Top 5 Challenges of a QA Tester: Day #2

Many people do not understand what QA does or how we do it. Testing is thought to be just “common sense” and there is much belief that anyone can do it. Although it is in your best interest to keep your testing as simple as possible, as you have learned throughout these courses, “common sense” is only the beginning.

Challenge #2:
Ignorance About QA

When asked about your methodology regarding the testing you perform, explain as simply and clearly as possible the reasons for your testing, the steps you will (and do) take to complete the testing, and what information your testing will yield. Then deliver a report that shows this.

Reports to summarize your testing should show:

• What you did
• What the outcome was
• What that outcome means

In this way you will help others understand what they want and need to know about what you do. You will help assure them that you do your job professionally by delivering quality results.

Even if others have no desire to understand the details of what you do, delivering your results with an explanation will help them make decisions that need to be made when prioritizing issues affecting the project.

They will be able to make those decisions in an educated and informed manner. This is necessary to build a trust that QA is doing the right things and adding value to the project.

Another area of value that a true Quality Assurance Professional brings to the table is the ability and desire to ask the right questions. Since I have covered this point in some detail in the 10 Skills of Elite Testers course, you should already know how and why this skill is helpful. Unfortunately, this an area of expertise that real Quality Assurance Professionals offer is often overlooked by many companies.

It is very inexpensive to include QA during the planning and design phases of a project. In fact, it would save companies a great deal of expense in the long run if they made a policy of doing so. Why? Because QA would ask the questions that others overlook.

This means that potential bugs could be averted in the design phase, before a line of code is ever written. How does QA do this? By mastering the skill of being able to ask the right “what if..?” questions.

Where else can this skill be applied preventatively? In documentation review. No matter the depth or completeness of the documentation; whether it is single-sentence use cases or highly detailed marketing and production requirements, having QA review documentation before the project is being coded can save a company a great deal of money.

Why is that? Because a properly trained Quality Assurance Professional can identify bugs in the documentation. A bug that is found in the documentation is much cheaper to fix than a bug in the code.

An elite-level Quality Assurance Professional has developed the skill to be able to prevent bugs from ever being coded. They can point out where the documentation is lacking, in conflict, or just wrong or impossible. When allowed to help in this way, QA increases the odds that a project will stay on-track and get to market on time because proper planning was invested initially.

Why don’t companies do this? Honestly, I’m not certain. It would seem to be a no-brainer. But I have witnessed a few reasons that might dissuade companies from engaging in this preventative behavior.

The company does not trust, or perhaps respect, QA. This goes back to Challenge #1. There are many valid reasons for this lack of trust and respect. If I didn’t trust someone, I would not include them during the planning phase of my project.

Also, in their haste to get a product to market, many companies sacrifice spending adequate time on planning. Thinking that they have planned “enough” a company will try to decrease their time to market by hurrying up and getting started. Their belief seems to be that the sooner they start, the sooner they will finish.

If they spent the proper resources planning their project, they would show a decrease in their time to market, a smoother and more measureable project pace, higher quality product, and a more fulfilled workforce. So again, why don’t they do this?

To be fair, there are companies that do, indeed, execute their projects this way. They are, however, the exception…not the rule.

Mostly companies don’t indulge in this behavior because they don’t understand how QA can help. They are ignorant of what QA brings to the table other than the ability to test.

As you have seen, actual testing is only part of what a Software Quality Assurance Professional does. And this course is focused on you, the tester, the person that spends the most time testing. Once you are leading a team of testers, you will have even more duties to attend to…but that is for a different course.

The Challenge that you must overcome in this scenario is that the company won’t know all of the valuable skills you bring to the game. You must develop your skills and then find or create opportunities to show how those skills can be most effectively utilized. That is your Challenge. They don’t know what you can do, so you will have to educate them.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
~Douglas Adams