Top 8 Skills To Become The Best QA Analyst

Are you wondering what are the necessary top 8 skills to become the best QA Analyst? We have compiled the top skills and mindset required to become a successful QA Analyst in this article.

In my journey of being a QA Analyst, I have met many students who ask me how to get into testing and how can I become the best at it. My answer is always “personality is everything- testing chooses its people”.

You may be an Einstein, but this is not the Game of Thrones (brains) but of Avengers (personalities). In all the wars that the Avengers have won, what stood out for me was their personalities over smartness or their individual powers.

So, in this article, I would like to take you through my formula for being the best QA Analyst using Avenger’s personality description.

I believe most people around the world can relate to avengers, considering their popularity. I will not limit my comparison to their personalities only. I will also use some of their powers.

How to Become the Best QA Analyst

Top Skills For QA Analyst

1) The Leadership Of The Captain

Skill Set

• Leadership
• Decision making
• Ownership/Responsibility
• Authority

Let’s kick things off with a man of honor, great strength, protective nature, and great leadership, Captain America. He is the epitome of good leadership. In one of the scenes of Avengers End Game when they were about to travel to the past, he made a speech that got us floating off our seats with butterflies in our stomachs.

You can really feel the impact of the words spoken by the Captain. That’s what I call great leadership, it calls for one to have a great technique to wilder his words with firm authority. A QA Analyst with such a character is destined to grow very fast in his career.

Gone are the days where Project Managers were running projects, these days QA is responsible for most decisions such as a go-live, or no go live. This is where great leadership comes into play. One needs to be very firm with his decisions as well.

Captain America also shows great ownership/responsibility in his work and in most cases “plays by the rules”. One of the skills that make QA personnel excel is the discipline in the documentation of their work, which speaks about ownership of one’s work.

There are rules and standards to be maintained when doing documentation like test plans, test cases, test reports & logging bugs. Testing is a very structured discipline. I have seen extremely smart people falling off the QA waggon due to its nature of choosing people based on personality over brains.

So, if structured work evokes your inner superpowers, then welcome home Captain.

2) Outside The Box Of Iron-Man vs Hulk Smash

 Skill Set

• Creativity
• Exploration
• Working smart

Even though testing is structured, it doesn’t limit creativity. We have all seen how Tony Stark (Iron-Man) has been innovative with his iron suits from the first movie to the last avenger movie. He always thinks outside the box. He is the solutions man.

For this part, I need you to imagine yourself as Iron Man. Maybe not his filthy rich side, just his creative side.

Iron man can program almost anything, build the most complex robot and make it as fancy as he pleases. One thing he can’t program into a robot is unlimited creativity. Thus, creativity should be the haemoglobin in a tester’s body.

Testing techniques can be applied but without creativity their effectiveness is limited. For excellence in your test coverage your thinking should always be “what if I try this”. That’s how you bring your inner Hulk Smash as much as you can.

A developer’s mindset says “code, pack and get it to work” whilst yours as a tester should say, “smash! Let me break it as much as I can”. The point is to ensure that you try out all the possible scenarios you can think of and imagine yourself as an end-user of the product being tested.

The best way to apply the “smash” mindset is by using effective ways to expand test coverage. I personally recommend that when writing test cases; break each requirement down to as many test cases as possible.

Do not just do positive testing all the time, try out more negative testing as well, incorporate some exploratory testing in the mix (but this is more effective if you are experienced with the software in question).

The new hulk that we see in the latest Avengers movie (Endgame) is a combo, with a balance between the Smart (creative) and the Savage (Smash) Hulk. We can even adopt this character in the testing world, where the savage mindset says we have to smash but the smart mindset says we don’t have to go smashing everywhere.

Extra testing (especially exploratory) should focus on areas known to be flooded with bugs. Now, that’s how you leave no stone unturned.

3) Hawkeye’s Precision

Skill Set

• Attention to details
• Agility
• Technical – Automation

Hawkeye redefines precision, and he is all about quickness, aim, and shot to kill, no miss. As a tester, precision is very important. If there was a superpower that all superheroes must have, then that superpower would be being detail orientated for testers. I mean without great attention to detail how can a tester pick up faults?

Hawkeyes also has great agility which affords him compatibility in a fast battlefield where he has to fight opponents that are using bullets. So, a combination of agility and great focus proves to provide one with an opportunity to nail (without Thor’s hammer) more in a limited time.

This combination works great to your advantage in a fast paced environment, driven by deadlines. Your detailed orientation skills ensure that you pick up as many bugs as possible and agility helps you in meeting deadlines. Remember QA is not only about testing but documentation as well which needs a lot of precision.

Hawkeye is also known to be a very technical guy who spends his time perfecting his art during his free time. In some cases, as a QA analyst, you may be required to write or execute automation scripts.

That’s when you wear your technical boots and technical skills need to be constantly approved. As a QA Analyst, you should also keep yourself in the loop of the latest testing tools.

Some instances may also require you to perform back-end testing. So, prepare your mind to dive into the dungeon technical testing.

4) Dr. Strange and Future Shortcomings

Skill Set

• Risk identification
• Decision making

Being a Dr. Strange in the QA world is tricky. Dr. Strange is known to be a spectacular supreme sorcerer with the ability to see multiple futures at once. You can do this through experience in testing.

