Do you know who a QA tester is? What are the QA tester’s jobs, and how do remote QA testers work? Here in this QA testers ultimate guide, I will explain a quality assurance tester, remote QA testers’ job, how to become a QA tester, and the benefits of being a remote quality assurance tester.

QA testers are the persons who are responsible for ensuring the quality of your software, game, mobile, desktop, e-commerce applications, etc. In a word, quality assurance testers go through the testing process for the quality assurance of a web product or application.

To know more, read the QA testers ultimate guide carefully. You will find all the relevant questions and answers in the QA testers guide.

Who is a QA Tester?

Do you want to start your career as a quality assurance tester? Or you may be up to hiring QA testers. You must know who a QA tester is. For this reason, I will inform you of the introduction of Quality Assurance testers in my QA ultimate guide right now.

Quality Assurance testers are responsible for ensuring that your product perfectly meets the pre-fixed requirements and is ready to fulfill your target audience’s demands.

Remote quality assurance testers work for various projects such as mobile app development, web development, software development, communication networks, game development, e-commerce app development, or a web platform, etc.

Before handing over a product to its target audience, client, or customer, the product should be checked that it can satisfy the audience and meet their expectations, right?

So, the remote QA testers team confirms in every stage of the development that the product is user-friendly and bug-free, and all other qualities are ensured.

Besides, a quality assurance tester is also responsible for finding flaws, tracing error sources, and problem-solving independently.

So, in short, a QA tester is a person who works with the development team to ensure the product’s quality and run various tests for assurance.

Dig deep into my QA testers guide to know more about quality assurance testers.

QA Testers Vs. QA Engineers

You have already understood who a QA tester is from this QA testers ultimate guide. But there is another person related to quality assurance. Who is he?

He is a Quality Assurance Engineer.

So what is the contrast between quality assurance testers and quality assurance engineers?

Now I will explain to you the basic differences between the QA testers and the QA engineers in my quality assurance guide. These differences are:

Quality Assurance TestersQuality Assurance Engineers
IntroductionQA testers are the persons who work to ensure the quality of a web product.QA engineers are the persons who work in a wide range with the responsibility of ensuring the quality of web products.
ResponsibilityThe main responsibility of a QA tester is to find bugs and run tests.QA engineers are responsible for knowing code and developing automation by contributing to a framework or creating one.
Work-areaQA testers work only for the selected area for what they are assigned.QA engineers work on the whole product, not only the selected testing.
Table 01: Differences Between QA Testers and QA Engineers

Common Duties of a QA Tester

A quality assurance tester’s duties are diverse. It depends on the particular project they are assigned. If you are wondering about quality assurance testers, you must know their common duties. So, I will reveal some common QA testers’ common tasks in the QA testers ultimate guide.

Some general tasks commonly performed by QA testers are given below:

  • Designing test plans
  • Documenting test progress and results
  • Calculating risk
  • Writing code for automated tests
  • Finding software bugs and glitches
  • Setting quality standards
  • Designing procedures for product testing
  • Performing manual testing
  • Researching new testing processes and technologies
  • Understanding and analyzing product features
  • Driving efficiency and innovation
  • Identifying and isolating errors and failures
  • Reviewing user interfaces and feedback

Though there is various kind of Quality Assurance experts depending on the project or product, an experienced QA consultant must be proficient in some kinds of quality assurance testing, including:

Advantages of a QA Tester Profession

You can mark the QA industry as relatively young. Especially in the last decade, the demand for quality software has emerged through the persistent trend of digital transformation. And today, from large to small, that means businesses of all sizes are hiring QA testers to improve their software product quality.

That’s why being a quality assurance tester has become a great career now. Besides QA testers, the QA industry provides many career options. The traditional QA career drives a professional from a junior testing specialist to a QA lead. Moreover, there are other options, too, such as business analysis, software development, management, etc.

There are a lot of benefits of choosing a QA tester profession or career. I will describe these advantages in this quality assurance testers ultimate guide. So, these benefits are:

  • Challenging Profession
  • Important Career
  • Creative Career
  • Data-driven
  • Constant Learning
  • Demanding Profession
  • Many Paths Option
  • Specialized skill
  • Rewarding
  • Strong community

What are the Responsibilities of QA Testers?

Quality Assurance consultants perform some specific responsibilities before launching your product. But it is not the same as product testing. These responsibilities might help you understand the importance of hiring Quality Assurance testers.

