The quest for software quality significantly highlights the role of the software tester. In an era where development quality often serves as a key differentiator, the tester, particularly a Quality Assurance (QA) tester, makes a crucial difference in achieving a successful process.
From correcting deviations to preventing incidents or errors, the software tester's role has become indispensable for delivering a quality product. They also play a vital role in Agile Testing, focusing on iterative and incremental developments. Thanks to the software tester, it's possible to initiate a process based on continuous deliveries and improvements, incorporating feedback from various perspectives.
In this context, and from our experience facilitating testing processes, icaria Technology reviews the increasingly important role of the software tester.
A software tester is a professional specialized in software testing, primarily tasked with assessing the quality and functionality of a development before its release or implementation.
They identify and review error corrections, ensuring the software meets customer requirements and expectations.
Today, their role is especially crucial, recognizing that testing should occur before the final production phase. Instead, iterative testing through different development phases ensures better final results.
This includes designing the software testing plan, incorporating cases, scenarios, and test data sets to evaluate the software's performance according to business needs.
They may collaborate with system users, developers, and support teams. Types of tests they might design include regression, integration, performance, and usability tests.
The software tester may also be responsible for conducting these tests, all while adhering to departmental and project deadlines and ensuring the proper use of resources.
The software tester provides objective information to project teams on potential errors, defects, or operational issues, generating records in a tracking system.
They also ensure documentation of tests, including results and error reports, crucial for tracking testing progress and facilitating collaboration with team members.
There are different types of software testers based on the various software tests. We can distinguish functional testers, performance testers, usability testers, security testers, compatibility testers, regression testers, or integration testers.
The Quality Assurance tester deserves special mention. They ensure a quality focus throughout the software lifecycle, often involving activities beyond testing, such as reviewing requirements, defining quality standards, or implementing best practices.
The QA tester is closely associated with agile development methodologies like Scrum or Kanban. A key advantage of having this type of software tester is their preventive approach, aiming to identify and address problems before they occur, rather than focusing solely on detecting and fixing errors.
Having a QA tester on the software development team means a greater capacity for early error detection, resulting in improved software quality and user experience, and long-term cost reduction.
Tools like icaria TDM complement the work of the Quality Assurance tester by eliminating or masking identifiable information from data used in software testing processes.
To learn more about the crucial role of software testers in the current development context and tools to streamline the testing process, icaria Technology can help. Contact us to discover how.