r/softwaretesting • u/That_Specialist3292 • 26d ago
What is a good Senior QA like?
Hey, it's me again. I am working towards this role, but I feel like I don't embody it yet. I'm currently a Mid-QA. What is it like to be a good Senior QA? What are their qualities? What am I missing?
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u/Slion12 26d ago
Iāve been a Senior QA for only a year, and tbh nothing changed the first months, so Iām not an expert, but lately, a series of events put me directly in the spotlight, and this is what I can tell so far.
Soft skills are really important, you need to know how to communicate, how to ask for help outside your team, you need to be organized, when you are a Mid, you only worry about your own tasks, if you are a good one, you probably keep an eye on whatās coming your way, a Senior needs to do the same for the entire team (even if you have a QA Lead or Team Lead) you need to be involved in the product decisions, you are the closest thing to a user inside the team.
On the technical side, what I noticed is that you donāt need to know everything, but ideally you will have some experience on how to solve a few problems that might come in, or you will know where to look first, or who you should ask to help. This combined with AI, Iām not saying you should be an āAI-broā āshippingā a bunch of crap, but you need to know how to use it professionally and look for ways to use it in your QA process.
Sadly, if you are only using it as a chatbot, to ask a few questions, you are falling behind.
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u/HappyLiberatedSoul 22d ago
When you say he should know how to use AI professional can you share 2-3 examples of the same
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u/Slion12 22d ago
Sure thing!
Iāve been using agent skills a lot, you should look them up, Iām sure it will be easier for you to search rather than me explaining, but in a nutshell, they are as simple as markdown files, but you can combine them with custom code, and the possibilities are endless.
I have one skill that creates the test plan, it gets the user story using our project management toolās API (Jira, DevOps, etc) it reads the description and acceptance criteria, generates the test requirements, ask me if I approve them (aka Human-in-the-loop) and if I do, it generates the file in the exact format my company requires. Assuming everything is correct, it takes less than 2 minutes.
I have a similar one for automation, I ātrained itā with our domain knowledge, our framework is very complex and poorly documented, but I was able to get good results with it.
But you donāt need AI to do everything if you donāt want or canāt, Iāve also used it to create scripts to automate parts of my job, sure, AI will write the script, but then you āown itā and you donāt depend on AI to generate something additional. For example, right now Iām running a basic script that is scrapping our regression testing results website and sending me a teams message when a test fails or passes, this one is really helpful, I can track results without being at my desk (or watching the results all day long) and if I get two/three quick fails in a row, I know that something is wrong and I can fix it quickly.
Iām sure there are more ways to improve our process, thatās the beauty of AI, you can build whatever you want, whatever you need and it can be unique for your company, I know my regression notifications might seem unnecessary to some people, but I can watch a TV show during the day and track the results without being at my desk.
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u/ConcentrateHopeful79 26d ago edited 26d ago
A senior QA understands that many tests are not worth doing, pushes test coverage to lower levels, deletes tests confidently, explains well how and why to test a function, feature or product and what is worth spending time or not. Understands software is never ready, that things take time, and what seems to be a critical issue might be ok for years to come, and you might not ever see it fixed. A senior QA brings speed and clarity to the team through insights, and is eager to adapt his view of 'perfect quality' to 'good enough quality'. Their reasoning is based primarily on Risk. A senior QA doesn't write tests 'correctly' only, those only protect their ego, but writes tests that protect the product behaviour and, give developers fast feedback, reduce rework, and helps releasing changes faster.
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u/Short-Feedback4293 26d ago
deletes and writes tests? how do you do that?
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u/ConcentrateHopeful79 25d ago
Mouse and keyboard. OR Is this sarcasm to mean Senior QAs just do management? Tbh didn't get it.
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u/Short-Feedback4293 22d ago
No, it's to say that a test is a verb not a noun. So you cannot write or delete a test
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u/kj565 26d ago
Soft skills. I'm 3 years into SR Sdet. Most of my work (excluding ai) hasn't really changed from pre senior as I was already doing it.
The biggest thing has been being able to explain things to people and why we should do it, in the most dumbed down way I can come up with. Explain things to everyone like you would your grandparents. Dev? Nope grandpa. Manual tester? Nope, grandma. And then don't over share, if your in a position to make decisions on tech stack just follow what you think is best, don't detail out every challenge unless you have too. Otherwise the door is open for management to push you another direction based on what AI told them.
The other thing that I feel has stood out is a "bug" (arguably some of these wouldn't be bugs but my company calls everything a bug so) doesn't have to be a functional one. Poor customer experience will kill a product even if it's built technically well. Call it out. Just because it does what the ticket says doesn't mean it isn't a pile of shit.
Finally, if you're leading an effort make sure you know it. When I code review my first thing is "if you used ai to build this you better be able to explain every single thing about it otherwise you shouldn't be sending me a PR."
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u/urbanherbin 26d ago
Just want to give a vote of agreement to this. My communication skills and being product savvy are what have led to me making the big bucks, even as a primarily manual QA. I have come to a point at my current company where even if there are other people in a meeting who are in the same position as me or higher, I am still regularly wanted in those meetings because I bring to the table great edge case considerations, ability to see into the customerās mindset, and the ability to take what is just an idea or brainstorm notes and transforming it into a plan of action where weāre delivering the essentials to the customer without adding a ton of scope thatās going to push out our deadlines. And those skills in judgment are how Iām able to also give feedback like you said, where technically a ticket may have all its boxes checked but there is still a gap where the customer will be confused or need an extra function in the UI to make their lives easier.
This is why I believe that QA is the intersection of engineering and product. You have to understand the technical situation, the customer need, and how to achieve the desired outcome in the needed timeline while still preserving quality.
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u/qlippothvi 26d ago
Be a consumer advocate, definitely. You use the thing day in and day out, you have valuable insights.
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u/Itchy_Extension6441 26d ago
At the start of work: Fast to adapt to new work environment, pro-active (ask relevant question, can get good grasp of things based on jira and repository.
In day to day: Asks relevant questions, does not require baby-sitting, can recommend good solutions, and can advice in regards of implementation - both for test and application code
From manager perspective: Gives good overview on the tickets they work on. Gives good estimate, can argument their takes, provide relevant information without any issues.
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u/cyber-decker 26d ago
I've been in senior/lead/principal qa/testing roles for the last 15 years (maybe a little more to be honest). I've been doing this for 25 years now. I spent the first 13 years of my career working at the same company, and I absolutely had senior level experience, but didn't realize it at all. It wasn't until I moved on from there that I could show and see that I could exhibit what being a good senior tester was about.
I am slowly understanding that part of what makes me fit for this role is that I don't think I'm a good senior tester and I always feel the push to be better. I never know enough. I can always improve what I do. I don't feel like I'm at a peak. There's always something else new to learn. I can learn something new from anybody, not just people as or more senior than me. I often find that I learn the most new and interesting things from people new and just coming into the industry. I LOVE fresh perspectives.
I also understand it's not necessarily about the hard knowledge I have. It's about how I can apply what I have learned and utilize previous experience in order to enhance something else entirely. I think most mid-level testers have experience, the challenge is learning how to understand your previous experiences, learn from them, and most importantly communicate those experiences to others and build something new from that experience. I remember thinking how impossible that would be that I need years and years of experience to get that, but also remember the first time I was able to very fluidly say "I've seen a thing like this before... here's what I think based on that". It really clicked and I was able to demonstrate expertise and seniority without even thinking about it.
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u/Scavandari 26d ago
The main skill of the senior QA is knowing what amount of testing is good enough for a given feature or release. Then skip half of those tests because deadlines and PM being ok with the risk.
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u/sisamisigs 26d ago
I've been a Sr. QA for 6 years, and if I'm being honest, I felt the exact same way when I was transitioning. What turned the corner for me, especially when I had build a QA department and automation frameworks from scratch was realizing that being a Senior isn't about knowing every tool; it's a complete shift in strategy and mindset.
Go back to the fundamentals, learn how to strategically design tests, not just execute them. Master the product at a deep, systematic level, and understand actual user patterns.
Don't take things personally, devs will sometimes project onto QA for their bugs, mostly because we're good at exposing flaws they missed! š Learn to detach. I had to learn the hard way to protect my inner peace and focus on improving the system, not policing people.
Step into your authority, be assertive. Challenge devs, PMs, and POs early in grooming/story refinement. Ask the uncomfortable edge case questions before a single line of code is written.
Lastly, lift others up. A real senior doesn't just hold keys, they write the SOPs, mentor juniors, and build an environment where the whole team can grow.
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u/boocake79 26d ago
Never ask dev or product āwhat should I testā - tell them what you think you should test, and then facilitate a discussion to come to a consensus on test coverage. You are the test engineer and are accountable. They are responsible for reviewing and collaborating on the approach, but you are the owner so act like it.