Here are the key responsibilities of QA experts:

  • Identifying the client’s needs and implementing software testing methods to satisfy the client’s requirements.
  • Developing well-structured QA testing plans that are effective.
  • Collaborate with all parties involved in product development to provide better solutions.
  • Designing and developing testing scripts for every stage of product software development.
  • Developing quality calculating metrics for every product development and lifecycle stage.
  • Identifying any resulting or potential software bugs resolves them.
  • Documenting any bugs and operations that are not in line with how the software is supposed to operate.
  • Ensuring the software testing tools and strategies are up to date and are suited for a thorough test of the project under development.
  • Establishing a QA process, conducting functional testing, and retesting fixed defects.

Types of QA Testers

There are various kinds of quality assurance testers. Here, in this QA testers ultimate guide, I include the common types of quality assurance testers. These are:

  • eCommerce QA Tester
  • Game QA Testers
  • Web QA Testers
  • Mobile QA Testers
  • VR QA Testers
  • AR QA Testers
  • Software QA Tester
  • App QA Tester
  • Regression QA Testers
  • Manual QA Tester
  • Functional QA Testers
  • Load Test QA Engineers
  • Performance QA Testers
  • Compatibility QA Testers
  • Localization QA Testers
  • Usability QA Testers
  • Integration QA Testers
  • GUI QA Testers
  • CX QA Testers
  • Conversion QA Testers
  • IoT Software QA Testers
  • IoT App QA Testers
  • Desktop App QA Testers

Quality Assurance Testers Skills

Must Have Skills of a QA Tester Article
Figure 01: Must Have Skills of a QA Tester Article

When the applications begin to arrive for your QA tester position, you must carefully analyze them. That’s how you can find the professional that fits your business needs best.

A right QA tester must have some skills that will make him fit for the work he will be assigned.

Quality assurance testers must have two types of skills. These are:

  • Soft skill
  • Hard skill

Soft Skill

There are some soft skills necessary for quality assurance testers. Soft skills are not related to technical skills but how you work. How to interact with clients, his attitude according to a new problem, and how to solve the issues determine soft skills.

The major soft skills that must confirm when hiring quality assurance experts are:

  • Critical thinking skills
  • Communication skills
  • Collaboration and teamwork skills
  • Adaptable and flexible
  • Open-mindedness

Critical Thinking Skills

A Quality Assurance tester must have the skill to consider the product from customers’ perspectives.

You have to find a QA company that will provide you with QA testers who can critically examine potential issues, investigate them from all perspectives, and think outside the box when looking for solutions.

Effective Communication Skills

The quality assurance engineers you will hire must have outstanding communication skills. Since they have to collaborate with your company’s developers and production team, effective communication skills are necessary. They will need to express accurately any problems they find and then define the situation to developers and the rest of the team.

Collaboration and Teamwork Skills

As mentioned above, the quality assurance testers will work alongside other team members to help run through the program to look for particular issues. They must work well with the other team members, listen to their perspectives and concerns, and do their part to create an efficient, cooperative team. Quality assurance testers will be active listeners.

Adaptable and Flexible

Hiring an adaptive quality assurance engineer is very important. The sooner he adapts to the environment and your other team, customer needs and market requirements, testing method, and strategies, the better it will be for your product.

Open-mindedness

The objective of moving a software product to the next level is to make it unique and benefit the end users effectively. However, Quality Assurance experts should have a sharp eye for attention to detail.

That means they must look at the product from different aspects and look for improvement areas and possible issues. They should retain the creativity to invent new ways of using the product and improve testing methods to secure that the product’s end quality exceeds the set standards.

Hard Skill

Soft skills are the same for every product, whereas hard skills can vary depending on the software product under development.

For example, an android app QA tester should have a thorough knowledge of user experience (UX), Java, and other related technical skills of app development.

Also, he needs to be qualified as a suitable QA expert for a particular task. Quality Assurance experts should have extensive knowledge of the field and experience in creating and, for automation QAs designing similar software.

However, here are universal must-have hard skills for any quality checker:

  • A thorough acquaintance and knowledge of different testing techniques.
  • Up to date with industry-standard methods and tools for product testing.
  • Business-oriented to ensure that the test strategy will align with the project requirements.
  • Comprehend the business objectives to carry out the testing approach effectively.
  • Understand the project management tools
  • Effective performance within the required time frame.

Extra Skills

Some other extra skills make a quality assurance checker an expert.

These are:

  • Proficient in programming languages for coding script writing.
  • Well-versed in agile and DevOps methodologies.
  • Expertise in the use of current testing tools.
  • Effectively use automated tests to confirm a high-quality product.

QA Testers Tools

You must be able to assume that for quality assurance, QA Testers must use some tools. Although they run manual testing, the remote QA testers need some automated tools too. So, what tools do QA testers use?

There are six essential QA tools used by quality assurance testers. I am representing these QA tools in my QA testers ultimate guide. See the followings:

  • Project Strategy – Microsoft Word.
  • Project/Sprint Planning – Jira.
  • Communication – Slack, Microsoft Teams, Yammer.
  • Document Repository – SharePoint.
  • Test Repository & Defect Management – JIRA.
  • Automation Tools – Jenkins, Selenium, Cucumber, Java.

I intend to add the most used QA tools by the remote QA testers in this QA tester’s ultimate guide. These are:

  • Appium.
  • Eggplant.
  • Watir.
  • Tosca.
  • Testsigma.
  • Rational Functional Tester.
  • Unified Functional Tester.
  • Testim.
  • Applitools.
  • QTP
  • Cross Browser Testing Tools
  • Selenium
  • LambdaTest
  • Zephyr Scale
  • XRAY etc.

What are the Services QA Testers Usually Provide?

Quality assurance testers usually provide the following services. Explore the list according to your requirements from here:

How to Become a QA Tester?

If you are willing to boost your career as a quality assurance tester professionally, you have to go through some processes. In my quality assurance testers ultimate guide, I will provide you with some essential tips on how to become a QA tester.

These are:

  • Identify who you want to work with
  • Pursue a high-quality technical training
  • Earn certifications and recommendations
  • Learn the tools of the trade
  • Don’t neglect your soft skills

Identify the Potential Companies You Want to Work with

Before getting into the remote QA tester profession, research your potential clients or the companies you want to work with. Find the requirements and skills you need to acquire to join them. 

Pursue a High-Quality Technical Training

Academic qualifications are not always required in QA. You will be surprised to know the maximum time your potential clients will ask for technical testing after interviewing you. For that task, you must go through some common languages used in applications and software tools, for example:

  • Java
  • C#
  • Python
  • C
  • Go
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • Ruby
  • Unix scripting etc.

Earn Certifications and Recommendations

Try to earn certifications issued by professional associations. You can pursue specific certifications from testing software manufacturers. You can follow these three organizations for the certification you need:

  • Association for Software Testing
  • Society of Quality Assurance
  • International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB)

Learn the Tools of the Trade

Always try to learn the tools of the trade and the common applications related to your work. For doing so, you need to recognize some testing-related software. These are:

  • Test automation frameworks
  • Bug tracking tools
  • Test management software

Don’t Neglect Your Soft Skills

I am suggesting you focus on your hard skills. But remember, do not neglect your soft skills. To become successful in your remote quality assurance testers career, learn how to effectively cooperate with your clients, production team, and other team members. Always maintain your work ethic and increase your communication skills.

Conclusion

Quality assurance is mandatory in every work of your life. The need for QA testers is as much as the requirement for quality assurance. So, the importance of quality assurance tests is not as simple as described in a single article. Moreover, there are career opportunities. That’s why young professionals are more likely to join their careers as quality assurance testers. It was a small effort from my end to represent all necessary data in this quality assurance testers ultimate guide. I will be amazed to hear from you.

QA Testers FAQs

People interested in quality assurance testers frequently ask some questions. Now I am adding these FAQs to my QA testers ultimate guide:

Is QA Tester a Good Career?

Yes, a quality assurance tester is a good career. Besides, it is a well-paying job. At an entry level, a QA tester can earn between $45,000 to $65,000 in a year.

How do I become a QA tester with no experience?

For starting your job as a quality assurance tester (QA tester) with no experience, you need to include a computer-related degree in your knowledge. This can be the ability to undergo technical training or computer coding skills etc.

What is a QA tester in tech?

QA testers work to ensure high-quality and standard products in all sorts of industries, from food to medical devices. But In the tech world, Quality Assurance testers focus on software or application testing.

Is QA testing easy?

Since QA testing is not code intensive, you can learn it easily. There are some common coding you have to understand but not to the same extent as a software or web developer. You can attend the Software QA test training, which usually takes six to ten weeks.

Does QA require coding?

A QA tester works with the software developer. He does not require to learn as much code as the software developer. But QA testers may need to learn common coding languages for their work.

Is a QA tester an entry-level job?

A QA tester job usually consists of 0 – 3 years of relevant industry experience. The responsibilities of this entry-level job are: 
1. Test plans
2. Test cases
3. Test reports etc.

This page was last edited on 17 December 2023, at 1:33 pm