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It seems that not too long ago, the average QA professional was expected to write some manual test cases, repetitively run through them, document results, and call the job done. While that’s an extremely simplified version of what we did, the point is that the expectations of QA have changed dramatically over the years.

As individuals have become more technically inclined and technology continues to evolve, so has the average QA professional. Managers have demanded faster results, so new tools have been developed and new methods of testing have been designed and employed.

In the last 5-10 years – the last 5 in particular – QA and development, two disciplines that have historically been very separate and distinct, have started merging together. Developers do more testing now, particularly automated testing, and testers have more coding skills. In fact, testing that has traditionally been in the realm of developers is now being undertaken by QA, such as API testing.

In addition to that, automated testing has forced QA professionals to update their skillset and learn a bit of coding, if not become developers in their own right. While some automated tools have a point and click interface to create test scripts, many require that testers know how to write some degree of code. The better they are at coding, the better the automated tests can become and the faster they can be developed and maintained.

Having development skills is certainly a boon, but a QA pro must keep the mindset and training of a tester. This means that in addition to learning coding skills, they must continue to train and learn how to use those skills specifically for testing, keep updated on new testing methods, and always maintain the ability to view the application from an end-user’s perspective.

What are the major shifts you’ve seen in recent years with regard to Software QA? Do you feel all of the changes are for the better?

About the Author

The author, Ruslan Desyatnikov, is the CEO & Founder of QA Mentor. He created QA Mentor to fill the gap he has witnessed in QA service providers during his near 20 years in QA. With Ruslan’s guidance, unique services and methodologies were developed at QA Mentor to aid clients in their QA difficulties while still offering a high ROI. Ruslan offers monthly seminars aimed at imparting his extensive testing knowledge that can be applied to start-ups as well as large companies. To learn more about QA Mentor and testing services please visit www.qamentor.com or contact Ruslan directly by sending email to rdesyatnikov@qamentor.com