QA Engineer #

Responsibilities During Sprint: #

Participate in sprint planning to understand user stories and acceptance criteria.
Break down user stories into tasks.
Write and execute test cases for new features.
Perform continuous testing of features being developed.
Provide quick feedback on test results to the development team.
Verify bug fixes.
Participate in sprint review and retrospective meetings.
Update automated test suites based on new features and changes.
Communicate daily with the development team to discuss progress, blockers, and next steps.
Ensure all testing activities are documented and shared with the relevant team members.
Provide regular updates to the product owner, project manager and stakeholders on testing progress and issues.
Review and test new features for SEO, accessibility, performance, and responsiveness.
Ensure the sprint board is up-to-date and accurately reflects the status of all tasks and tickets.
Monitor and report on the performance of new features using monitoring tools.
Manage and address bugs reported during the sprint by team members and users.
Collaborate with the support team to gather additional information on reported issues.
Participate in demo meetings to present sprint scope.
Train stakeholders on new functionality delivered during the sprint.
Engage in communication channels to clarify and explain functionalities and their expected behavior.

The Role of a QA (Quality Assurance) Engineer in Every Stage of the Development Lifecycle #

QA’s role is indispensable in ensuring the product’s quality and reliability. Their involvement in each development stage helps in identifying potential issues early, leading to a more stable and reliable product.

In our expirience we appreciate QA whose proactive approach leads to a high-quality end product that meets user expectations. There are some guidelines below:

1. Research and Analysis #

Activities:

Requirement Review: Review and analyze requirements for clarity, completeness, and testability.
Requirement Clarification: Participate in requirement review and clarification meetings.
Gap & Risks Analysis: Identify potential risks, gaps and dependencies.

Integration:

Collaborate with business analysts, product owners and other stakeholders to understand requirements.
Provide feedback on requirement specifications to ensure they are clear and testable.

2. Planning #

Activities:

User Story Review: Analyze the user stories or tasks assigned to the sprint, ensuring you understand the requirements and acceptance criteria.
AC Definition: Define testing objectives and acceptance criterias for sprint scope.

Integration:

Discuss the user stories, tasks, and priorities for the sprint with the team.
Collaborate with the team to break down user stories into smaller, manageable tasks.
Work with project managers and developers to align testing activities with the overall project plan.
Define and agree on the sprint goals assigned to you.

3. Design #

Activities:

Design Review: Review design and provide feedback.
Design Gaps Identification: Identify any potential design issues that may impact testing or quality.
Test Cases: Develop test scenarios and test cases based on design specifications.

Integration:

Collaborate with designers and developers during design reviews.
Ensure that test cases are aligned with the design and cover all scenarios.

4. Development #

Activities:

Test Cases Adjustments: Update test cases based on changes in the development.
Preparation for Testing: Identify and prepare the necessary test data to execute the test cases.

Integration:

Work closely with developers to understand the implementation and identify any issues early.
Provide immediate feedback on defects and work together to resolve them.

5. Testing and QA #

Activities:

Feature Testing: Execute test cases and document results. Conduct functional and usability testing of the new features.
Regression Testing: Perform regression testing (manual/automation).
Exploratory testing: Perform exploratory testing to uncover defects that might not be covered by predefined test cases or regression suite.
Bug Reporting and Tracking: Report and track defects until resolution.

Integration:

Collaborate with developers to prioritize and fix defects.
Communicate testing progress and results to the team and stakeholders.
Participate in daily stand-ups and update the team on testing status.

6. Deployment #

Activities:

Acceptance Testing: Conduct final testing of the sprint scope in a staging and production environment.
Smoke Testing: Perform smoke testing after deployment to ensure the application is working as expected.
Quality Compliance: Validate that all defects have been resolved and the product meets quality standards.

Integration:

Coordinate with the project manager to schedule deployments.
Ensure all deployment steps are followed, and any issues are promptly addressed.

7. Maintenance #

Activities:

Production monitoring: During a week monitor the production environment for issues unsing monitoring tools, i.e. Grafana, Google Cloud Console Error Reporting, etc.
Regression Testing: Perform regression testing on production, if possible.
Documentation: Update test cases and documentation based on the release scope, feedback, and changes.
Adjustments Filing: File all requested changes and updates related to release.
Process Improvement: Continuously improve the testing process based on lessons learned.

Integration:

Ensure that any new requirements or changes are tested and integrated smoothly.
Work closely with developers to identify and report any production issues early.
Collaborate with the stakeholders and address any issues reported by users.

Quality Assurance is crucial throughout the development lifecycle to ensure that the product meets the specified requirements and is free of defects. Their continuous feedback ensures that the development stays on the right track regarding quality.