What is Quality Assurance?

Quality assurance is the process of validating a product whether it is meeting the required specification and customer expectations. It is a process-driven approach which makes easy and defines goals regarding the product design development and production. The primary objective of quality assurance is to track and resolve inadequacy before product release. Most of the organizations often assign distinct QA departments, which help to increase customer confidence and reliability, and also help to enhance efficiency and overall work processes. Quality assurance helps the organization to learn whether the product or services are up to standards or not, whether you can provide customers with the kind product or services that will keep them returning. The basic concept of quality assurance is to deliver a product that continually keeps up a high quality. It is a practical approach where defects are found out before a product goes to the public. This is important to gain customer satisfaction.

Benefits of Quality Assurance:

With the help of Quality assurance, an organization is able to meet its customer’s demands and expectations. A high-quality product can develop faith in your customers, which in turn, makes you competitive in the market. Quality assurance also saves costs and fixes issues before it becomes a major problem. It also helps to set and maintain quality standards by preventing issues from starting. It is essential for any organization to invest heavily in QA nowadays. When quality assurance is carried out in the right way, it provides confidence, tests the product and allows companies to market their products with fewer doubts.

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Why make a career in Quality Assurance:

Quality assurance is one of the essential phases of the software industry. The idea behind adopting this process is the requirement of flawlessly tested software or the application by clients, worldwide. All the organizations want to develop well tested and a good quality software product before being deployed to the customers.  Thus, it is the primary concern for the developers to carry out all the tests and assurance checks by eliminating all the errors and defects of the product, before offering it to the customer. As quality assurance is the crucial step in software development, the organizations are always looking for the quality assurance analyst, tester and thus there is a plenty of job opportunities for the candidates who are looking for a career in this field.

It is a distinctive career objective to be a QA professional and can be equally satisfying. The career is so different, and off the beaten track, that discussion at universities regarding software testing careers are also one of a kind and marginally uncommon. It is realized that there is certifiably not a standard method to begin a profession in QA. On record, more individuals have fallen into the profession instead of arriving by planning.

Quality assurance is part of the entire software lifecycle and has business objectives interlaced into it. The initial time in a tester’s career is not that much smooth as one wants it to be. And the action meted out to testers is not similar as experienced by developers. Once the testers complete this rough patch, there is an excellent chance for them to transform their careers into great leaders. In the present market situation, experienced QA professionals are highly adaptable in managing tasks. They can not only manage QA testing processes but are prepared to handle the challenges in their career.

A test engineer can proceed in his or her career path by enhancing their work abilities and by gaining experience. A test engineer can progress their career path as a software test lead, test manager, software quality assurance manager, and product manager. Presently, many organizations are providing advanced on-job training which helps any candidate to enhance their knowledge and career track.

Well, there are various reasons which support this career domain. Below are the few reasons which explain the fact that why one should choose a career in quality assurance.

• Demand for the software testers has seen the entire new rise in recent time. The demand graph of the software tester has increased tremendously in current years.
• The need for Quality Analyst does not fall in the time of recession or economic downfall. The company growth might slow down, but the job position for Quality Analysts never disappears.
• Many Quality Analyst positions are project based so the better tester you become, the faster your salary will grow.
• According to global research, every year Quality Assurance and Testing budgets are raised by 9% to achieve Company business objectives, thus creating a market for Quality Assurance professionals.
• Quality Assurance (QA) jobs gaining importance in the IT industry. No matter it is an automated or manual software testing, demand for Quality Inspection experts/Quality Analyst is enormous.
• Quality assurance work profile and job responsibilities are simple and easy to handle which in turn makes the adoption procedure simple and more comfortable.
• A candidate can enhance their career features by becoming a test consultant or a test engineer for any of the software giants.
• The test engineer profile is highly challenging, but at the same time, it is an exciting and fun-filled role.
• A candidate can get a lot of interactive sessions that make the work enjoyable and also helps in gaining higher confidence levels by regular interactive meetings with the Construction Directors, Quality Manager, Project Managers, and the CEO.
• The quality assurance profile provides you a productive platform to share and discuss your own views and ideas along with the helpful, reasonable thoughts from the panel.
• By staying for a long duration and achieving high experience, a candidate can expect quick promotions and growth along with an amazing salary revision.
• Assured specialized quality assurance training and upgrading yourself at regular intervals enables you to grab the fantastic career opportunities.

Job Outlook for QA professionals:

There are various job titles available for QA professionals. Below are some of the job titles for QA professionals.

• Quality Assurance Analyst
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• Quality Assurance Manager
• Quality Assurance Inspector
• Quality Assurance Tester

You may also like to read: Emerging Trends in Quality Assurance that every Software Tester Should know

Salary and Job Trends for QA Professionals

The average salary for a QA analyst is around $68,378 per year in the US which is on the higher side for jobs in the IT sector. With most job profiles experience plays a huge role in salary. Software Test skills, system testing, test planning, Black Box Testing, and regression testing are all much required skill set within QA that increase pay. According to Indeed, the following are the average salary for the job profiles related to Quality assurance.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a QA analyst in India is around ₹624, 221 per year.

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Conclusion

It is easy for QA professionals to make a smooth transition to a higher role and responsibilities if filled with the correct incentives and motivation. They have been known to enhance  their positions in advanced data analytics, finance and in rare cases. The candidates who wish to build their career in QA have various job opportunities with different job roles in this particular field. The critical fact is that the key skill sets such as critical thinking, big picture method to problems, process focus and enhanced organizational ability will translate to higher advanced careers in Quality Assurance.

Check out this insightful video on Quality Assurance Tutorial for Beginners: