What is a QA Tester: Comprehensive Guide for Startups 2024

Nowadays, businesses heavily rely on the effectiveness and quality of their software applications and websites. A single error in the software can frustrate users and badly affect the brand’s name, signifying the importance of a QA tester. Knowing ‘what is a QA tester’ ensures your software products and websites have the most appropriate functionality and quality.

At Aloa, a software outsourcing expert, we have reviewed 10,000+ software agencies globally so that you can find the most qualified QA Testers. Our team ensures the best vetting process to make sure your software meets the highest standards. Partnering with Aloa ensures you find the ideal tester for your software requirements, such as when you need custom application development software.

Drawing from our firsthand experiences and industry insights in software development, we’ve crafted this comprehensive guide on ‘what is a QA tester’ about. We’ll delve into a QA tester’s overview, how to hire them, when to hire, and the benefits they can give to startups. After reading, you’ll know how QA Testers will give you that competitive edge. 

Let’s jump right in!

What Is a QA Tester?

A QA Tester is an expert who works with a development team to ensure the software’s functionality and overall user experience. They meticulously conduct tests and report bugs to ensure the software meets quality standards. At its core, knowing ‘what is a QA tester’ paves way for high-quality software products. 

Skilled QA Testers usually apply various automated and manual tests throughout the development cycle. For instance, they test software functionalities and identify any bugs or glitches by conducting an MVP software development procedure. 

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) software allows a business to release the initial version of a product, helping them gather insights from actual users and have early testing. QA Testers are crucial to this by offering feedback to the development team to adjust the product effectively. 

How To Hire a Quality Assurance Tester for Your Project

Having the best hiring procedure for a QA Tester ensures you pay for the best person or agency to do the job. This allows you to find candidates with the skills, experience, education, and qualifications that make them competent in QA testing.  

Consider these steps when hiring a great-fit QA Tester:

Step 1: Outline QA Tester’s Roles And Responsibilities 

Outlining the roles and responsibilities of a QA Tester provides clarity on what is expected from the position. This clarity helps in setting clear expectations and avoids any misunderstandings later on. To do so, you can include the qualifications, tasks, and expectations you want for the QA Tester, which you can outline in the job description. 

Here’s a quick overview of the necessary roles and responsibilities that a QA Tester must do:

• Test Planning and Evaluation: Involves generating test plans, assessing software requirements, and creating test cases based on the project’s requirements.
• Test Execution: Includes conducting manual and automatic tests using various tools. The purpose is to recognize defects and ensure the QA tester and development team align the software with the requirements.
• Defect Management: Revolves around reporting and documenting defects and keeping tabs on their resolution.
• Load Testing: This is a non-functional testing that is part of a QA tester’s task. It involves focusing on how a piece of software works under a heavy load, such as when many people use the website or application at the same time.
• Collaboration: This entails active collaboration with software engineers, project managers, and stakeholders to produce the best outcome.

Step 2: Evaluate Necessary QA Tester Skills 

Once you’re done outlining the roles and responsibilities, consider assessing the needed QA tester skills for your software’s maintenance and functionality.  This step is crucial to finding a potential candidate with the required attributes that fit your project’s requirements.

Below are some soft and technical skills for hiring a QA tester.

• Test Design and Planning: Ability to design and plan various test: cases, scenarios, and strategies to ensure thorough and effective testing of the software.
• Defect Tracking and Reporting: Proficiency in using defect tracking tools and writing clear and detailed bug reports is crucial for ensuring timely resolution of issues.
• Automation Testing: Familiarity with automation testing tools significantly enhance testing efficiency for regression testing and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Expertise in SDLC: Knowledge of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) streamlines QA testing and software development cycles.
• Mastery of Testing Techniques: Allows the QA specialist to tackle various projects regardless of the application or domain.
• Attention to Detail: Helps review requirements, test cases, and application functionality. This is crucial to identify even the smallest discrepancies or defects.
• Analytical Skills: Useful when assessing relevant data and weighing the pros and cons of the steps during the QA testing process to produce the best outcomes.
• Communication Skills: Crucial when sharing ideas and solutions to various QA testing issues and processes.

Step 3: Source Your Candidates

Sourcing candidates involves searching, contacting, and engaging interested QA Testers with the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications for the position. Effective sourcing strategies can help you uncover a diverse pool of talented testers, increasing your chances of finding the right fit for your project's needs.

