Quality Assurance

dinneenp

Hi,

Quality Assurance is a job in big demand atm. For anyone that's currently in QA could you answer any of these please-

- I understand the general role but what exactly does a QA do on a typical day & how (e.g. in front of a computer, on the floor, meetings etc.)

- is the job repetitive or varied?

- if happy to divulge, what's rough starting salary & how quickly does this have the ability to increase?

- anything else to note?

Thanks.

Risingshadoo

I have worked in QA for several years. I don't want to discourage you, but my impression from industry is that developers/ and to some extent management just looks down on QA, like it's second class to feature development.

That being said. The remuneration is good (but less than Devs - another thing that drives me crazy). With a few years experience you can command a salary of 60-70 K in Dublin.at least.

In terms of day to day work, if your a manual tester, you can sit about a lot waiting for Devs to finish their coding, then you probably will pile into a few features a day or two before they're due, creating a lot of pressure on yourself.

Automation testing is a bit better if you're exclusively doing that, but you will still be looked upon as a second class citizen. Which can be frustrating when you really care about quality.

I'm not sure how long it takes to be a QA lead. Maybe about 8- 10 years? And even then you'll still be the point of blame when some.lazy ass developer messes up. Haha.

Welcome to QA brother. Them softwares is not gonna test themselves.

dinneenp

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,

Quality Assurance is a job in big demand atm.

Where are you seeing this?

I would have expected the opposite to be true with more agile deliveries and different ways of development, but wouldn't know enough to say for certain.

Snow Garden

Nobody should be doing manual QA testing anymore. That's an archaic practice. As a team if you cannot automate your testing, you are doing something wrong.

I was under the assumption that if you have a QA team at all, you are doing something wrong.

Test driven development, unit testing was supposed to ensure quality for the most part.

But it's been a while since I had to deal with any of that.

Kilboor

It's important to distinguish that quality assurance currently has two different meanings in the job world.

One is your IT software tester (manual or automated).

The other is your Pharma/Life sciences/Manufacturing quality assurance specialist which is not a traditional software testing job.

I can't speak about the latter but I currently work as the former (IT software tester) and I can say that both manual and automated testers are in high demand. As other posters have pointed out, there is a massive push to fully automated testing with both automated testers and unit testing from developers. However manual testers are still needed and often there is cross training being a manual tester with understanding of automated processes, BDD and certain scrum master elements too.

This has been as a result of the adoption of BDD (Behaviour driven development) practices within workplaces in order to ensure more efficient delivery, expectations and quality of final products and requirements.

Manual testing is a job that pays well however there is always work to be done and the scope of testing can be huge and seemingly neverending. Thankfully BDD is moving a lot of this laborous integration and regression test writing and execution to automation, yet the importance of manual remains in terms of ad-hoc, explatory, UI, and general application understanding as a whole.

I will say that I don't find it a fulfilling job at all. I'm not someone who is code logically inclined but am trying to upskill in automation at the moment. I would look at learning automation, security, and/or performance testing and you'll work your way up the testing ladder very quick. Pay is extremely generous for these skills.

For me however the output of work from a tester is completely unfulfilling as I said and it is an area I want to move away from in future.

Liamo57

Its a no job, like Health & Safety and HR. Mostly populated by wnaekrs who become prize wnakers as they get okder Get a real job working with real people where pretence is not part of the job

Risingshadoo

salonfire wrote: »

Where are you seeing this?

I would have expected the opposite to be true with more agile deliveries and different ways of development, but wouldn't know enough to say for certain.

QA will always be in demand, because developers don't want to do testing.

Risingshadoo

Liamo57 wrote: »

Its a no job, like Health & Safety and HR. Mostly populated by wnaekrs who become prize wnakers as they get okder Get a real job working with real people where pretence is not part of the job

You must be a developer. Haha.

dinneenp

salonfire wrote: »

Where are you seeing this?

I would have expected the opposite to be true with more agile deliveries and different ways of development, but wouldn't know enough to say for certain.

