Sr. QA Tester

Position Name: Sr. QA Tester

Location: 608 W. Allegan, Lansing, Michigan 48909

Interview: In Person Only

Duration: 6+ Months

Short Description: Clarify requirements with business client. Create, communicate, and document acceptance criteria. Maintain consistent QA process for a team, iteratively updating as necessary. Develop and implement test plans. Support, review, and confirm QA team’s work.

Job Description:

• Seeking a Senior Quality Assurance (QA) Analyst to support the continual development and maintenance of an interactive, secure, authenticated web application designed by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), Division of Accountability Services (DAS) called the Secure Site.

• Most Secure Site users are district and school assessment administrators, student reporting data specialists, and accountability analysts; there is also a small team of internal DAS users.

• The Secure Site facilitates many of the processes necessary to administer state assessments in Michigan schools for grades kindergarten through 12 (K-12).

• Current state assessments include M-STEP, MI-Access, PSAT, SAT, WorkKeys, WIDA, W-APT, and the Early Literacy and Mathematics interim assessment.

• It is also the repository for all Michigan K-12 current and historical assessment data. Additionally, annual school accountability reports are processed and shared within the Secure Site.

• This is a leadership position, responsible for maintaining a consistent, effective, and efficient QA process to be followed by all QA team members on a weekly basis.

• Documentation of the QA process is expected. Iterative refinement of the QA process is the responsibility of the Senior QA Analyst; the candidate should be able to identify obstructions to the efficiency and effectiveness of the QA process and work to remove those obstructions as well as identify and communicate process improvement recommendations.

• The Senior QA Analyst will work closely with the business clients to understand requirements for new development as well as updates to current system functionality and bug fixes.

• During requirements gathering, this person should be able to recommend improvements to the business client that will help maintain Secure Site style standards or standard web application design practices.

• Using the requirements, the Senior QA Analyst will lead the QA team in the creation of acceptance criteria and test plans. Acceptance criteria will often include verifying data displayed or created through the application; test plans will often require the QA team to find and use specific scenario data.

• It is imperative that the Senior QA Analyst understand normalized database structure and can create complex SQL select statements to assist the QA team in finding, understanding, and verifying data.

• The Senior QA Analyst must be able to train the QA team in writing SQL select statements, answer SQL questions during testing, and review the validity of SQL tests performed by the QA team.

• At times, the Senior QA Analyst will need to approach business clients to create test data to complete test plans. Other times, the Senior QA Analyst will need to work with the business client to understand how to create specific data scenarios within the Secure Site QA environment and then document and share that knowledge with the rest of the QA team.

• The Senior QA Analyst is also expected to participate in user acceptance testing (UAT) and document test results along with the rest of the QA team.

• The Senior QA Analyst must have experience with performance testing and be mindful of performance issues that may arise during UAT testing.

• When the QA team is finished testing a set of newly developed items, the Senior QA Analyst will be responsible for reviewing the work of the QA team and giving final sign-off for development to move to the Production environment.

• The ability to identify critical issues and clearly communicate the status of QA items is essential to the success of the Senior QA Analyst.

• The candidate must be able to collaborate with developers, business analysts, and business clients to determine if issues identified during the QA process are valid and within the scope of the development request or should be addressed in a separate request. The Senior QA Analyst will be responsible for the final validation of development work in the Production environment and will be the key point-person for testing critical fixes for Production issues.

Must have skills:

• Microsoft SQL Server / T-SQL direct hands-on experience with ad hoc query programs

• Data analysis, data verification, and problem-solving abilities

• Ability to communicate test progress, test results, and other relevant information to project stakeholders and management

• Strong knowledge of system testing best practices and methodologies

• Proficiency with all MS Office and Visio applications

• Knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle and related methodologies (e.g. CMMI, Agile, or another industry standard)

• Direct experience in overseeing the design, development, and implementation of quality assurance standards for software testing

*Must have 7-10 years of experience in the field of quality assurance (QA) testingState experience candidate will be preferred first*Best Regards,Amrit Lal**