How to Choose a Software Tester? A Short Guide for Project Managers
Apparently, you are looking for a software tester who can help out with the QA tasks on your project. And there’s a good chance that you don’t know where to start. Well, we won’t claim there is a perfect strategy for choosing a specialist that works for sure. When it comes to the QA field, however, we can share some tips to help you understand better how to evaluate quality assurance testers.
Know Your Options
To begin with, learn what options are available. Software testers can have different specializations and experiences. They can work on different terms. Before you start summarizing the criteria a new team member should meet, make sure you know who is out there on the market.
Freelancers, Outstaffing, Outsourcing
In-house hiring may be the first option that comes to mind. It is certainly a good idea if you need a person to become a full-fledged member of the development team and work with a project on a constant basis. In this case, the recruitment and management processes will go as usual. Just be specific with the candidate requirements, especially if it’s the first QA software tester you’re hiring.
If you don’t plan to hire an in-house specialist or manage this process, there are several alternatives. It is possible to hire a manual tester through direct cooperation, as well as by contacting a QA company or an outstaffing agency. We’ve covered this subject in more detail in one of the earlier posts.
To resume it quickly:
- Freelancers can work on both one-time and long-term projects. As a rule, the cost of hiring a freelancer QA tester is lower compared to the other options. Management, however, tends to be more effort-consuming.
- Outstaffing means that a specialized company searches for an in-house employee for you in their base. This person becomes a regular team member. The only difference is that an outstaffing agency is handling all the HR management aspects.
- QA outsourcing is a partnership with a specialized software testing company. They select one or several QA engineers with the skillsets that match your requirements. As a rule, such companies provide a full scope of QA services, so you can negotiate the terms and request additional services in the future.
Manual and Automated Testing Specialists
You’ve probably already heard about a QA manual tester and a QA automation tester. Though these titles aren’t correct from the grammatical perspective, such a division exists. Testing can be manual and automated. The primer implies that a QA engineer interacts with software by clicking through its interface. As for the latter, a specialist creates test scripts and checks software using specific tools.
There has been an ongoing debate about manual testing vs automated testing. In practice, the need for each depends on the particularities of your software and the stage of development. In brief, manual testing is perfect for small projects or dynamic products with frequently changing requirements. As for automation, it is a go-for solution for large projects, as well as cases that require high accuracy or are tedious and time-consuming to run manually.
Remember that manual testing is always a background for automation. Besides, some cases are not worth automating. So if you aim for automation but don’t have any QA specialists on the project yet, you’ll need both manual and AT specialists to set up the process. Another option is hiring a full-stack QA Engineer who can do both, but it is difficult to find such a specialist.
Dedicated and Part-Time Team Members
Every project comes with different work scope. You may need a person for a full-time or several days every week. The latter doesn’t mean that a freelancer is the only option. You can discuss this with a QA company, too. As a rule, they have several types of cooperation to offer. Thus, you can get a specialist working with your project among the others or someone dedicated to your tasks only.
Estimate the Scope of Tasks on a Project
Another significant thing to figure out before hiring is the work scope. A clear understanding of the project tasks and responsibilities will help you define who you need on the team and what competencies you are lacking currently. There are two key things to consider.
- Why do you need a QA engineer? Think about why you decided to hire a software tester and what tasks they are supposed to cover. It will help you understand what skills a new team member needs to have.
- How much is there to test? This one may be a little bit complicated to answer right away. If you don’t know how many specialists to hire, talk it over with the development team. You can also start with one person and proceed with hiring if the tasks keep piling. If you decide to work with a software testing company, they will help you to decide on this.
Evaluate the Hard Skills
Logically, you start the search by paying attention to candidates’ competencies. There are several aspects to pay attention to during this process. Of course, every software tester should be familiar with different types of testing, methodologies, and so on. That goes without saying. To estimate whether a person will be a good addition to your project team, you may need to consider:
- Professional certifications.
- Industry expertise.
- A person’s specialization.
- Domain expertise.
- Device availability.
- Knowledge of tools and methodologies.
- Position-specific skills.
- Reviews.
Those are the common criteria Project Managers apply. We’ll try to break down the nuances so you can decide what matters the most and where you can go easier.
Certifications
Some PMs are looking specifically for certified software testers. Certifications seem to be the easiest and reliable way to assess one’s qualification. You can often find this information in a person’s profile on a freelancing platform, their CV, or a company’s website. There are a number of internationally recognized certifications for both manual software testers and test automation engineers.
However, we wouldn’t advise using certification as the main criterion for choosing a specialist. Surely, this document proves that you have passed a test on QA theory. It requires studying and knowledge of common practices. But practical skills are more important, and companies often teach that without issuing any certifications.
It’s up to you to decide whether to focus on finding a certified software testing professional and how serious to be about any certifications. If it is not a matter of principle to a company, we would recommend paying more attention to a specialist’s actual experience or in-house education and mentoring if it’s a QA company.
