What is a QA Analyst?

 Ever heard of a QA analyst? QA stands for quality assurance. As the word itself denotes, a QA analyst is a person who intensely gets involved in assuring the quality of a product before it is made available to the customers or end-users. In aggregate, he analyzes the whole process of producing a quality product and examines if it meets the determined quality standard or not.

It is not an easy task to make any system or software fully flawless on the very first try. There needs to be followed certain procedures, do multiple testing and check if the product is as same as it was supposed to be. Only then, it’s made available to the end-users.

QA analysts are hard-working, problem solving, consider every small detail, stay updated with the latest technologies and ensure quality. They look for bugs and issues in the product and suggest how the product can be more enriched. Quality assurance is one of the most essential things to be done before releasing or deploying the product to the end-users.

 The most important task is to run the code to see if it works correctly and is usable on various devices. If found any issue or error, it is reported back to the development team to be fixed. It is analyzed time and again until the product is ready for the end-users.

Though the term QA analyst is mostly heard in software or technology-related companies, most other companies also require QA analysts. Besides software and application developers and publishers, QA analysts play important roles in restaurants, insurance carriers, management companies, scientific services, aerospace product manufacturing companies, engineering services, and many more. It is because most of the companies these days are directly or indirectly connected with technology and they know how important it is to provide quality products.

Importance of software for business

 Must have qualities and skills of a QA analyst

Now that you know what a QA analyst is, let’s check out some of the QA analyst’s skills and qualities.

●     Attention to detail

●     Research and planning

●     Knowledge of software, hardware and networks

●     Programming knowledge and skill

●     Teamwork and proper communication

●     Problem Solving

●     Logical and creative

●     Good understanding of business and management

So, what are the main roles and responsibilities of a quality assurance analyst?

A QA analyst is responsible for finding out errors and bugs if there are any. That’s the reason why they should have sharp eyes and sound vision. If found any error or bug, the analyst reports them to the development team so that the issues can be solved as soon as possible and a quality product can be delivered to the end-users. Below are some of responsibilities to be handled by the QA analyst:

●     Prepare test plans to ensure quality

●     Compare the planned product with the actual product

●     Identify errors and bugs

●     Report development team about the errors and bugs, and provide necessary suggestion to fix them

●     Gather information, complaints, and suggestions so that quality can be improvised

●     Conduct the quality test repeatedly until the product meets the quality standard

In most of the companies, one must have at least bachelor degree in a computer related subject to start a career as a QA analyst. It’s not the same in all cases, he/she can also build up the software development and analysis skill on his/her own through different other sources; in any case, it takes a long time and great determination to be a good QA analyst.