It has been almost two years since I became a Quality Assurance Analyst and it has been a big transition in my career from my previous role at XL8 as a product manager and designer. In this blog post, I will be sharing what I do as a Quality Assurance Analyst at XL8 and what this role entails.
Quality Assurance Analyst’s Responsibilities
In general, a Quality Assurance Analyst (QA Analyst) is a role where you evaluate and test the product(s) to ensure it meets the highest quality standards. This includes finding any critical bugs before any new product releases or finding existing bugs that can hinder our users. Overall, a QA Analyst works to ensure the user experience is flawless.
Prior to becoming a QA Analyst at XL8, I had worked on various projects that included alpha and beta testing on our early products. Among these was 'Skroll,' which has since evolved into XL8's API service, now integral to 'MediaCAT'. When I was testing our products, I realized that it was very important to ensure our products were of the highest quality possible with no defects. And that is when the “aha” moment came to me. I discovered that I really enjoyed testing our products and giving valuable feedback on what we can improve on. And that is how I transitioned my role to a QA Analyst. The rest of this blog will describe more about what I do in this role.
A day in the life of a QA Analyst
In my day-to-day role as a QA Analyst, I usually begin by going to our main product, MediaCAT, to ensure that our main product page is up and running without any hiccups such as whether the basic sign-in functionality works perfectly. Let’s say, for example, if our basic sign-in button functionality does not go through the process and does not work, our users will become very frustrated so = I immediately inform our engineers to fix this important issue. When I sign in to our MediaCAT platform, I test very rigorously on every single section and flow that our MediaCAT product offers. During my testing, I search and analyze any critical and minor bugs that will affect our service. When I find a critical bug, I report the bug in methodical steps for the engineers to see and reproduce the issue. I also look for any areas that need user experience (UX) improvement. Moreover, each test day can be different. For example, some days involve a comprehensive QA test where I assess all MediaCAT products and approve the production release once they have successfully passed the testing process. On other days, my focus shifts to specific sections of MediaCAT, such as 'Sync' and 'Translate'.
Collaboration with engineers
Collaboration with engineers is a crucial part of quality assurance. I mostly collaborate with the front-end engineering team because the majority of QA testing is based on the user interface (UI) of our service. I also collaborate with back-end and research teams. Occasionally, they will request a specific QA test but not as much as front-end team requests since there are specific QA tests that need to be tested for the next day’s deployment or sometimes the next week’s deployment. Collaboration and communication with the engineers is important. Sometimes, when I don’t understand what the engineering team has written on a QA request, then I ask about that specific scenario or the flow to ensure what we are testing specifically so I do not test the wrong feature or flow.
Concluding thoughts on the QA Analyst role
Seeing myself as a QA Analyst is something that I never envisioned for myself, however, I have come to see this as a golden opportunity because I have never considered this field before. My background is in art and creativity, and transitioning to QA has been a huge leap in my career. I enjoy learning new skills and growing my knowledge and experience as a QA Analyst. As I look back on this experience, I would love to share my advice about a job in Quality Assurance or anyone who may be interested in this career. First, someone in QA should be passionate about the product(s)and know them inside and out since you will be testing the product(s) every day. Second, you must be detail oriented because attention to detail is very crucial. Third, someone in QA will need to be very methodical and efficient. Last but not least, being excited and motivated will help you to enjoy this role and become successful.
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