Industry Experience
Traditionally, companies distinguish between Junior, Middle, and Senior QA Engineers based on the years of experience they have. On the one hand, it is completely logical. The more a person works, the more proficient they become. On the other hand, there is one controversial moment.
Proficiency depends a lot on the kind of tasks a person is involved in. Very often, a number of years spent working in QA is the main criteria for promotion to the next level. However, if a person has been testing the same software (or its single feature), they don’t get more skilled and prepared to work with other products.
Therefore, pay attention not only to how many years a person has spent working as a QA specialist but also how diverse their projects were. Depending on the complexity of a project, it may be okay to hire even a trainee software tester who is just beginning their professional path.
Specialization
In small companies, a web QA tester and a mobile QA specialist would be the same person. If we are dealing with a large and complex project, most likely, there will be different people for these roles.
Why is it important for you? The testing basics will be the same for mobile and web projects, but each has some specific aspects. It is better to make sure that a person knows how to work with the type of software and platform you use.
Domain Expertise
It also makes sense to ask for domain expertise, especially if you develop a complicated fintech solution, a healthcare service, etc. Again, you can pay attention to this, but don’t need to get fixated on this requirement. A good software tester gets familiar with a product and its particularities very quickly. For as long as the available tech stack and resources allow the QA specialist/company to complete the task, they can be good at doing it.
Device Library
As for the tech stack, some testing types rely on the application of different physical devices. For example, if you want to test the compatibility of a mobile application or a mobile version of a website, you should use at least two different iPhone and Android devices.
That’s where QA companies have a huge advantage. Companies that provide software testing services can offer to run tests on various physical devices. The majority can ensure vast enough diversity to cover the in-demand device/OS/browser combinations.
Tools and Methodologies
Teams working on Agile models may want to make sure that a QA specialist understands how sprints, CI/CD, and a number of other concepts function in practice. In addition, you may need to specify what project management and bug tracking software the team uses. Knowledge of the specific tools and methodologies is always a bonus.
Automation Tester Skills
When it comes to Test Automation Engineers, there are several other requirements to include in a job description and pay attention to during the search. As you know, AT specialists use specific tools that require some coding (scriptwriting). Therefore, when evaluating a list of skills of an automation tester, make sure that a person knows the required programming language and works with the tools and frameworks that fit in your development ecosystem.
Reviews
You can learn a lot from the clients’ feedback. If you choose to work with a freelancer, check their rating on the platform or ask for feedback from the previous clients. If you decide to hire a QA company, browse what partners get to write about it on review platforms. These days, such resources feature reliable reviews that will help you make up your mind about a provider’s reliability and their competencies in general.
Pay Attention to the Soft Skills
Hard skills make the core of the evaluation, but it is important to consider soft skills, too. So what soft skills make a good software quality tester?
Responsibility and Reliability
These traits are significant for every specialist. They create the background for trust. Software development in general comes with a high level of responsibility. Whether it is the company’s revenue, user safety and security, or something else that comes as a part of the bigger picture, a QA engineer shouldn’t treat their part of the said responsibility carelessly.
Good Communication Skills
It is significant for a software tester to express their thoughts logically. It is essential to ask for an explanation when something’s not clear instead of interpreting the information in one’s own way. Listening to other team members and asking for advice makes it much easier to solve complicated issues. That doesn’t undermine a person’s expertise in any way, unlike some might think.
Attention to Detail
This one comes hand in hand with persistence and clear reasoning. There is no room for haste in software testing, even under tight deadlines. Skipping a serious bug can affect overall user satisfaction, sabotage business goals, or harm end-users (if it’s a healthcare device, for example). Therefore, patience, attention, and diligence are critical.
Analytical Skills
An ability to analyze the available data and get to the root of the problem is priceless. So are the knowledge of a software product or service and the ability to establish logical connections between its different states and behaviors. Finally, a person with good analytical skills can refer to previous experience to boost their problem-solving skills when it comes to complex tasks.
Working in a Team
An opportunity to work independently is highly praised, but so is being a team player. Healthy collaboration is a cornerstone of an efficient development team. A clear vision of the shared goal, mutual respect, ability to learn from others and work with constructive criticism drive the progress. A person who understands the value of cooperation and is not prone to conflicts is the best candidate you can find.
Proactivity and Willingness to Learn
Last but not least, it is great if a person can generate new ideas, take the lead, and develop professionally. Tech specialists need to keep up with the trends, be aware of the emerging technologies, learn new tools, and work on developing their soft skills. Change is all around us, and software testers are to keep up with the pace of that change.
To Sum Up
A foolproof formula for choosing a perfect person to join your team doesn’t exist. There are many variables in the QA engineer hiring process and many factors that can influence the decision. Nevertheless, always start your search with a precise list of requirements and expectations. You can improvise or make edits on the way, but there should be a basic plan to rely on.
Hopefully, the recommendations from this article will be helpful when you outline those requirements and expectations. And if you are looking for software testers to join your team, why not start with QA Madness? 😉