A good tester applies his experience in determining shortcomings in the live environment. In simple terms, this means through experience a tester should anticipate areas that are likely to have bugs hence focusing his testing in such areas.

But what about cases where you are testing software for the first time? The trick is to apply the mindset of an end-user in your testing to determine future shortcomings when the application goes live. The ability to test for possible shortcomings in the live system also includes the prediction of risks.

Imagine, Dr. Strange had such valuable powers to predict the future but did nothing about it. It’s like ordering a juicy steak at a fancy restaurant but you have no teeth.

So, to reward your hard work in making these risk predictions, the application of mitigation strategies is a must. One way to do this is by automating test cases for high risk areas.

Prioritizing and selecting the right test cases to be automated is one of the top skills for QA Analyst and requires a strong personality as it involves a lot of decision making.

5) Black Panther In The Shoes Of His People

Skill Set

• Comprehension
• Requirements collection
• Think like an end-user
• Inquisitiveness

Now let’s dive into thinking like Black Panther when approaching the needs (requirements) of his people (end users). Black Panther displays the character of being a noble great leader who puts the needs of his people first. As part of being a high achieving tester, one needs to have skills to understand requirements and be able to translate them into test cases.

Testing does not only start when one has to test the actual software. According to the ISTQB Foundation fundamentals, testing early is the cheapest approach.

What that means is that testing should start at the requirements collection stage of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in order to reduce the costs of system development.

Even though the requirements collection is not in our job description. I’ve had so many cases where I will walk with a developer to speak to a business user to discuss requirements. Upon our return, the developer will be partially clued on what the product owner requires. It then became my responsibility to help them understand the requirements.

Please note this was due to the absence of a Business Analyst in our organization at the time. But generally, as a QA Analyst, you should be equipped with comprehension skills of requirements so as the ability to effectively translate them.

Black Panther is also protective of their Vibranium and we have seen him go out of his way to ensure that he brings what belongs to Wakanda back home in one piece.

So testing is not about doing positive or negative testing to meet requirements. One needs to be capable of going out of his way to ensure quality is kept at the highest standard.

A good QA Analyst also challenges requirements for better quality. Going out of your way to ensure good quality also means testing areas out of scope, applying an inquisitive approach with logic.

6) Give It You’re All Like Thor

Skill Set

• Decisive
• Confidence
• Professionalism

A logical mindset is a big win in QA but with a combo of a strong personality, like Thor and his hammer. Thor has a strong personality and a strong sense of not giving up. After his home planet was destroyed and he lost his hammer, he exhausted all possible options to find a way to kill Thanos.

The tester needs to have an approach of finding as many as possible to test a particular item. This also extends to being strong in cases where developers will reject bugs you logged without solid reasons. You should question with proof, but this doesn’t mean you have to be stubborn.

If you are not satisfied with the reasons provided for the bug rejection. You should question the rejection until you are satisfied. Remember decisions on whether an item can be pushed to a live system or not lies with QA’s confidence in that feature.

So, if you as a QA personnel are not confident with a feature due to bugs being rejected, but yet you let that feature go on the live system, that questions your professionalism and your certification as a QA Analyst. Even though Thor went all out to find an alternative solution to the Thanos massacre, he got to a point of defeat & he was compelled to accept.

Just like in testing, one can try all possible scenarios they can think of to ensure great test coverage. But no matter how hungry a tester can be for 100% bug-free software; one needs to be prepared to be dished out with limitations of testing.

According to the ISTQB 2nd Principle, Exhaustive Testing Is Not Practically Possible. This means one of the top skills for QA Analyst is that you have a mindset that also accepts testing limitations.

7) Being A Spider-Man

Skill Set

• Intuition
• Integration

Being Spiderman in testing refers to the ability of webbing thoughts that connects the dots, which comes in handy in approaching integration testing. There are different levels of testing.

Integration testing is one level that can be very tricky, depending on the complexity of the systems being integrated and how they interface. To win the battle for effective Integration testing, you need a “webby” superpower.

We also know that Spiderman has a very strong intuitive personality. A combination of experience and strong intuition can help a tester pick up the least expected bugs during exploratory testing.

Recently, I was testing a report feature & a voice in my head told me to start by looking at another unrelated feature. Guess what? On my first interaction with that screen, I picked up a bug on a not-so-frequently used function of the system.

8) Black Widow’s Focus

Skill Set

• Focus
• Tactical

Black Widow’s winning ability is her focused approach in matters. She achieves this using a divide and conquers technique. She is fully aware she is not a god of thunder that can strike a flood of man in one blow, nor does she have a fancy armor that can shoot 100 missiles to achieve the same.

Her divide and conquer always puts her above her rivals on the battlefield.

In testing, focus is very important in approaching complex features. It’s generally advisable not to bite what you can’t chew. Focused testing wears this advice perfectly. It is one of the top skills for QA Analyst.

Conclusion

I have always believed that a person’s career should be an extension of their personality. If you align your personality with your career you have won a huge battle. As I have explained, test analysis is one career that requires the “right” personality & mindset.

I have seen intellectuals leave QA not because it’s hard, but because their personalities are very different.

So my advice to you will be if you are thinking of going into QA, first assess your personality to see if it matches, or if you are already in QA and you want to accelerate your career, a personality check will steer you on the right path.

I hope this tutorial guides you to identify your personality and be successful as a QA Analyst!! Feel free to give us your feedback or ask any doubts in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.