Lately, it seems as though the industry confuses the role of QA with ‘test automation engineer’. The presenters will explain why, for a number of reasons, being a skilled analyst is more beneficial to a team. They will propose that some of these qualities are being sidelined in the industry’s drive for QAs who code and will discuss the consequences of these hiring decisions.

1. XConf 2 0 1 4
ANALYSE THE ANALYST
Hire QAs for the Right Reasons

2. MOST JOB DESCRIPTIONS LOOK LIKE THIS
2

3. MOST JOB DESCRIPTIONS LOOK LIKE THIS
3

4. THIS IS ME.
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5. 5

6. 6
WE FELL BEHIND

7. WE BECAME THE
BOTTLENECK
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8. OUR TESTS WERE
IGNORED 8

9. MINIMIZE TIME TO MARKET
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10. 10

11. 11

12. AND THAT’S ME.
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14. 14

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17

18. LET’S TAKE A LOOK BACK
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19. I’M UNEMPLOYABLE.

20. "Facebook has no dedicated QA team; all
Facebook engineers are responsible for writing
automated tests for their code and keeping the
tests maintained as the underlying code changes.”
- Steven Grimm, Engineer at Facebook
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21. EXPLORATORY VS.
AUTOMATION
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22. RISK VS. REWARD 22

23. 23

24. THE WORD ANALYST
MEANS A LOT TO US.
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25. LET’S SEE THE ADVERT ONE MORE TIME
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26. Collaborate with the entire development team to identify
needs and gather requirements.
!
This includes but is not limited to Business Analysts, Developers,
User Experience Designers, Operations, and Product Owners to
determine best strategy to achieve the highest quality
application.
!

27. 27
Have a deconstructive mindset.
!
Be a critical thinker - understanding of full life cycle development
right from the requirements gathering to delivery.
!
Experience with exploratory testing, not just working to test
plans.

28. 28
!
Awareness of test automation and ability to spot points of value
in the process.
!
Advocate for best practices like pair programming, Test Driven
Development (TDD), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous
Delivery (CD).
!

29. OUR REQUEST TO YOU…
29

30. THANKS!
ANY QUESTIONS?
30
@kozak_chris @masaladani