Testing or QA (quality assurance) is one of the most overlooked areas of product development among modern businesses. This is especially true for young startups which — most often due to limited budget — put all their funds into development and/or marketing, leaving QA to be taken care of by already hired experts.
But technical testing cannot be done at full scale by developers themselves. They already have multiple tasks to handle and adding to it extensive QA means that your development will go, in the end, extremely slowly. On the other hand, if you decide to simply limit testing, you will end up with a product that is buggy, user-unfriendly, and performing badly, which can significantly reduce consumer retention.
However, hiring just any testers might not be enough. To truly leverage the potential of QA, you need to have a proper strategy planned out, taking into consideration test automation.
This can be achieved with the help of QA engineers.
Why should I hire QA engineers?
QA engineers aren’t just any testers. Their goal is to automate tests by planning, writing scripts, and utilizing multiple QA tools to significantly improve your product.
According to the 2019-2020 World Quality Report, there are six main benefits of test automation:
- Better control and transparency of test activities.
- Better reuse of Test Cases.
- Better detection of defects.
- Reduction of Test Costs.
- Reduction of Test Cycle Time.
- Reduction of overall security risk.
In other words, test automation with the help of QA engineers provides you with a faster and more cost-effective way of running tests while making testing itself even more reliable!
But how to find and hire QA engineers who can truly get the job done? We dedicate the rest of our guide to this matter.
The hard skills that every QA engineer should have
Testing and QA is sometimes considered a nice entry job in the world of IT. Becoming a QA engineer, however, requires way more technical skills — including proficiency with computer languages.
What kind of skills should you specifically be looking for in your candidates when you want to hire QA engineers? We list the most important ones below.
- Knowledge of relevant programming languages
Unlike other developers, QA engineers are rarely experts in one or two specific programming languages. Instead, they often have to be generalists — have basic proficiency in many different programming languages to adapt to the company’s current needs.
When you want to hire QA engineers, look for people knowledgeable in the languages you are already using for your product. Whether it’s JavaScript, Ruby, or C++, your new QA expert should be able to understand the code of your software.
- Proficiency with scripting languages
The scripts that automate tests don’t have to be written in the language that the product itself is coded in. Some of the popular script languages for QA engineers are Python, Shell, and even JavaScript. If you already have QA engineers in your company, it’s best if your new hire uses the same scripting techniques as your in-house team. But if you are just starting up your QA department, you can hire QA engineers scripting in anything they prefer. Of course, if you are hiring multiple QA engineers at once, it’s best if they all use the same language(s).
- Experience with a set of relevant testing tools
There are many tools on the market that can speed the process of test automation. The list includes Selenium (for web products), Jenkins (for testing changes in the codebase during continuous integration), TestingWhiz (for scriptless web and mobile apps), and other solutions, often tailored to specific use cases.
- Experience with CI/CD
Most successful software teams nowadays work with DevOps implemented, an IT work methodology focused on continuous integration and continuous delivery. This means that such teams regularly push out new updates to their products. Such strategy involves, of course, also QA engineers, as they must constantly test the new features and updates to make sure they work well and don’t cause any issues.
The importance of soft skills for QA engineers
Technical knowledge is important, but to truly thrive in the role of a QA engineer, one also needs a set of soft skills that drive the whole testing process. Some of the most important soft skills for a QA engineer are:
- Flexibility
Development teams often start using new tools and technologies with the aim to make the production process even more efficient. This means that QA engineers have to be ready to adapt to these changes, learn new things, and be ready to test how the new solutions affect the main product.
- Attention to detail
When prepared carefully, automated tests can be incredibly reliable and provide amazing results at very short notice. But even one small mistake might make the test completely unviable. It should be of top interest to you to hire QA engineers who always triple-check their tests before running full-scale operations using them.
- Expert time management
This is especially crucial in a DevOps environment. QA engineers must be able to flexibly adjust their schedule to current team needs, prioritize their tasks accordingly, and work where they are needed the most.
Best QA engineer job interview questions
To correctly assess whether your candidate really has all the skills needed to run amazing QA, you should run a proper technical job interview with them. If you are not a QA expert yourself, we recommend you to ask for assistance from another QA engineer, an IT project manager, or a software consultant. They will be able to correctly assess the needs of your business and ask the right questions.
To give you an idea of what kind of questions can be asked during such an interview, we list some of our favorites below. However, be aware that these may be different for you depending on the technology stack of your company.
- What, in your opinion, is an acceptable amount of time to invest in updating test automation scripts, instead of creating new ones?
- How can you write test automation scripts in a way they can be easily updated in the future?
- What are the advantages of parallelization?
- How can you run tests in a headless browser?
- How can you achieve thread-safety?
- What is your preferred scripting language? Why this one?
- In what kind of situation would you not automate a test?
- What is a Page Object in Selenium?
- What is fluent wait in Selenium?
- What are DesiredCapabilities in Selenium WebDriver?
Finding a QA engineer that fits perfectly
Don’t stop with just assessing the skills of your candidates when you hire QA engineers — remember to also check how well they actually fit your company. Consider especially the following areas:
- Product fit
It’s a great advantage when your new QA engineer already has experience with a product similar to yours, be it in the type of product (web app, mobile app) or features it includes. Such experience means they already know what kind of tests can be automated in your case.
- Industry fit
Hire QA engineers who have already worked within your business vertical for their knowledge of your target customer. The more they already know about your dream client, the better they can tailor the QA to your needs.
- Company culture fit
Soft skills can significantly power up innovation and cooperation in your business — but so can a company culture match. Hire QA engineers who share the same values as your business does. Consider areas like the preferred style of management, preferred work environment (startup vs corporate), focus on diverse teams, or anything else that you consider a crucial value your business is driven by.
Building the dream product team
Although QA is a highly important part of the development process, you should not oversight other areas for improvement when you hire QA engineers. Your product can be taken to an even higher level with the help of UI and UX designers, data scientists, AI experts, or machine learning engineers
And whichever IT professional you are currently looking for, Ideamotive can connect you with them fast. We run the industry-leading network of top IT talents of all specialties. Whether you are looking for a front-end developer, Neural Network engineer, or cross-platform mobile app developer, our team can swiftly connect you with professionals who exactly match your unique requirements and company profile.
