The quality assurance (QA) process is crucial for eliminating bugs, defects, and security issues from your digital products and improving UX. It’s commonly perceived that a QA team only comprises of software testers and penetration testing experts. However, one crucial role that people often do not consider and value enough is that of a QA analyst. They can also be considered the gatekeepers of a QA team and are important for successfully launching and deploying software or app.
In this post, we’ll dig deep into the role of a QA analyst and discuss why it is important for a company to add such profiles to their software testing and development teams to ensure QA success.
The QA Analysts are responsible for evaluating and analyzing the development process, detecting present and potential bugs and system vulnerabilities, and delivering a flawless and high-quality end product. Some companies consider the QA analyst a software testing analyst or localization specialist.
The user experience of a digital product heavily depends on whether it meets quality standards at every development stage. Therefore, QA analysts ensure that even the most minute issues and bugs in a software or app get detected and ultimately removed. They must have manual or automated testing expertise because a successful QA process involves either of the two software testing methods.
Here are some common responsibilities of a QA analyst:
A QA analyst may not be directly involved in testing digital products for bugs and vulnerabilities. However, they provide software testers with an action plan and necessary guidelines to conduct the QA process successfully and efficiently to ensure timely delivery.
While looking for the right QA analyst for your business, it’s important to assess their tech stack and see whether they have significant expertise in using the following programming languages, frameworks, and software testing tools:
A QA analyst can benefit your business in the following ways:
In this post, we’ll dig deep into the role of a QA analyst and discuss why it is important for a company to add such profiles to their software testing and development teams to ensure QA success.
Who is a QA Analyst?
The QA Analysts are responsible for evaluating and analyzing the development process, detecting present and potential bugs and system vulnerabilities, and delivering a flawless and high-quality end product. Some companies consider the QA analyst a software testing analyst or localization specialist.
The user experience of a digital product heavily depends on whether it meets quality standards at every development stage. Therefore, QA analysts ensure that even the most minute issues and bugs in a software or app get detected and ultimately removed. They must have manual or automated testing expertise because a successful QA process involves either of the two software testing methods.
Responsibilities of a QA Analyst
Here are some common responsibilities of a QA analyst:
- · Create test cases and plans and execute them based on software quality assurance standards and objectives.
- · Ensure that the software quality objectives are met at every stage of development.
- · Perform requirements analysis and check whether all project specifications are considered from the development to deployment phases.
- · Identify and analyze bugs and system vulnerabilities within the development stage.
- · Recommend fixes and other important preventive measures to development teams and project stakeholders and ensure that the quality standards are met successfully.
- · Perform detailed statistical data analysis and add these insights, consumer complaints, and other relevant information regarding the software testing process to the QA report.
- · Prepare software testing and system innovation guidelines for QA and development teams.
- · Work in collaboration with QA engineers, testers, and developers to draft effective QA procedures, regulatory requirements, and internal policies.
A QA analyst may not be directly involved in testing digital products for bugs and vulnerabilities. However, they provide software testers with an action plan and necessary guidelines to conduct the QA process successfully and efficiently to ensure timely delivery.
Essential Programming Languages, Frameworks, and Software Testing Tools for QA Analysts
While looking for the right QA analyst for your business, it’s important to assess their tech stack and see whether they have significant expertise in using the following programming languages, frameworks, and software testing tools:
- · Java
- · JavaScript
- · Jira
- · Jmeter
- · Selenium
- · Cypress
- · Loadrunner
- · Python
- · R
- · Ruby
- · SQL
- · C++
Benefits of Hiring a QA Analyst
A QA analyst can benefit your business in the following ways:
- 1. Improved Quality of Products or Services
- 2. Reduced Costs
- 3. Increased Efficiency
- 4. Better Risk Management
- 5. Improved Communication
QA analysts analyze and assess the performance of a digital product during various development and deployment stages to identify defects, bugs, and vulnerabilities. By detecting and addressing issues that can potentially ruin the user experience, QA analysts ensure that the digital product that gets released meets customer requirements and quality standards. This ultimately leads to improved customer loyalty and experience.
When bugs are left undetected and unsolved during the development stage, they negatively affect user experience and lead to more complex issues. Fixing these defects requires much time and investment, ultimately increasing the project cost and causes unnecessary delays. By catching these bugs early in the development phase, QA analysts reduce the possibility of recalls and help companies save money in the long run. Besides detecting existing bugs, QA analysts can also identify and address potential issues and vulnerabilities in the product to prevent costly and complex problems after deployment.
A QA analyst can help improve software development and testing processes by identifying areas where enhancements can be made and how user experience can be further improved. They can also recommend various security and functionality features to make the digital product safer and more feature-rich. Some testing processes need to be automated to save time, reduce errors, and improve QA productivity. Hence, a QA analyst can suggest reliable and useful tools and technologies that can drive seamless test automation to help save time and resources.
QA analysts are trained to leverage detailed insights and assess digital products to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities. This approach helps them mitigate risks before they escalate further and become massive issues that might lead to a potential product recall. For instance, if a QA analyst discovers multiple security vulnerabilities in a software product and works collaboratively with the testing and development team to fix it, they can mitigate the risk of a potential security breach. By proactively and promptly addressing risks, QA analysts can help protect a company’s digital assets and reputation.
A QA analyst provides a roadmap for delivering secure, stable, and responsive digital products to testers and developers and acts as a bridge between QA and development teams. They facilitate communication between different teams to ensure the project objectives are successfully met. QA analysts can keep every member and stakeholder of a project on the same page by improving communication and collaboration between different teams.
A Good QA Analyst Needs an Even Better Test Management Software
To deliver high-quality and bug-free digital products consistently, it’s important to equip your QA team with the best test management software. Testworthy can help your team streamline QA processes by developing testing plans, creating test cases, and providing advanced manual testing features. They can also leverage detailed insights and metrics to measure the progress of critical software testing processes.