WHAT DOES A QA DO?
Updated: Dec 18, 2025 - The Quality Assurance (QA) Professional is responsible for ensuring the quality and reliability of software products through meticulous planning, execution, and documentation of manual and automated tests. This position involves collaborating with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to identify requirements, detect bugs, and verify fixes in a timely manner. The individual also contributes to process improvements, maintains test environments, and ensures compliance with industry standards and best practices.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for QA
1. QA Analyst Duties
- Functional Testing: Plan and execute functional (SIT, UAT), regression, and end-to-end testing.
- Requirement Analysis: Understand requirements, writing test scenarios and test cases.
- Defect Management: Log and investigate defects using JIRA.
- Collaboration Skills: Work closely with the Project Team and other colleagues to ensure coverage of functional requirements.
- Agile Delivery: Work within an Agile delivery team.
- System Knowledge: Gain detailed knowledge of company systems and processes.
- Status Reporting: Communicate status reports to senior team members.
- Agile Participation: Actively participate in Agile ceremonies.
- Test Support: Support SIT, UAT, and customer testing.
- Environment Management: Maintain and manage test equipment/test environments.
- Independent Working: Work independently in an agile environment with minimal supervision from the Test Lead.
2. Mortgage Quality Assurance Associate Job Summary
- Quality Assurance: Perform Pre-Funding Quality Assurance reviews within SLA timeframes.
- Compliance Validation: Validate Compliance with underwriting guidelines and procedures.
- Review Documentation: Document and communicate the results of the reviews.
- Response Validation: Validate responses to quality findings.
- Quality Monitoring: Monitor quality findings and their resolution.
- Standards Compliance: Comply with the quality assurance testing standards.
- Corrective Recommendations: Recommend reasonable corrective action relative to quality assurance findings.
- Timely Reporting: Provide timely reporting to management.
- Issue Follow-Up: Follow up with the business unit to ensure corrective action sufficiently addresses the credit or operational issues identified.
3. QA Auditor Overview
- Food Compliance: Support the business objectives to produce safe and legally compliant food.
- Quality Assurance: Support the site product assessment systems to ensure products made are of the required quality and meet customer-agreed specifications.
- Facility Auditing: Conduct audits of the manufacturing facility concerning GMP, hygiene, glass and other foreign bodies and compliance with procedures.
- Product Launch Support: Support the site product launch system by creating accurate launch packs and production documentation.
- Complaint Investigation: Support and coordination of customer complaints investigations to find the root cause of complaints and support the identification of preventative action.
- Stock Specification: Control of specification stock through raising of internal holds and holding/releasing stock via the business's warehouse management system.
- Swabbing Activities: Conduct swabbing activities according to the site schedule and as support for production during free time from production or site validation/verification activities.
- Packaging Review: Review and approval of packaging deliveries against approved artwork files.
- Audit Support: Support the business during third-party audits and traceability exercises through the presentation of QA function auditors and document retrieval.
4. QA Consultant Essential Functions
- Test Execution: Develop, document, and execute automated and manual tests.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Work collaboratively with the project manager, development, implementation practices and QA teams during all stages of the project or software delivery.
- Automation Exposure: Exposure to test automation tools.
- Team Communication: Communicate and discuss with the professional team members.
- Defect Responsibility: Responsible for the defect being logged/encountered.
- Scripting Knowledge: Apply knowledge in any scripting language, such as Java/Python/Ruby.
- Agile Knowledge: Use knowledge of the agile development framework.
- Process Improvement: Contribute to the improvement by creating reusable documents for reference in relevance to the team’s function or product.
5. QA Director Additional Details
- Test Strategy: Support the platform by defining the Test and Automation strategy.
- Bug Management: Manage bug prioritizations and lifecycle with the wider Product Team.
- Team Leadership: Hire and grow the QA Engineering team.
- Issue Tracking: Track and report software anomalies, defects, and customer experience issues.
- Test Automation: Help automate all manual test cases to ensure no regression and to provide clients with the highest quality application.
- Cross-Functional Work: Work closely with design, product, and engineering to own features through the entire product lifecycle.
- Abstract Thinking: Manage ambiguous/undefined problems, ability to think abstractly.
- Script Development: Design, develop, and maintain scalable, reusable automated test scripts.
- Product Integrity: Review, enhance and manage the end-to-end product integrity process.
- Strategy Participation: Participate in business and product strategy development.
- Product Ideation: Participate in product brainstorming.
