Overview

If you're looking for a career that will allow you to work with the latest technology and help make products more reliable, a career in test engineering may be right for you. Test engineers play a critical role in ensuring that products meet safety and quality standards. They work with developers and other team members to create tests that guarantee the product is ready for release and adhere to the acceptable quality level. Today, we will look at four areas in this blog, which will give you an idea of what Test Engineers do and how to start working as one.

What is a Test Engineer?

Depending on the company, a test engineer, also known as a Quality Engineer, QA, Tester, etc., works with teams to design and execute tests to assess and ensure the desired quality of a product is achieved. When we say "desired level of quality," we mean confirming that the product is good enough for consumer needs. When we say "testing," we mean measuring to see if the product is good enough and reducing the level of risk. In other words, testing helps us know if the desired level of quality is met. Testing can include anything from verifying the functionality of a website to making sure a car's safety features are up to par. Test engineers often work with other engineers and developers to create tests that will catch errors or glitches in a product before it goes to market.

What do Test Engineers do?

A Test Engineer is a crucial advocate for quality on software projects. In today's fast-paced environments where companies want to get products to market fast, a whole-team approach to building quality products is vital. By whole-team, we mean that everyone on the project team—including developers, testers, analysts, designers, product owners, and ops—shares responsibility for quality. The approach means working together to define what "Done" looks like and Shift Left testing (testing earlier in the development process).

Quality is a team effort that cannot be achieved exclusively by a Test Engineer. Many areas in a project can affect quality—for example, vaguely written, untestable user stories or poorly designed system architectures that don't scale with increased demand. Test Engineers have specialized skills to assist teams in ensuring that quality assurance is built into every stage of the development process in various ways. For example, Test Engineers can achieve this by being involved early in the project to help prevent issues from occurring later. This early involvement could mean asking questions about design or architecture choices that might impact testing. It could also mean being proactive about identifying risk areas and developing plans to mitigate those risks.

Test Engineers can coach other team members on different ways to test features. They can also build frameworks to automate the test process to access quality and improve team velocity quickly. Test Engineers can do many types of testing. Here are a few non-exhaustive examples of the different kinds of testing that Test Engineers may do or assist the team with: unit testing, API testing, user interface testing, and exploratory testing.

Skills required for Test Engineering

To be a successful test engineer, you will need strong analytical and problem-solving skills. You must be able to think critically and pay attention to detail. In addition, you will need to have a strong understanding of both software development and testing methodologies. In today's times, you will also need to be able to work well under pressure and meet deadlines. Finally, as you will be working with other engineers and developers, good communication skills are necessary.

How to become a Test Engineer

There are many ways to get into test engineering. Often, companies are more interested in your skills and experience than your formal education. Having a degree in computer science or a related field can give you a leg up when applying for jobs. Some people even transition into Test Engineering from other roles such as Software Engineers. In addition to a degree, taking courses or getting certification in software testing can also be helpful. I highly recommend the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) for certification. Creating a portfolio by building projects with various types of testing and hosting them on platforms such as GitHub, Bitbucket, or Gitlab for potential employers to see is a great way to demonstrate your testing skills. The most important thing for becoming a Test Engineer is to have the necessary skills and knowledge.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a career that will allow you to work with the latest technology and help make products more reliable, a career in test engineering may be right for you. Test engineers play a critical role in ensuring that products meet safety and quality standards. They work with developers and other team members to create tests that guarantee the product is ready for release. Although there are some specific skills required for this field, anyone interested in pursuing a career in test engineering can do so by following these simple steps. So are you ready? Start your journey today!