I am a Quality Assurance Engineer with Grio. If you partner with Grio, there is a good chance that I will get the opportunity to work with you to create a final product you love. In this blog post, I will tell you a bit more about myself and the role of the Quality Assurance Engineer.

Background

I was born in Darlington, South Carolina and I graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Computer Science Degree. While this means that I do have a background in programming, I quickly realized that the stress of programming was not for me. Instead, I chose to keep my hair (and my sanity) and instead pursue a career as a Quality Assurance Engineer. However, my programming background has proven beneficial, as it allows me to better understand the developers and collaborate with them on projects. 

The Ingredients of a Good QA Engineer

When people ask me how I became a QA Engineer, I tell them that I started when I was a child. As a child, I loved doing the “spot the difference” picture puzzles. I enjoyed finding mistakes, breaking things down, and discovering how things worked. Even way back then, I was already exploring the fundamentals of quality assurance engineering.

I believe that QA Engineers need three primary traits if they wish to succeed: 

• A Naturally-Inquisitive Mindset. QA requires you to break down a project, understand how it works, and identify problematic and incorrect areas.
• Great Communication Skills. As a QA Engineer, you frequently communicate with both your client and your developers to create the final product.
• An Active Work Presence. Though I am a naturally passive person, you can’t be passive in your work as a QA Engineer. You have to be proactive in both your review and your communication. 

QA and Developers 

Most people assume that QA Engineers and Developers are constantly at odds and butting heads. However, I like to think of QA Engineers and Developers more like siblings. When you have siblings, you can pick on them or argue with them, but you don’t let anyone else mess with them. I strive to have that same relationship with my developers; I will be honest with them when they make mistakes but will stand up for them wherever possible. For example, I frequently serve as the middleman between clients and developers to ensure that our clients get the best product without our developers doing extra or unnecessary work. 

The key to a good relationship between a QA Engineer and Developer is strong communication. When I work with developers, I am very intentional in my verbal and written communication because I know that interpretation is vital.  

I love being a QA Engineer, and I am excited to work with new clients and show them the value that QA can bring to a product!