About – QA (Quality Analyst – Assurance)
Category: Agile Business Analysis, General Posted:Jan 22, 2013 By: Ashley MorrisonAbout – Quality Assurance:
The main role of a quality assurance analyst is to develop and put in place quality assurance standards, processes, tools and evaluation methods for the information technology services of an organization. Some quality assurance analysts work as employees of an organization, while others act as consultants, allowing for businesses to have an outsider’s perspective on the performance of their systems.
A quality assurance analyst does his work according to mantras: "fit for purpose" and "right the first time." In other words, quality assurance analysts help organizations make sure that the information systems they have in place are doing the job they are meant to do, and that when new systems are put in place, it is done well from the first time, with no need to replace, change or modify during the implementation phase.
Reviews and Evaluations:
· As a starting point, the quality assurance analyst must review and evaluate the current practices of the organization. The reviews and evaluations determine if the programs are performing according to standards and if they conform to established guidelines. To do so, the analyst will gather and analyze data to support a variety of future proposals including business cases, proposed projects and systems requirements.
When new systems or software are being introduced, the quality assurance analyst will also evaluate and test them to verify that they comply with the organization’s guidelines. If it is approved, the quality assurance analyst will then write, revise and verify current quality standards and test procedures to ensure the new technology is considered.
Recommendations:
· When gaps and areas for improvement are identified during reviews and evaluations, the quality assurance analyst will make recommendations on ways to improve programs or bring in corrections to existing procedures that will solve the problems. The recommendations made by the quality assurance analyst must be valid, accurate, reliable and conform to the organization’s standards.
This responsibility includes writing test plans and scripts for tracking defects and fixes in product development as well as developing software applications, information systems and operations systems. Analytical and problem-solving skills are crucial to ensure the quality assurance analyst makes recommendations that maximize the benefits to the organization.
Monitoring:
· When a recommendation is approved, the quality assurance analyst then sets up the new technologies and monitors them on a regular basis to make sure they are behaving, as they should. They need to track the program’s performance after implementation to ensure it works properly and fixes the problems of the previous operating systems. Monitoring is done during both the testing phase and the implementation phase for new processes, software and applications.