What makes a great QA Analyst

Good testers learn from success, great testers learn from failure

So there you are, intrepid QA Analyst, tasked with a project of high profile. You've written up the plan, attended the meeting, and ran through all positive, negative, and edge cases. You've filed tons of issues, and close just as many; test-report-retest-repeat.

The app goes live and you've stamped your name on it to assert 100% functionality and that the project fulfills the desires of the Client. Then the inevitable happens .. a missed bug that causes the app to fail. The app is live and getting bad reviews due to the performance issues encountered during an install or update. Client is angry. Your Quality Assurance Manager is doubting your skills as a tester. And all you want to do is just crawl in a hole. What do you do?

In my short time as a QA Analyst, I have seen my share of co-workers crash-and-burn when an app fails in production. I have experienced a fail or two myself. How one handles failure is a measure of the kind of person (and tester) they are. Good testers learn from success, but its the great testers that learn from failure.

A great tester applies what he / she knows in their testing and can get to the root-cause of why the failure occurred. Fails fall into two categories: omission and commission:

• omission: you overlooked the most obvious (or not so obvious) issue
• commission: you tested inadequately

A great tester perseveres when things look bleak and is not afraid to ask for help. A team is as strong as the weakest link, and with good leadership, preventative measures can be made to ensure the mistake is not repeated. I have had the privilege of helping my co-workers and likewise being coached on ways to get better. In the end, its only made me better at my job.

And the learning continues ....

Tell me about your worst day and how you handled it