Roles and responsibilities in the software testing team

Software testing is a set of methods used for checking whether a product meets its technical requirements. Due to the complex and multi-level nature of the testing process, it is performed by a team of professionals with clearly defined knowledge areas and responsibilities assigned to each specialist individually. In this article, we will look at what the roles in a software testing team are, along with the responsibilities they take on when working on a project.

QA team duties

There were many examples when the software was not tested properly that taught the IT industry to take QA seriously. For example, the Apple FaceTime bug or the Windows 10 problem with the Surface Book 2. It is no surprise that today's tech companies are aiming to create well-established quality assurance departments. 

The most important responsibilities of the testing team include the following:

Requirements analysis

Before any testing or even planning, the testing team must thoroughly understand the client's expectations of the future product. This stage also includes testing the SLA – Service Level Agreement between the company that owns the program and its future users.

Test planning

The days when the QA team was sitting around waiting for the software developers to finish the product so they could start working are long gone. Today, the creation of test scenarios and test cases starts simultaneously with the development process, if not earlier. That means it requires roundtable discussions, brainstorming, and in-depth research by all core team members. 

Creating test documentation

Accurate reporting is just as important as test scenarios. Documenting the process guarantees that you can easily keep track of what has already been done during the project and the ongoing process. In addition, clear and concise documentation is the only way to quickly introduce new team members to the project development process.

Executing test cases

The primary responsibility of the QA department is the execution of the tests. This process includes detecting and reporting bugs, setting up the security testing environment, recommending possible ways to improve software performance, checking fixes, and general technical supervision of each bug throughout its lifecycle. In order to keep testing practices up-to-date, the team should check industry trends from time to time, implement modern tools in their work, and rely on the best quality control methods in the course of their work.

QA team roles: responsibilities

Depending on the size of the project, the software testing team may vary in size, job titles, testing methodology, and technologies used. Still, the central unit of any QA department is the position of a software testing engineer, which can also be called a quality assurance engineer or software tester. It is a very broad term that says little about professional experience, technological set, and approach to testing. This means that if a team has, let's say, three software testers, it's likely that these specialists check the quality of the product in different ways and even at different stages of the project life cycle.

The organizational structure of a QA team usually looks the following way:

The quality assurance process involves many levels of service and requires a deep understanding of the software development process. Each team member has unique responsibilities that should not be neglected. Modern approaches to software testing allow companies of all sizes to strengthen their team of testing professionals even with a small budget or in a short time frame.