To do a certain task, you need to have a specific skill set. Bug tracking and reporting is an important part of the software development process which requires QA engineers to be equipped with a certain set of skills apart from good issue tracking tools.
The internet is filled with articles on QA and software testing but we believe that the topic of bug reporting skills still needs to be explored more. With this article, we aim to do so. So, let’s get straight to the point and discuss some essential bug reporting skills every QA engineer should have.
1. Great technical skills
A tester is required to push the software to its limits. They need to be aware of each and everything concerning the product as they chase down bugs.
Finding bugs isn’t easy. Testers are required to have great development and technical skills to find and document bugs and provide a detailed description of how to reproduce them. At the very least, they must have the knowledge of different programming languages used in the development of the product and the basic configurations of the systems used. The basic understanding of issue tracking tools, and other frontend and backend technologies is also necessary to be able to talk with the developer in charge of fixing the issues testers have uncovered.
2. Good communication skills
Write this on your sticky notes: Communication is key.
Organizations lose a lot of money due to poor communication. A development team can be easily led in the wrong direction just by mismatched terminologies or bad management of expectations.
Testers must have sufficient communication skills to ask developers the right questions in the right way if they need to.
Ever heard about ambiguity management? Yes, misunderstandings can lead to big problems which is why they need to be dealt with timely. This means that a QA engineer should never be shy of reaching out to other people and engaging in an open conversation.
3. Diplomacy is important
It’s a tough job to bring someone’s mistake to life, especially when you’re working with that person. Testers have to find a very efficient way to do that. They have to set all their focus to the job in hand and they must be willing to do it even if it means facing crankiness and resistance here and there.
Organizations must have a culture of open-mindedness where everyone is tolerant enough to face disagreements and admit their mistakes. Otherwise, blame-game never works.
4. Negotiating skills must be on point
For testers, negotiations are a part of the routine.
It comes under the umbrella of communication skills but due to its significance, negotiating deserves a dedicated portion. The point is that the development team is already burdened with development work so much that they have to specially take time out to fix the bugs. This means that there will be plenty of back and forth between development and QA on what should be done and when. This isn’t much of a concern for small issues but larger issues, it can be.
