QA tester: a career path that's still largely unregulated
"It's very complicated because it's still a little-known profession. We often hear about developers and project management, but not about all the other jobs there could be, such as tester, product owner or UI/UX, for example," explains Arnaud Walet, QA manager at . Blue Soft Group.
At present, there are no schools or training courses as such for QA testers, which unfortunately limits the number of candidates. However, the QA testing dimension can be found in the development profession. Certifications are nevertheless available.
But what is a QA Manager? We explain.
Certifications not just for QA testing
No diploma, but a certification: you can take the ISTQB Foundation level, the first level to certify your position as an agile tester.
You don't have to be a developer to be a tester. However, developers can make good testers. Their knowledge of the nuts and bolts of development enables them to better identify the critical points of an application.
So, when it comes to writing automated tests, it's imperative to rely on the developers involved in the automation project, to ensure that the project works optimally.
"Generally speaking, testers are often people who have seen, done or already have a notion of testing. Purely application testing, QA testing or even, like me, people who have seen quality control, in a factory for example. Testing a tool, comparing it and checking the results against a reference system, that's the kind of profile we're looking for. For my part, I used to calibrate aeronautical parts, aircraft engines. So I started with quality control of parts, which I then applied to a different field, namely web applications", explains our QA manager.
The soft skills of a QA tester
A QA tester needs to be logical and pragmatic. The QA team will have to test to see what works, but above all to find out what doesn't. ➡️ Discover tools for testing your application development and sprints
But above all, a QA tester needs to have empathy. He or she will inevitably have to stand behind a team of developers. So it's essential to know how to smooth things over and point out what's going well and what's not. Above all, don't forget that you're on the same team. And as a test team, there's bound to come a time when you'll need to rely on the developers. "Because they don't need a test team to push their code. On the other hand, a QA tester will always need the support of a developer," explains our QA manager Arnaud Walet.
A more human relationship in the present facilitates exchanges in the future.
To accompany QA tests, you will also find :
