Is becoming a software quality assurance engineer right for me?
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How to become a Software Quality Assurance Engineer
Educational requirements for software quality assurance engineers vary by employer. Many firms look for individuals with a bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems technology, or software engineering.
A good software quality assurance engineer must be creative in their thought process. The ability to think outside the box is crucial to the job, as is the ability to come up with solutions to coding problems that won't affect the overall purpose of the program. One must be able to come up with potential problems that a user might encounter when running the software and develop solutions for those problems before the software is released.
Excellent communication skills are also needed. Being able to explain why one programming solution works over another is needed when working with programmers of different personalities. A software quality assurance engineer is often the middleman between the customer and the developer, so they must be able to blend both points of view in order to achieve the goal.
As deadlines get closer there can be tremendous pressure from upper management to get the job completed on time. The software quality assurance engineer must be able to keep a level head while dealing with upper management and the software engineering team. Keeping detailed records of what was done at what stage helps prevent redundancy of certain errors.