7 In-Demand Skills Needed for Quality Assurance Engineer Jobs

A quality assurance (QA) engineer monitors all phases of a new product or software to ensure it meets all requirements and standards. In this role, you will check for any bugs in the product, make sure any fixes are rectified before launch, and create test plans and test cases to ensure the accuracy of the product. 

QA engineers usually have at least a bachelor’s degree, along with experience in software development and knowledge of QA testing. In this role, you should also possess management skills to create positive relationships with other team members to help them effectively do their jobs.  

Here are seven essential quality assurance engineer skills you should have and ways to improve your skill set to succeed in this position. 

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Google Project Management:

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Project Management, Change Management, Strategic Thinking, Career Development, Organizational Culture, Risk Management, Quality Management, Project Execution, Agile Management, Problem Solving, Coaching, Scrum, Influencing, Effective Communication, Stakeholder Management, Business Writing, Project Charter, Procurement, Task Estimation, Project Planning

Read more: 11 Key Project Management Skills

1. Communication

Being able to communicate can impact the project’s success and your team's productivity. Working on a QA team requires continuous communication with everyone involved in the project each step of the way. It’s important to express your expectations clearly in simple terms and to match your listener’s knowledge so that it’s comprehendible to them.

Part of communicating is listening, which is an essential QA engineer skill. When you’re working in a team, listening to them is imperative. After all, collaboration with others can reveal suggestions or challenges, ultimately contributing to the project’s success. Listening to the thoughts and feedback from your development team, managers, and stakeholders can prove beneficial throughout the QA process. 

Read more: What Is Effective Communication? Skills for Work, School, and Life

2. Critical thinking

Critical thinking allows you to assess and analyze the product during all its phases. This skill helps you recognize or predict any potential issues and come up with viable solutions. You can use your past experiences on previous projects to anticipate any problems with your current project. Instead of repeating mistakes, you can apply your knowledge and know-how from other projects to avoid pitfalls. 

Critical thinking involves keeping an open mind, so discussing all possible issues and listening to solutions is essential. Then narrow down your choice of solutions to develop a systematic way to draw conclusions and foresee the value of the overall plan.

Read more: What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?

3. Data analysis

Data analysis is the practice of working with data to draw conclusions from its information. A QA engineer may use techniques like audits and documentation to gain important insights regarding product improvements. 

To analyze data, you’ll often create documentation listing all the testing processes included in the quality assurance objectives. Oftentimes you’ll work with a team, including stakeholders and developers, to create the testing strategy. It is crucial to have some familiarity with automated testing tools and knowledge of how to test products to find any potential flaws. 

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Data Analysis, Creating case studies, Data Visualization, Data Cleansing, Developing a portfolio, Data Collection, Spreadsheet, Metadata, SQL, Data Ethics, Data Aggregation, Data Calculations, R Markdown, R Programming, Rstudio, Tableau Software, Presentation, Data Integrity, Sample Size Determination, Decision-Making, Problem Solving, Questioning

Read more: Data Analytics: Definition, Uses, Examples, and More

4. Industry-specific knowledge

Industry-specific knowledge is imperative for those interested in QA engineer jobs, which many people choose to gain in bachelor’s degree programs, bootcamps, and other educational programs. Some companies may require a candidate with several years of experience in manual and automated software testing, testing analysis tools, product development tools, and QA methodologies. Having a strong understanding of technical skills, testing tools, and the company’s QA process allows you to start working with less training.

Do I need to know programming languages? 

Knowledge of specific QA programming skills is also essential. SQL is a language that QA engineers may need to know because it verifies all inserted, updated, or deleted values in the database and alerts you of any errors after processing. This tool works well for back-end testing. Other programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, C#, and Python, can also be helpful to know. 

5. Leadership

As a QA engineer, leadership ensures that all team members understand and can complete their tasks. You should provide each team with the skills they need to complete their duties, including understanding the project’s scope, meeting specifications, and identifying and rectifying any problems.

As a QA engineer, you may be in charge, but you must also be a team player. Maintaining a good relationship with other team members allows them to feel comfortable receiving any feedback you have to help them learn and improve. Creating a supportive and open environment where your team members can share ideas and feedback is vital. 

6. Problem-solving

Because you’ll be tracking bugs and other issues, you need to use your problem-solving skills to anticipate how to resolve these in advance. First, you should analyze the problem so you can devise a viable solution. It’s important to use problem-solving skills to figure out what leads to the problem and how you can come up with a permanent solution to ensure the same problem doesn’t occur in the future. 

7. Time management

As a QA engineer, you’ll often work on tight deadlines, making time-management skills crucial. Planning ahead and prioritizing your day may help you be more productive and reduce unnecessary stress. In addition to your workload, you are also responsible for ensuring that teams meet their deadlines. If one area of the process falls behind or makes a mistake, the timeline affects other QA teams, so staying on top of projects is essential for keeping the team moving along. 

Some effective time-management methods include:

• Learning how to delegate tasks 

• Getting organized and tracking your time using software and other time-management tools

• Conducting efficient meetings that end with action items and deadlines.

Read more: 7 Essential Time Management Skills

Next Steps

Are you interested in building the skills you need to become a successful QA engineer or advance your QA position? Check out online courses such as Google’s Project Execution: Running the Project, which is part of the Google Project Management Professional Certificate program on Coursera. This course focuses on improving your quality and project management, execution, and strategic thinking skills. Upon completion, gain a shareable Professional Certifcate to include in your resume or LinkedIn profile. 

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Project Execution: Running the Project

In Course 4 of the Google Project Management Certificate program, you will delve into the execution and closing phases of the project life cycle. You will ...

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Leadership and Management, Communication, Project Management, Strategy and Operations, Business Communication, Collaboration, Risk Management

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Google Project Management:

Get on the fast track to a career in project management. In this certificate program, you’ll learn in-demand skills, and get AI training from Google experts. Learn at your own pace, no degree or experience required.

4.8

(115,780 ratings)

1,947,594 already enrolled

Beginner level

Learn More

Average time: 6 month(s)

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll build:

Project Management, Change Management, Strategic Thinking, Career Development, Organizational Culture, Risk Management, Quality Management, Project Execution, Agile Management, Problem Solving, Coaching, Scrum, Influencing, Effective Communication, Stakeholder Management, Business Writing, Project Charter, Procurement, Task Estimation, Project Planning