6. QA Engineer Roles and Responsibilities
- Software Planning: Participate in the planning and implementation of software.
- Testing Strategy: Create testing strategies for software and extractions to ensure user satisfaction.
- Test Scripting: Write test scripts to aid in the testing and delivery of software.
- Developer Collaboration: Collaborate with developers during the discovery of an issue or the implementation of a feature.
- Defect Identification: Identify defects in software.
- Acceptance Criteria: Ensure the acceptance criteria are comprehensive for users.
- Defect Communication: Communicate defects, track progress, and follow through to resolution.
- Documentation Review: Create and review technical documentation before implementation.
- Release Notes: Draft informal release notes between teams.
- Automation Specification: Work side-by-side with developers and functional testers to create automated test specifications from user stories/requirements.
7. Head of Quality Assurance Responsibilities and Key Tasks
- Product Partnership: Partner deeply with Engineering Managers and Product Owners to build high-quality experiences that will support a great user journey for users.
- Automation Oversight: Oversee the delivery and maintenance of automated testing and frameworks based on industry best practices.
- Quality Assurance: Responsible for ensuring all development tasks meet quality criteria through test planning, test execution, quality assurance and issue tracking.
- Technical Expertise: Maintain a strong hands-on technical skillset.
- Risk Management: Apply knowledge of risk management, risk identification and risk-based testing.
- Engineering Communication: Communicate and drive engineering initiatives across functions.
- QA Operations: Design, implement, and monitor all operations and key performance metrics for the QA team.
- Issue Resolution: Proactively identify, prioritize and resolve QA issues as they arise, working closely with company leadership.
- Resource Planning: Take ownership of resource planning and talent acquisition for correctly sized teams to meet the growing business pipeline.
- Team Mentorship: Mentor and promote team members and help leaders grow the organization.
- Team Inspiration: Inspire and nurture team members at all levels to continuously improve ways of working, culture and individual craftsmanship.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work effectively and collaborate cross-functionally, build support and alignment across multiple business units.
8. Quality Assurance Manager Details
- Quality Standards: Design, implement, and improve company quality standards.
- Process Improvement: Review and improve processes in order to ensure that they align with current trends and frameworks.
- KPI Reporting: Create reports and update on progress towards KPI's.
- Quality Monitoring: Monitor all operations that affect quality throughout the company.
- Customer Requirements: Appraise customers’ requirements and contribute to customer satisfaction.
- Internal Auditing: Perform and review internal auditing for assurance of compliance.
- Supplier Research: Market research and on-site audits of suppliers and contribute to tender processes.
- Process Auditing: Audit of plant processes to ensure both internal and external regulations and standards are being adhered to.
- Documentation Management: Maintain quality auditing and manufacturing documentation.
9. QA Specialist Job Summary
- Process Understanding: Understand manufacturing and packaging processes.
- Complaint Intake: Receive product quality complaints.
- Complaint Investigation: Investigate product quality complaints and write reports.
- Visual Inspection: Perform visual inspection of consumer samples.
- Sample Reservation: Reserve samples for visual inspection.
- Sample Testing: Reserve samples testing.
- Investigation Tracking: Keep track of the completion of the investigation within the required timeframe.
- Shipping Coordination: Attend to the coordination of the shipping process of complaint samples.
- Issue Trending: Help to track and trend quality issues discovered through the complaints process.
- Complaint Analysis: Prepare and present quarterly complaint analysis at the Site Quality Council.
- Critical Notification: Notify management of critical complaints that may lead to FAR.
- File Maintenance: Maintain product quality complaint files up to date.
- Quality Improvement: Work with the Production team and Technical Services to identify and implement process improvements related to product quality complaints.
10. QA Supervisor Tasks
- Team Leadership: Lead and motivate the QA team and drive a culture that promotes the continuous improvement of both product quality and factory standards.
- QA Mentorship: Train, coach and mentor QAs to ensure audits are of a high standard.
- Traceability Management: Ensure that the traceability system is complete and challenged regularly.
- Non-Conformance Investigation: Investigate factory non-conformances (specification and housekeeping/hygiene) and ensure that the necessary corrective actions are taken.
- Schedule Adherence: Ensure that both swabbing schedules and product testing schedules are adhered to.
- Audit Accountability: Accountable for QA audits relating to GMP, HACCP, quality and hygiene systems are audited at the agreed frequency with audit findings effectively communicated and issues followed up.