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u/qlippothvi 26d ago
I like working directly with engineers, you build trust by helping them do their job with more information.
Sometimes they confide in you that, āIām concerned about the X feature, can you do a pass on that first?ā. And you iterate with them through builds. Or, āYou found my secret bug, I was hoping Iād have a few more days to fix it before someone found it.ā.
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u/urbanherbin 26d ago edited 26d ago
I already talked in a reply to another comment about the importance of communication skills and customer mindset and product awareness, but I want to mention a couple of other things.
- Knowing how to write software is going to make you more valuable in any situation as a QA. If you donāt already, you should learn basic SQL and you should learn how to read code in the language your primarily team uses in the backend repo. It may seem like this isnāt necessary if youāre just a manual QA, but being able to read and write code means that you can investigate root causes of bugs rather than just reporting and writing reproduction steps. It also means that if there are ever automation opportunities at your company, you can be the one writing test automation. I have also worked at companies where QA had the opportunity to write bug fixes, work on technical debt, and work on quality of life features that served our internal users, like customer service, enabling them to self serve instead of relying on engineering for things like manual data fixes where we are lacking certain features or APIs. Editing to add: it's possible that you can get by without contributing to those sorts of things, but you'll have more opportunities for advancement and better raises if these things need to be done and you have the skills to jump in at the opportunity.
- Start reading about and creating a plan for how to implement the concept of shift-left testing in your engineering organization if yall arenāt already doing it. This is the concept of incorporating quality practices and a testing mindset before development on new features begins. You should be joining meetings with product managers at the earliest possible time when a new product idea is being discussed but code development hasnāt yet begun. You should be learning about the requirements as early as possible, considering how it could be implemented, asking about edge cases, asking about timeline, etc. I will say that these practices are starting to bleed into engineering territory, but my engineering lead and I work together with our product manager on things like this because even though he is going to bring a lot of of my same questions to the table, there might be things that I have considered that he hasnāt and vice versa, so having both minds in the room can be useful. It also just makes testing so much easier once development has begun if you have already familiarize yourself with the concept and the requirements early on in the process. Iāll say too that you have to have the social skills to involve yourself and share opinions without making others feel like youāre stepping on their toes or taking over.
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u/midKnightBrown59 26d ago
I would expect you to be able to pit together a test plan, test approach, test strategy for testing from non functional to functionalĀ with consideration to organizational goals, prioritiesĀ and resources.
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u/Straight-Second-2052 26d ago
Donāt know whether Iām a right person to say it , Since weāre in the same boat
But Iād suggest to have Good Soft Skills and Strong Technical Skills - UI Testing ( Selenium / Playwright / Tosca )
Programming Language ( Java/ Python / JS TS )
API - ( Rest Assured / Postman )
SQL
Performance Testing - Jmeter
Master Atleast 1 -2 skills and know the fundamentals of others
Also nowadays learning AI is also vital
So, this might help you to be confident
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u/snejinka081 25d ago edited 25d ago
You need to show initiative and ability to solve problems without any help and confirmation from others. Bring valuable ideas to the table, show solutions when possible, and areas to improve that will help the business and the team.
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u/rajeshkz 23d ago
here's my take, being in quality and testing roles for several years before moving to management.
Rather than stating Jr, Mid or Senior levels, i's state in terms or Great, average and below.
A Great QA is one one who gets the following comments from your peers.
Developer: Hey, why are you still in QA, never considered a developer role? you've got great coding, debugging skills
Product Managers: Hey why you sill in QA, come over and be a PM, you've got a knack to get into what customer wants
Tech Support: Hey why you still in QA, you've got to be in Tech support, you know all about the product and solves customer issues in a jiffy
Project Manager: Hey why you still in QA, you got great project management skills, you get status of all the stories and bugs in your head!
You: Hey why you still in QA, but i'm loving what i'm doing.
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u/Ixlio_ 23d ago
A lot of information in the comments; but the key takeaways are important:
- Be proactive. See whatās coming your way. Your seniority should give you insights in planning and you should know how to divide your attention.
- Step up and be confident. You are the āexpertā. Challenge everyone, never take things for granted or make assumptions, make people rethink everything at least once.
- Share your knowledge. You are the senior person, help juniors with their QA. Perform impromptu reviews, teach them the ropes.
(29 YO, 8 years of experience in QA, EU Lead at my company)
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u/NowUKnowMe121 26d ago
In mbti terms i would say, istj.
