Saturday, August 26, 2023

5 min

Soft Skills for QA engineers


It is not a secret that every specialist no matter in which sphere, needs to possess some soft skills besides the hard ones required.
Soft skills reflect your emotional intelligence and ability to interact with your team members, thus define how successful you are/will be in your team. That is not something you should just list in your CV but something you must demonstrate in your work.
As we have already talked about Manual and Automation testing tools in our previous articles let's now discuss the SOFT skills for QA engineers.
Below we have the list of the top five soft skills every QA engineer must have to succeed in his/her career:


Communication skills

No doubt that communication is an essential part of the working process of every QA engineer. Note that here we are talking about both oral and written communication. As a software tester, you need to communicate effectively with your team (including both technical and non-technical personnel) so that you could easily understand each other. Especially communication with Developers is crucial because the main purpose of QA engineer’s work is to find bugs and then have them fixed by developers due to their proper communication skills. So, any non-healthy communication between QA engineers and Developers may lead to the failure of the mission and unfixed bugs will be the result of that. Any unfixed bug in its turn is a source of “danger" for the entire system.


Time Management skills

Time Management skills are essential for any employee. According to recent researches, time management is one of the top five most demanded soft skills.
Good time management implies the following skills: multitasking, prioritizing, scheduling, appointment managing, delegation, planning, etc.
In other words, it is the ability to manage your working time productively and efficiently and, therefore, meeting all your deadlines, keeping your working process organized and systematized․
The key point in time management is the focus, as jumping from one to another task may affect your productivity and cause stressful situations for you.


Attention to details

Another soft skill that every QA engineer must own is attention to detail while accomplishing tasks, observing documentation, requirements, or product specifications.
Being a detail-oriented employee means having the ability to allocate your cognitive resources to achieve absoluteness and accuracy when managing your tasks. Identifying even a minor bug in the software under test may have a serious trickle-down effect on the entire application. So, don’t ever underestimate the importance of being detail-oriented at your work.


Fast-learning skills

The IT industry is in constant growth and development. To stay a competitive specialist you have to be extremely up-to-date with all business needs and tendencies.
You must be ready for any challenges like learning (relatively) new tools or approaches required by your management or your clients.
It is impossible without your strong ability of fast learning, flexibility, and stress resistance.
In addition to fast learning skills, we can mention researching skills as well, because in most cases you must have to find your needed information on your own and it may demand special skills.


Confrontation skills / Strong character

Being a QA engineer requires a strong ability to stand up for your point of view even if no one is on your side.
You need to own solid confrontation skills to controvert, negotiate, and finally persuade your interlocutors to listen and take your opinion into account. Otherwise, you can not succeed and grow in this sphere.



  • Other soft skills also important for QA engineers:

    Proactivity
  • Creative minding
  • Analytical thinking
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Decision-making skills
  • Team playing skills

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