Software Quality Assurance Specialist Job Description

What does a Software Quality Assurance Specialist do?

Quality assurance (QA) specialists develop and execute software testing plans and procedures. A QA specialist is responsible to catch, document, and report bugs and coding errors to the software development team. They are required to be adept in the development environment, database management, and component-specific software and languages.

Duties and Responsibilities:

These are some of the core duties and responsibilities of a Software Quality Assurance Specialist, however, specific tasks will depend on the type of business, organization, client, or project.

• Design test plans, scenarios, scripts, or procedures to identify software problems and their causes
• Document software issues using a bug tracking system
• Develop standards and procedures to determine product quality and release readiness
• Report bugs or defects to software developers for correction
• Identify, analyze, and document problems with program function, output, or content
• Participate in product design reviews to provide input on functional requirements, designs, schedules, or potential problems
• Monitor debugging process results
• Stay up-to-date with new testing tools and test strategies

Products/Technologies a Software Quality Assurance Specialist may work with:

• Test case management: Test Manager, Testlink, Spira, QA Symphony
• Defect tracking: Bugzilla, Jira, IBM Rational ClearQuest
• Load test: JMeter, LoadUI
• Functional test: Selenium
• Automated testing software: Selenium, HP Quick Test Professional, IBM Rational, TestComplete