- Audit Readiness: Participate in ensuring that the bakery is ‘audit ready’ in the event of either scheduled or unannounced technical audits/visits.
- Taste Panel Participation: Participate in taste panels at Walkers Deli Co. to ensure that the panels are conducted at the agreed frequency and that corrective actions/follow-up activities are carried out.
- Hygiene Auditing: Conduct and communicate fabrication and hygiene audits to ensure that site standards remain high and that product safety is not compromised.
- Stock Maintenance: Maintain a sufficient stock of consumable items.
11. QA Team Lead Essential Functions
- Test Planning: Create detailed, comprehensive and well-structured test plans and test cases.
- Continuous Testing: Implement a continuous test process as a part of continuous integration and continuous development.
- Test Coordination: Estimate, prioritizing, planning and coordinating testing activities.
- Automation Development: Design, develop, and execute automation scripts using open source, commercial, and/or proprietary tools.
- Requirement Review: Review requirements, specifications, and technical design documents to provide timely and meaningful feedback.
- Regression Testing: Perform thorough regression testing when bugs are resolved.
- Team Liaison: Liaise with internal teams to identify system requirements.
- Issue Investigation: Investigate the causes of non-conforming software and train users to implement solutions.
- Quality Metrics: Track quality assurance metrics, like defect densities and open defect counts.
12. QA Technician Job Description
- Quality Ownership: Proactively lead, own and take responsibility for all quality-related enquiries, issues and solutions for the allocated business unit.
- Cross-Functional Representation: Represent QAD at Cross Functional Team Meetings for the teams covered and E2E processes.
- Business Alignment: Follow the business strategy and drive to reach quality and business objectives.
- Training Management: Assess units' quality training needs and manage the delivery of such events accordingly.
- Market Intelligence: Observe and analyse competitor environment from a quality perspective, customer insights and historical data to proactively develop market intelligence relating to the needs of the C&A quality requirements.
- Supplier Engagement: Participate in and engage suppliers for supplier meetings.
- License Compliance: Ensure that if a licensed product is included in ranges, all parts of the licensee agreement are adhered to.
- Team Collaboration: Engage in collaboration between Technical Design, Sourcing/Fabric and PD&D for the allocated business unit.
- Quality Support: Support the quality team in other roles and responsibilities to ensure overall quality objectives are met, such as sample approval and statistical reporting.
13. QA Test Lead Duties
- Test Coordination: Coordinate testing efforts with internal team, vendors, and dealer users.
- Test Strategy: Create the test strategies for each implementation.
- Process Maintenance: Maintain processes and procedures.
- Testing Representation: Represent testing with management.
- Status Feedback: Provide feedback on status.
- Reporting Metrics: Generate reports, track metrics, and create a post-release summary.
- Environment Management: Manage the testing environment.
- Environment Updates: Keep the environment up to date with needed updates to support the testing effort.
- Impact Evaluation: Evaluate software changes for impact on testing, ensuring that effort is made to minimize the cost of change.
- Test Methodology: Keep current with advances in test practices/methodologies.
- Automation Vision: Define the vision and tools to automate test plans and scripts for current and ongoing initiatives and programs.
- Recovery Planning: Define recovery plans with the Development teams.
- Scenario Execution: Run defined scenarios (acceptance, convergence and non-regression) on several environments.
- Bug Qualification: Identify and qualify bugs and non-conformity areas.
- Incident Documentation: Document issues through Incident Reports raised to the Development teams for resolution.
- Test Oversight: Oversee the development and execution of test plans and monitoring and reporting on test execution.
- ISO Governance: Apply experience with ISO audit and governance.
- Azure DevOps: Use Azure DevOps in the cloud to track test script completion.
14. QA Tester Functions
- Standardized Testing: Conduct and perform standardized testing designed to find flaws before they become larger issues.
- Troubleshooting Support: Assist in troubleshooting processes and verify that implemented fixes have the intended results.
- Result Logging: Create logs and tracking systems to document testing results.
- Salesforce Testing: Execute test cases using the Salesforce CRM application.
- Result Evaluation: Evaluate and document test results.
- Bug Reporting: Detect, logs, and reports bugs and issues using Zephyr.
- Defect Tracking: Track defects and help troubleshoot errors during sprints.
- Phase Participation: Participate in various testing phases, UAT, end-to-end and Regression.
- Script Development: Review test procedures and develop test scripts.
- QA Collaboration: Partner with QA test leads, product owners and business leads to drive QA efforts.