Here are the best online platforms to source potential candidates:

• Upwork: Provides access to a large pool of freelancers who are experts in web, mobile app, or software testing. This allows you to find a QA tester who understands your unique business requirements.
• LinkedIn: This hiring platform allows you to network with the most up-to-date recruitment tools and techniques. It's ideal for sourcing the best candidate while creating relationships with other professionals who can recommend some QA experts.
• Indeed: As a leading job search engine, Indeed offers a vast database of job seekers from diverse industries, including QA testing. You can post detailed job listings and leverage Indeed's resume search functionality to find QA testers with specific qualifications and expertise.
• BambooHR: This is best for startups that want to streamline their hiring process through an HR solution that offers employee recruitment, hiring, and onboarding. Its integration with job boards and social media platforms can expand your reach of finding the best fit.

Step 4: Conduct Candidate Vetting and Interview

Rigorously vetting candidates is one way to reduce hiring risks. It does so by allowing you to make informed decisions on whether the person who wants to apply will indeed benefit your startup. To effectively vet candidates, consider the following actions:

• Conduct Background Checks: Verify the candidate's employment history and educational credentials, such as a software engineering or computer science degree, to ensure the accuracy of their qualifications and experience. 
• Look for Portfolios and Certifications: This provides proof of their skills and expertise, which can be used to determine if they possess enough knowledge about QA testing.
• Evaluate Technical Skills: Administer practical assessments or coding drills to gauge the candidate's proficiency in QA testing methodologies and test automation tools.
• Check References: Reach out to the candidate's former colleagues or employers to gain insights into their work ethic and overall professional conduct.

Another way to gauge the competence of your chosen candidate is to interview them. Such an interview aims to gauge their skills, capabilities, and expertise as a QA Tester.

Here are some of the interview questions you can ask:

• How do you tackle a new QA project?- Asking this question determines their reliability in finishing the project and whether they can adjust properly at the beginning of the work.
• How do you set the QA testing criteria?- This query helps assess if they know what standards are needed to maintain and build highly functional software.
• What steps do you take in an automated testing plan?- Even if automation plans differ for every business, ask this question still to identify their experience in automatic QA testing.
• When should a QA test begin?- This question lets you know if they have relevant previous experience testing the software during its development cycle.
• What are the QA tools you use and why?- This helps you gauge their knowledge and capability to use various QA tools, which is crucial for a software development project.

You can always ask these questions in a specific type of interview, which can be technical or behavioral interviews, to gauge their skills. Then, these interviews can be paired with assessments like hands-on testing exercises. 

Step 5: Perform Thorough On-Boarding Processes

The onboarding process highlights the factors that are included when an employee starts to work. The process involves training sessions, communicating the employee’s role, preparing computer access and tools, and providing other instructions so they can thrive and collaborate with the team. Such processes set the employee to adjust properly before they begin their work.

For startups, a well-designed onboarding process for new QA Testers can significantly impact their business. It plays a vital role in fostering a welcoming environment and preparing individuals to excel in their roles. An effective onboarding process not only instills a sense of belonging but also ensures that new employees are equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to contribute meaningfully from day one. 

When to Hire a QA Tester

More often in the past, businesses hired QA Testers to work at the end of the software development cycle. A dedicated team first creates the software, and only then will the QA Testers provide feedback. Yet, developers notice this isn’t the most effective way to develop and release software. 

So, it has become the norm today to onboard QA Testers at the start of the development cycle. By doing so, a business can prioritize software quality at the initial stages. For startups, hiring QA Testers at the start allows them to identify and correct software issues immediately. This will help save resources and time for both the QA Tester and the software development team.

Ad Template for Hiring a QA Tester

Creating the best job advertisement for a QA Tester position is crucial to filter the best candidate. It details the job’s opportunities and explains the role’s requirements. You can place these job ads on local or international job boards, but posting them on your startup website might be a better and more cost-effective option.

Without ado, the following are what to include in a job ad template that your startup can consider:

• Job Description: Clearly describes what QA Testers are for in your business and how a potential candidate fits the project’s success.
• Qualifications and Requirements: Specifies the criteria for a reliable QA Tester. These include the relevant experience, education, and skills required.  
• Responsibilities: Showcases how the candidate will work within the team and find forward-looking solutions.
• How To Apply: Contains steps to apply for the position, such as submitting resumes, portfolios, and diplomas to the company’s email.

