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Quality Assurance - Competency / Skills matrix
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QA & Testing
Test Execution: Execute test cases systematically, verify application functionality against requirements, perform exploratory testing on features, understand basic testing concepts and terminology (functional vs non-functional, Black Box vs White Box testing)
Bug Reporting: Create detailed bug reports with reproduction steps, document test results accurately, track issues through their lifecycle, report defects with appropriate severity and priority
Testing Skills: Test across different browsers and devices, validate forms and user inputs, use developer tools for investigation, write simple automated tests using basic programming knowledge
Tools & Environment: Learn QA tools and test management systems, work with API testing tools (e.g., Postman), understand test environment setup, use version control (Git) for test code
Quality Process: Follow testing procedures and standards, understand test coverage concepts, prepare test data effectively, know what test cases should include
Test Design: Create comprehensive test plans and test cases using test design techniques, design edge case and boundary tests, define test strategies for features, understand regression vs re-testing, know testing pyramid and V-model
Test Automation: Build and maintain automated test suites (UI or API, or both) following BDD practices, write end-to-end tests using at least one modern framework (e.g., Playwright, Cypress), implement page object model pattern, integrate tests into CI/CD pipelines, use version control effectively (handle merge conflicts), use code quality tools (linters, formatters) for test code
Advanced Testing: Perform integration and system testing, validate database states using basic SQL queries, conduct basic performance testing, select and manipulate DOM elements using various selectors, create test data factories and fixtures
Quality Metrics: Track quality metrics (bug rates, test coverage), identify and report test reliability issues, analyze test results and trends, write correct assertions and create reusable test functions
Process Improvement: Suggest testing process improvements, help optimize test environments, contribute to testing standards, prepare test data sets effectively
Knowledge Sharing: Help junior QA engineers with testing techniques and tools, share testing knowledge and best practices
Test Architecture: Design comprehensive test automation frameworks, define testing strategy for major releases, build end-to-end test suites across multiple services, understand TDD and BDD approaches and create test scenarios in BDD format
E2E Optimization: Optimize end-to-end test execution time and reliability, implement parallel test execution, reduce test flakiness through better wait strategies and test isolation, optimize test data management and cleanup, implement visual regression testing
Performance Testing: Conduct performance and load testing using at least one tool (k6, Locust, or JMeter), define performance test scenarios and success criteria, analyze performance bottlenecks and memory leaks, integrate performance testing into CI/CD pipelines, monitor application performance metrics
Advanced Testing Practices: Implement contract testing between services, establish security testing in QA pipeline, test APIs with advanced tools understanding REST APIs and HTTP response codes, execute tests across multiple environments, implement visual testing and accessibility testing
Quality Leadership: Ensure test reliability in CI/CD, drive test coverage improvements (maintain ~70%+ coverage), coordinate testing across multiple teams, debug failing tests by inspecting network calls and logs, simulate different network conditions and device environments
Tool & Platform Selection: Evaluate and implement new QA tools, optimize test infrastructure, establish testing best practices, use cross-browser testing tools (e.g., BrowserStack) and browser devTools, perform cross-browser and mobile compatibility testing
Strategic Planning: Plan QA effort for complex features, influence quality standards in development process, represent QA in technical planning, apply ISTQB knowledge in practical scenarios, prioritize issues based on impact and urgency
Technical Mentorship: Mentor team members on testing strategies and automation, conduct workshops on QA best practices, guide team in quality-focused thinking
Organizational Standards: Define QA standards and frameworks company-wide, oversee quality across multiple product teams, establish QA tool strategy, configure and utilize test management platforms (e.g., X-Ray, Zephyr)
Strategic Alignment: Align QA with business objectives and risk tolerance, approve test strategies for major initiatives, ensure QA involvement in product planning, estimate testing effort and complexity for defined tasks
E2E at Scale: Implement test sharding and distribution strategies for parallel execution, optimize end-to-end test suites for CI/CD pipelines, design scalable test infrastructure with containerization and cloud resources, implement test result aggregation and reporting systems, manage test execution across multiple environments and configurations
CI/CD Integration: Establish comprehensive e2e testing in CI/CD pipelines, design test execution strategies (smoke tests, regression suites, full test runs), implement test reporting and notification systems, optimize pipeline performance through intelligent test selection and parallelization, integrate quality gates and test results into deployment decisions
Quality at Scale: Lead scaling of test automation infrastructure, establish quality culture across engineering, drive quality metrics and improvements, write advanced database queries for test data setup, perform non-functional testing (performance, load testing, stress testing)
Advanced Performance: Design and execute comprehensive performance testing strategies, implement continuous performance testing, analyze and optimize application performance bottlenecks, establish performance budgets and SLAs, integrate performance testing into development lifecycle
Innovation: Introduce innovative testing approaches (AI-assisted testing, chaos engineering, mutation testing), optimize test environments at scale, represent QA in leadership forums, mock external services (REST APIs or GraphQL) in automated tests, understand HTML/CSS for DOM selector usage, document bugs thoroughly with steps to reproduce, context, and evidence
Quality Vision: Define quality strategy for the entire organization, establish quality goals and KPIs, build QA organization structure, participate in requirements phase to identify ambiguities early, create comprehensive test plans for features and projects
Strategic Initiatives: Lead major quality initiatives across products, ensure quality standards in all products, represent QA at executive level, configure and analyze security testing tools (SAST/DAST), hold QA certifications (e.g., ISTQB)
Investment & Culture: Drive investment in quality infrastructure and tools, establish quality culture across the company, balance quality with speed at scale, embed security checks in automated tests, write production-ready and fully typed automation code, adapt to multiple test frameworks
External Representation: Represent company quality practices externally, influence industry QA standards, build QA thought leadership, understand application architecture for holistic quality view, implement complex test logic, stay current with QA trends and share insights, interpret system architecture diagrams for end-to-end test design
