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What Does a QA Tester Do? A Practical Overview

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SkillVeris Team

AI Research Team

Jul 11, 2024 8 min read
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What Does a QA Tester Do? A Practical Overview
Key Takeaway

A QA tester's core job is finding defects in software before they reach customers, through planned, repeatable testing.

In this guide, you'll learn:

  • Manual testing and automated testing are complementary, not competing, approaches used together on most teams.
  • A well-written bug report includes clear reproduction steps, expected versus actual behavior, and enough context for a developer to act on it.
  • Test cases are typically derived directly from requirements or user stories, not invented ad hoc during testing.
  • Regression testing, checking that new changes haven't broken existing features, takes up a large share of QA effort on mature products.

1What Is a QA Tester?

A QA tester, short for quality assurance tester, is responsible for finding defects in software before it reaches customers, by designing and executing tests against a product's expected behavior.

The role exists because developers, close to their own code, tend to test the paths they expect to work; a dedicated tester approaches the same software looking specifically for what might break.

2Daily Responsibilities

A QA tester's day typically alternates between designing new test cases and executing existing ones against new builds of the product.

  • Writing test cases based on requirements, user stories, or specifications.
  • Executing manual test cases and recording pass or fail results.
  • Filing clear, reproducible bug reports for anything that fails.
  • Re-testing fixed bugs to confirm they're actually resolved.
  • Running regression tests to confirm new changes haven't broken existing features.

3Manual vs Automated Testing

Manual testing means a person directly interacts with the software to check its behavior, which is well suited to exploratory testing and cases that require human judgment.

Automated testing means scripts execute predefined checks without a person clicking through each step, which is well suited to repetitive regression checks that run on every build.

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4Writing a Good Bug Report

A bug report is only useful if a developer can act on it without needing to chase the tester for clarification.

  • Clear, numbered steps to reproduce the issue from a known starting point.
  • Expected behavior versus what actually happened.
  • Environment details: browser, device, or app version where relevant.
  • Screenshots, logs, or recordings when they clarify the issue faster than text.

5Skills a QA Tester Needs

Technical skill requirements vary by role, but a strong analytical mindset matters across every QA position.

  • Attention to detail and a habit of questioning assumed behavior.
  • Clear written communication for bug reports and test documentation.
  • Basic understanding of how the product's architecture affects where bugs hide.
  • For automation-focused roles, scripting skills in a language like Python or JavaScript.

6Career Growth in QA

Many QA testers start with manual testing and expand into automation as they build scripting skills, eventually moving into dedicated SDET or QA automation engineer roles.

Others move toward QA leadership, focusing on test strategy, process design, and mentoring junior testers across a growing product.

7Next Steps

If you're starting out in QA, practice writing detailed test cases and bug reports for real applications, since clarity in documentation is what separates a useful tester from a slow one.

SkillVeris's topic guides cover testing concepts and adjacent programming fundamentals worth building if you're aiming toward test automation.

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About the Publisher

SV

SkillVeris Team

AI Research Team

Our AI team covers the latest in machine learning, generative AI, and emerging tech — clearly and accurately.

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