I was talking more Pharma. Many companies in Galway & QA jobs mentioned at last years Job Fair

dinneenp

dinneenp wrote: »

I was talking more Pharma. Many companies in Galway & QA jobs mentioned at last years Job Fair

Ah OK.

Don't look at Software QA as anything other than a stepping stone into IT if you are so inclined.

I just looked up a salary guide and the pay is not great which is why I was surprised by earlier comments on this thread. Expect €40,000 - €55,000 which is not great for Dublin. A little more for automation tester.

Pharma QA you would need the relevant qualification as well I would imagine? Unlike software QA.

OMM 0000

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,

Quality Assurance is a job in big demand atm. For anyone that's currently in QA could you answer any of these please-

- I understand the general role but what exactly does a QA do on a typical day & how (e.g. in front of a computer, on the floor, meetings etc.)

- is the job repetitive or varied?

- if happy to divulge, what's rough starting salary & how quickly does this have the ability to increase?

- anything else to note?

Thanks.

I managed QA (manual and automation) for years so I can give some insight.

Typical QA day - manual tester

Stroll into work before 10, get yourself a tea and have a chat with the lads.

Sit at your desk and check your e-mail. Respond to anything which needs a response.

Have a look at which bugs have been assigned to you. Pick one.

Replicate the bug and then install the patch to make sure it's fixed. Do some sanity testing around the area to make sure nothing is broken. Make sure nothing else has broken.

Either bounce the bug back to development or close it.

If you're senior you might be responsible for doing releases.

Meetings tend to be either discussing new features or talking about any issues.

It's a chilled job.

Typical QA day - automation tester

Check the results of last nights run.

Log any bugs if issues were found.

Further develop the framework and make new tests.

Kick off an automation run.

Also a chilled job.

Is the job repetitive or varied?

Manual testing is repetitive, automation testing is varied as you're a developer.

If happy to divulge, what's rough starting salary & how quickly does this have the ability to increase?

I'm a bit out of the loop on this. But I can tell you it will improve quickly if you can get some automation experience under your wing.

In general QA is very well paid considering how chilled it is.

Anything else to note?

It's a thankless role.

It's very much "shoot the messenger" - you somehow get blamed for finding bugs which delay a release.

It's completely misunderstood - people don't understand you are only reporting on quality, you are not making quality.

QA as done by most companies doesn't make sense. QA should be overseeing everything - specs and development, not just stuck on at the end of the process.

Don't become a QA engineer. You'll get stuck in it.

OMM 0000

Btw don't listen to the people saying no one should be doing manual QA. They are misunderstanding what automation can do.

biko

dinneenp wrote: »

Quality Assurance is a job in big demand atm. For anyone that's currently in QA could you answer any of these please-

dinneenp wrote: »

I was talking more Pharma.

I think several posts could have been saved if it was clear from the outset which you meant


A friend of mine is a pharmaceutical quality assurance person and likes it.
Really, what is boils down to - does the product meet the requirements?
Some answers might be found here https://www.getreskilled.com/what-is-a-quality-assurance-associate/

OMM 0000

Ah jaysus just saw it's about Pharma!!

The OP confirmed it is pharma QA he is asking about.

I don't imagine the two roles are interchangeable and that the entry criteria to pharma QA much stricter, ie having the relevant qualification

biko

Yes, my friend had to study a lot of ISO (international standards organisation) papers and get certified.

antimatterx

Risingshadoo wrote: »

That being said. The remuneration is good (but less than Devs - another thing that drives me crazy). With a few years experience you can command a salary of 60-70 K in Dublin.at least..

Not to downplay the role of QA (It's crucial), but creating applications is a harder job then writing software. I'd be pissed if the person testing my code was getting paid more than me.

Creamy Goodness

antimatterx wrote: »

Not to downplay the role of QA (It's crucial), but creating applications is a harder job then writing software. I'd be pissed if the person testing my code was getting paid more than me.