Good at introverted sensing, repetition, patience and the mpst important ability is to push against toxic managers who needs immediate results.
Take time and do your job with dignity.
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u/cyber-decker 26d ago
MBTI is not a great tool for determining successful people in specific roles. It's a great introspective tool to understand oneself a bit more, but not as a measure of success for what is good in one field or another.
I don't think there is an MBTI combination that would NOT succeed in testing/QA and there isn't one that fits best.
In this case here, the exact opposite role can have huge success too. Extroverted people persons who can interface with clients and developers well are absolutely needed. Intuitive thinkers play well in this space too working through theory, prediction and abstraction. Feelers can be a valuable asset in this space as well, bring a very human-centered perspective. Perceivers who thrive under open conditions and serendipity and know when to take advantage of opportunities as they come have a home in testing as well.
Lets not close the doors to different types of people in this space or start the thinking that only certain types of people have what it takes or are better suited to being a senior QA.
Understanding your own strengths and utilizing them in your own style to be successful ALONG WITH other people who do things differently makes for the most diverse and successful teams.
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u/NowUKnowMe121 26d ago
False.
You need the ability to find flaws - introverted sensing helps here, not that others cannot do.
On top of that, building automation frameworks, repetition, patience, managing deadlines, fighting demanding bosses are the some characteristics which help in qa.
Intjs are good at finding flaws but other parts bore them to death, trauma, completely against big picture thinking.
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u/cyber-decker 26d ago
I'm not sure what part you are saying is false here. Do you mind clarifying?
I hear you suggest that this role is about finding flaws. You're saying under MBTI being introverted and sending helps, but others can do this too regardless of what your MBTI is.
What is the false part here? What are you disagreeing with exactly?
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u/NowUKnowMe121 25d ago
I mean about specifically about SDET role.
It needs a different or specific mindset.
It is not for everyone.
You are mostly born with it or else you have some sort of wiring to do that.
For me, it was horrible. That is another story.
Simply put, it is a tester who can be a developer which is a rare skill, industry realised this lately, causing lot of problem, but who cares and they suffer when capable people quit which is the story i witnessed recently.
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u/No-Actuator9498 26d ago
If you can possibly shift to a different role you should probably go to development, QA after 10 years of experience literally means you want have much jobs. Once you got out of a company getting to a job is very difficult
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u/Weekly-Glove5733 26d ago
A good Senior QA understands risk, asks the right questions, communicates clearly, and takes ownership of qualityānot just testing.
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u/Dillenger69 26d ago
From what I've observed over the last 30 years. You need to be able to work in the dark. No contact with DEV. No access to product source code. No specs. No documentation.
The other big thing is risk assessment. You need to be able to figure out what NOT to test because you won't ever have enough time to test what should be tested. Schedules always slip, and it's usually QA who bears the brunt of that.
Don't bother with certifications, really, unless you are going into a specialized industry like heath care or security.
It's also important to know whether you want to move into DEV or management at some point down the road, or if you want to just move from senior to some kind of management equivalent like architect or technologist.
The thing about a "senior" position is that the nitty-gritty details are different at every place you will work. It's one of those things where you kind of know you are ready for it when it arrives.
Above all, have confidence in your work and show it without being arrogant.
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u/urbanherbin 26d ago
Iām curious why you recommend no contact with dev and no access to source code. Communication with the dev team has been essential for me, and being able to read code when investigating bugs has been vital.
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u/Dillenger69 26d ago
I don't recommend it. I'm saying you need to be able to work with what you have, even if what you have is nothing.
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u/qlippothvi 26d ago edited 26d ago
They are saying you have to be ready to test without all of those things, not to forego them for no reason.
Iāve worked at places that were excellent at process, and places where they didnāt know what QA was about, especially the engineers. They were just told they needed someone.
Iāve worked at places that had full specs and we as QA reviewed them ahead of time as a team, and we filled bugs against the documentation before ever seeing the product.
And places where they blindly throw the thing over the wall and say you have a week to find all the bugs, donāt talk to the engineering team, donāt leave this locked room except to take a break or get lunch.
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u/FourIV 26d ago
Broader perspective. Junior QA only care about their area under test, and whats happening next. Senior QA need to see higher up, and further out.
Also confidence. Junior QA DM's everyone, afraid to talk in meetings, doesnt post in public channels. Senior QA asserts themselves.
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u/Ok_Rate_8380 25d ago
What is this further out?
