice active listening.? ?

3. Resolve conflicts constructively?

Conflict resolution is a valuable skill, although it takes time to develop. As humans, we may often perceive conflicts as something hazardous and try to protect ourselves by either demonstrating aggressive behavior or running away. Of course, both variants are unacceptable if we want to address problems rather than accumulate them.??

Therefore, project members should stay patient and respectful, avoid raising their voice, focus on identifying the issue and generating ways to overcome it, and do not forget to always hear from all parties of the conflict. ?

4. Structure your meetings?

To run meetings so as to reach set goals, solve issues, and keep everyone informed about a project’s progress, it’s important for team members to always stick to a set agenda and time limits, involve only essential people, encourage others to participate and express ideas rather than keep silence, and take summary of a meeting and action items to further fulfill them.???

5. Cultivate a positive corporate culture?

The culture within a company directly impacts the way employees interact with each other. Open-minded managers and team leaders should try to foster free and open communication, share ideas, highlight transparency, and always note the merits and accomplishments of team members. This helps ensure team happiness, mutual respect, and trust.??

Final note?

Jonh Powell once said:

“Communication works for those who work at it.”

I can’t agree more. When people can accurately convey their thoughts and respect interlocutors, the best solutions to the problems can be found.??

Therefore, I suggest that all project team members do not forget to listen carefully to each other, clarify information if needed, show patience while undergoing through conflict situations, work on the way they perform during meetings, and consider corporate culture.??