Writing software is easy anyone with a laptop can do it. Writing great, well documented, easy debuggable and maintainable software is hard. The same can be said for QA.

One thing I've learnt over the years is that just because someone is getting paid more than you doesn't mean you're bad at your job or they're "worth" more, it's just they're a better negotiator at hiring/review times.

antimatterx

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Writing software is easy anyone with a laptop can do it. Writing great, well documented, easy debuggable and maintainable software is hard. The same can be said for QA.

One thing I've learnt over the years is that just because someone is getting paid more than you doesn't mean your bad at your job or they're "worth" more, it's just they're a better negotiator at hiring/review times.

Ah come off it . Anyone with a laptop can't code/write software.

Creamy Goodness

antimatterx wrote: »

Ah come off it . Anyone with a laptop can't code/write software.

Right that's why these initiatives have been a complete failure
https://coderdojo.com

https://girlswhocode.com

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/your-money/some-people-learn-to-code-in-their-60s-70s-or-80s.html

(just to name a few).

Just because they aren't being paid or make a living out of it, doesn't mean they can't code.

OMM 0000

Most people can't code, or at least can't write good, maintainable code, so I agree with this:

Writing great, well documented, easy debuggable and maintainable software is hard.

Even most programmers can't do this.

CBear1993

OMM 0000 wrote: »

I managed QA (manual and automation) for years so I can give some insight.

Typical QA day - manual tester

Stroll into work before 10, get yourself a tea and have a chat with the lads.

Sit at your desk and check your e-mail. Respond to anything which needs a response.

Have a look at which bugs have been assigned to you. Pick one.

Replicate the bug and then install the patch to make sure it's fixed. Do some sanity testing around the area to make sure nothing is broken. Make sure nothing else has broken.

Either bounce the bug back to development or close it.

If you're senior you might be responsible for doing releases.

Meetings tend to be either discussing new features or talking about any issues.

It's a chilled job.

Typical QA day - automation tester

Check the results of last nights run.

Log any bugs if issues were found.

Further develop the framework and make new tests.

Kick off an automation run.

Also a chilled job.

Is the job repetitive or varied?

Manual testing is repetitive, automation testing is varied as you're a developer.

If happy to divulge, what's rough starting salary & how quickly does this have the ability to increase?

I'm a bit out of the loop on this. But I can tell you it will improve quickly if you can get some automation experience under your wing.

In general QA is very well paid considering how chilled it is.

Anything else to note?

It's a thankless role.

It's very much "shoot the messenger" - you somehow get blamed for finding bugs which delay a release.

It's completely misunderstood - people don't understand you are only reporting on quality, you are not making quality.

QA as done by most companies doesn't make sense. QA should be overseeing everything - specs and development, not just stuck on at the end of the process.

Don't become a QA engineer. You'll get stuck in it.

I know this is a pharma thread, and you only realised it after typing this.

BUt that's quite a good insight.

What degree would you have done for this role in IT, and how many years epxerience before you make decent money at it? Isn't there long hours?

OMM 0000

CBear1993 wrote: »

What degree would you have done for this role in IT, and how many years epxerience before you make decent money at it? Isn't there long hours?

Most QA people I know did not study computer science. Thinking about it, most of them had things like an Arts degree + IT postgrad.

QA is more about a mentality. Are you checking the software is OK, or are you trying to break it (latter is better)? Do you feel happy when you can't find any bugs, or does it make you feel uncomfortable (latter is better)? You need good communication skills and you need to be confident.

Having technical skills of course is useful but I've hired non-technical QA people in the past because I thought they had the right mentality.

Money can be quite good. I'm a little out of the loop as I don't manage QA anymore but I remember people with 10 years experience getting 60k+. That would have been 10 years ago. It's difficult to hit 100k though, even as a QA manager.

Hours are only long when you're trying to get a release out the door. Generally, the ****ter the development team the longer hours you'll need to work.