| February 2006 |
| By Michael Bridges |
It has always been a myth that QA is not a career path but a day-job for those studying for higher IT positions such as developer, DBA, etc. Perhaps because QA positions are often filled by diverse people, including some with non-technical backgrounds. Perhaps because it is so wide-ranging it is difficult to easily sum up in one word (e.g., “coder” or “architect”). Perhaps because it is so hard to do, that its attrition creates a misimpression. Perhaps because there is a significant salary gap between the jr. and sr. levels. But I believe the myth most likely arose simply because not much is commonly known about QA outside the field. In my eyes, QA has always been the top job in IT -- the most important, demanding, interesting, creative, challenging, “dangerous,” and lucrative. Its members are the jet fighter pilots of IT…less the glory.
Currently I am the Principal QA Analyst in a Bank HQ managing all test automation development and execution (functional and performance), large-project test planning, and all web-based product testing. The IT operation I work in has an annual budget of $60M and 306 people. The QA group I work in consists of 22 people and 24 robots (i.e., automation tool licenses with an estimated work capacity equivalence of 720 people).
Most Important
The Bank I work for develops applications in-house as well as customizes and integrates many large third-party applications that are delivered tested. Its policy for the unrelenting pursuit of Quality has us testing all of them for initial deployment and at every maintenance release. For the sake of their thousands of users, it is always a good thing we do. Without good QA, moderate to catastrophic effects could unfold from lost business to irreparable harm to the Bank’s reputation to government closure.
Most Demanding
QA is the knot that ties everything in IT together, instituting rules that govern the actions and interfaces among disparate groups (a.k.a. process), driving the forward motion of projects to their point of deployment-readiness (a.k.a. test planning), and being the business-facing, accountable party for IT successes and failures (a.k.a. deployment signoff). In addition QA addresses the broad spectrum of activities supporting test execution (a.k.a. lab operations), and – by far the least understood activity of all – design, construction, and testing of automated test frameworks (a.k.a. software development). A QA group in any sizable enterprise or VAR is itself a microcosm IT operation and internal professional services group wrapped in one. Managing it requires a person fluent in the languages of management and machine.
Most Interesting
The software QA field is in constant motion, adapting to the challenges brought about by rampant advances in technologies, the growing complexity, scale, and distribution of applications and their development. Theories for tackling quality problems are the domain of university professors.
Most Creative
At the core, the QA Manager is an inventor. Fortunately, all of the same technologies available to the Enterprise Developers are also available to QA Engineers, and much much more. The automated functional test tools on the market are designed to map applications-under-test at the object level in order to manipulate them as a user would. In addition they have access to the OS shell. Hence, every other application-not-under-test can readily be mapped and its functionality co-opted for use in a test solution. Metaphorically, QA Engineers are programming in the treetops where the whole forest is visible and only the imagination limits the degree of test efficiency that can be achieved. That is not to say that specialized helper apps written in general purpose languages aren’t also required to fill particular test needs.
Most Challenging
Leveraging automation tools into frameworks that reliably scale without big maintenance problems is not simple. Yet, that is the requirement. Time and people are scarce resources. Working around automation tool/product incompatibilities and other technical obstacles is daily fare. It takes what can only be gained by experience to come up with reliable workarounds. But, if you have a good team dynamic, this becomes fun.
Most “Dangerous”
The politics of the QA Manager must be like none other because it involves so many people of so many backgrounds and must be successful in order to achieve the end goal. That is to say, don’t expect a CEO-edict to hand you the cooperation you’ll need to make it all happen. You must earn that respect day-by-day, person-by-person, over time with sound business and technical reasoning and professionalism. Even then, the odds can be stacked against you – market pressure is much more powerful than reason. Try to make friends not adversaries.
Most Lucrative
In my experience, I’ve seen few experts in the field who can truly make it happen. Further, the in-demand tool expertise is rarified because of their extraordinarily high prices. The only way to learn them well is on the job at a healthy company. So, there is unmet demand in the market for proven practitioners, and that scarcity drives salaries up. Recruiters have told me QA management positions are some of the hardest for them to fill. In the national surveys my salary is approaching the V.P. range. Why? Because salary is a small fraction of the quantifiable value-add being supplied by the director of so large an army of robot testers.
Skills
To make your superiors successful and work harmoniously with other middle-managers:
- Service-Oriented Personality
- Public Speaking: PowerPoint
- Business Writing
- Business Administration
To manage your analysts (your domain specialists/test case data designers & maintainers/test results evaluators)
- Analytical & Creative Thinking: Test Design
- Organizational / Planning / Project Management
To manage your automators (your tools group):
- Operating Systems: DOS, Windows, Linux
- Structured Programming: C
- OO Programming: C#.NET, VB, other
- Scripting: VB, other scripting language(s)
- Systems Architecture, Analysis & GUI Design: Visio, other
- Configuration Management: ClearCase, other
- Defect Tracking: ClearQuest, other
- Performance Testing: n-tier architectures: web servers, app servers, DBs, networking, common tools
- Whitebox Testing
- Blackbox Testing
- Technical Writing: Requirements Specifications
Notes
Of course QA Managers’ experiences will vary widely along with the nature of the applications they test, the technologies they use, the companies they work for, the industries they are in, etc... These are the observations of one. I hope they have been useful to you.
Michael Bridges works in Orange County, CA as a Principal QA Analyst in the IT department of a Bank.
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