🐞 QA Stands For Quality p.5 - The Art Of Asking Questions (Lots Of Them)
The first and probably the most important lesson I've been taught as a young QA
Hey friends 👋
Welcome to the next issue of this QA series, where I share the information that helped me become a QA and that I picked up over the years to climb from a Trainee QA to managing an entire department, and that I used to teach as a course on how to become a QA from scratch.
When I landed my first job as a QA, my first mentor taught me the lesson that I’ve been preaching to everyone in the field, from my team members to students. And today I want to talk about it.
Alright, let’s get into it.
🙋 Asking Questions as a Core Testing Habit
As a professional (and a QA in particular), you must constantly ask questions as much as you can, and you should never assume anything, unless you know it for a fact.
A strong testing mindset means refusing to operate on assumptions. When something is unclear, like a requirement, an expected behaviour, a system interaction or anything really, your move is and always should be to ask questions. Not to guess, not to interpret, but to clarify. Instead of thinking “I think it’s supposed to do X,” you have to develop the habit of asking, “Can someone confirm whether X is the intended behaviour?”
That habit keeps your work aligned with requirements and prevents you from either missing an incorrect behaviour or misinterpreting a correct one.
If you are at least 1% uncertain about something, it means you haven’t asked all the questions.