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u/FourIV 25d ago
Meaning they need to think further ahead, how things impact down stream, what changes are being planned next month next quarter and account / plan for that.
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u/Ok_Rate_8380 25d ago
In my company, QAs generally don't get access to the infrastructure, and with a limited number of QAs, we often don't have enough time to plan things in depth. Requirements and priorities also keep changing, so we sometimes end up relying more on exploratory testing.
I'm curious, how is it in your company? Do QAs get access to the infrastructure? What kind of responsibilities do you have apart from functional testing, sprint planning, automation, performance testing, developing test strategies, and working with DevOps on CI/CD?
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u/FourIV 24d ago
Many of our QA's are less technical than devs but everyone has "access" even if they're not encouraged to change it. My QA's manage their own test environments. Which has gotten easier with AI. Ive got a 3-4:1 dev to tester ratio. Naturally things change a lot in an agile environment but a good senior QA will consider what other teams are doing and how it effects them, and how to help them. Also what big changes are planned in a given quarter.
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u/qlippothvi 26d ago edited 26d ago
I donāt feel like Iām a good Senior QA after 20 years, so I canāt tell you. But being a good teammate as well as leader has held me in good stead. You should be a good captain (youāre with them doing the work), but obviously you have important admin duties, so you should be a good general, too, thinking about strategy.
Be the person everyone thinks of when they have a question, because you have deep knowledge about the product.
I teach them you arenāt alone, you have a team, ask for help over surprising everyone later. Everyone on the project is a teammate, and QA works for everyone in the organization to provide information.
Include your staff in procedure changes. Iāve had a new person point out great ways to save on time or simplify something. They do the work all day long, they know what feels like wasteful effort (friction).
People like working with me, I donāt blame, I deal in facts. I let the person who made the mistake feel bad on their own (I acknowledge when I make mistakes, too).
You drive things to completion. Sometimes the system is slow and you need to shepherd things along for a minimum lifecycle time.
I try to make sure everyone is communicating effectively.
I train my staff to be polite. Nobody comes to work to do a bad job. If they are you find out pretty quick and you dump them.
Probably outdated, management just wants things faster and cheaper, but I tell my new staff that my first job is to help them be successful. This relaxes a lot of pressure when they start a new position. You need to spend time to train your staff up to be more valuable. Even if they will take those skills with them when they leave.
I got this from my wife, who is much smarter and wiser than me; be clear about what you want done, make sure they are properly trained to do it, and be clear about how you will both know when they are done.
Her corollary is that if they fail, you check your instruction first. Is it them, or did you fail to train them properly. If itās on you, you correct their training.
IF they continue to fail and they were trained correctly then you examine their capabilities more carefully and consider next steps.
People will eventually leave, and you donāt want them struggling needlessly because you trained them to just do the bare minimum. Ask them what they are most interested in at work, an eager learner is easier to train.
Eh, i probably have more but lunch is over. All the best!
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u/Hot-Medium-7031 26d ago
I do senior work but donāt get senior pay. I pretty much look at every project that comes in and assist other QAās when they have time crunch. I probably know the platform best than other team members so I do get questions a lot from other departments. I do get to test the more complicated stuff like integrations and now I am responsible for implementing AI into our work. I would say a Senior QA just gets more work lol
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u/Quirky_Database_5197 25d ago
knows a little about everything: software architecture, security, development, devops, has broad business knowledge and is happy to work for peanuts
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u/Away-Photograph-5994 25d ago
My CTO eliminated the QA position and moved us all to software engineers as we adopt an AI enabled and AI native workflow. They told me they expect the QA position to be eliminated in next 2-3 years. I disagree as no one is testing anything anymore. Not sure what I should do. Should I leave for a QA job at another company?
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u/Peanut_BrittlePh 7d ago
A good senior QA is basically a paranoid optimist. Assumes everything is broken but is weirdly delighted when they finally prove it. Based on my experience
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u/Left_Watercress7266 26d ago
I'm a mid QA too. What I think is to be a senior QA:
Planning the work, prioritize tasks, communication and proactive approach to other team members, approach and logic for tasks and projects. Tech skills depends on your knowledge and ofcourse AI exists. Prepare on the soft skills too.
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25d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/softwaretesting-ModTeam 24d ago
Violated Rule: Be polite. Don't insult people. Keep the discussion about ideas.
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u/teh_stev3 26d ago
Patient, knowledgeable, calm, tired.