Sample Job Ad for a QA Tester

Creating a sample job ad to hire the best QA Tester team or individual is crucial to outline what they will do when hired. This also entails whether they have the needed skills to work for the business. Moreover, it’s a tool to persuade the best candidate to apply for you. Here is an example of a job ad for a QA Tester position, which you can use as a guide when creating your own.

Job Description 

Are you a meticulous, detail-oriented individual passionate about ensuring software quality? Our company is currently looking for a skilled QA Tester to join our dynamic team. As a QA Tester, you will play a crucial role in ensuring our software meets high-quality standards via automated and manual tests. You'll collaborate closely with our software development experts to identify, report, and fix bugs or glitches. If you are committed to enhancing user experiences and contributing to the development of cutting-edge software products and websites, we'd love to hear from you. Apply now!

Responsibilities

• Work with QA engineers to develop strategies and test plans.
• Review and analyze system specifications.
• Generate logs to document testing errors and phases.
• Conduct test cases under different circumstances.
• Remain updated with growing trends and industry best practices in software testing, ensuring the team’s QA tests meet industry standards.

Qualifications And Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or software engineering.
• 3-5 years of experience in software quality assurance testing or a similar role in QA methodology and project management.
• Proven ability to analyze software requirements, test cases, and defects.
• Proficiency in using automation testing tools to streamline testing processes.
• Ability to think critically about software functionality and system performance. 
• Adept programming skills to develop automated test scripts and frameworks.
• Ability to conduct thorough cross-platform testing. 

How To Apply

Interested candidates should submit their resume, diploma, portfolio, or certifications to [company’s email address] and type “QA Tester Application” in the subject line. Please ensure your application showcases your ability to meet the above qualifications and requirements. We’ll reach out to you immediately if we see you’ll be a great fit for the role.

Benefits Of Hiring a QA Tester for Your Project

Hiring the best software quality assurance testers brings many advantages to maintaining your brand’s reputation and software’s cybersecurity. The following will delve deeper into other benefits crucial to your business's success.

Boosts Reputation and User Confidence

When users discover that your software is cutting-edge and consistently reliable, it instills confidence in them. This satisfaction often translates into positive reviews, referrals, and repeat business. Such positive word-of-mouth can attract potential partners, enhancing your profits and competitiveness in the market. 

Accelerates Software Completion

Developers often lack a comprehensive understanding of large-scale software factors that affect the overall product quality. QA Testers bridge this knowledge gap, enabling the development cycle to proceed smoothly and efficiently. Other than that, they ensure that the development teams allocate their time and efforts towards other critical tasks. Consequently, this approach enhances productivity and accelerates the software delivery process.

Improves Cybersecurity

A QA Tester conducts proactive security testing on the software. This helps identify loopholes to protect businesses against cyberattacks like trojans and ransomware. This security helps protect sensitive customer data, allowing more customers to trust your products and fostering more robust customer relationships and loyalty.

Increases Profitability

A software quality assurance tester can help increase your startup’s profits by providing your daily work with better uptime and productivity through the best software end product. This allows you to have more business transactions and a chance to scale to address increased workloads and user demands. 

Improves User Experience

A QA Tester ensures that software is user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to use. They test the software before its launch so users can perform tasks and navigate properly. More than that, they also test the software to have fewer crashes, errors, and glitches. Ultimately, this leads to better user experience that can boost brand loyalty.

Key Takeaway

A deep understanding of “what is a QA Tester” about and their crucial role in software development is crucial for any business of all sizes. A reliable QA Tester ensures that software products or applications meet the highest standards of functionality, usability, and performance.

With their proficiency in various testing methodologies, tools, and techniques, they meticulously analyze software systems to identify defects, bugs, and areas for improvement. As a result, it facilitates seamless software experiences that positively impact your brand, resulting in better clicks and a more loyal customer base. 

Interested in hiring a quality assurance specialist for your project? Contact our Account Executives at [email protected] for customized guidance and assistance. We’ll walk you through our development process and link you up with the best team of quality assurance professionals in the industry so you can get your project underway!