Ask a QA Tester
- Thread starter Ad_Astra_
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It's hard, but not impossible. While I've been cursed out, I've also been personally thanked by a few as well. However when you have a ton of deadlines and multi-million dollar IP on the line, it's a bit....tense. Submissions are expensive so it is important to pass them the first time around and people tend to lose their heads a bit during those tense times during the project.Arnoxthe1 said:I see... So the environment is just an all around bad one for both groups then in terms of promoting professionalism and teamwork.
Confirmed: This is a real QA tester.
Be careful, yea? You?re dancing on your NDA right now. I?m a little worried for you. I worked at 2K Vegas over the summer and HR was ADAMANT that we don?t talk about work outside of the office. So, even though I?d really like to participate in this thread, I?m not willing to.
Be careful, yea? You?re dancing on your NDA right now. I?m a little worried for you.
I worked at 2K Vegas over the summer and HR was ADAMANT that we don?t talk about work outside of the office. So, even though I?d really like to participate in this thread, I?m not willing to.
+1 ConfirmedSteve Waltz said:Confirmed: This is a real QA tester.
Be careful, yea? You?re dancing on your NDA right now. I?m a little worried for you.
I don't think there's any red flags, at least NDA wise to be noted up to this point, since no specifics were mentioned, and that's regularly how multiple teams of QA and Devs and Management work.
I think it's perfectly fine to talk about what a "tester" do, as long as it it's not actual details of what "he/she" has done.Steve Waltz said:Confirmed: This is a real QA tester.
Be careful, yea? You?re dancing on your NDA right now. I?m a little worried for you.
The point of a NDA isn't to turn a work field into a black hole from which no information can escape. If it's used that way, then it's an abuse of what it's supposed to do, and that is to protect the privacy of those you work with and any trade sensitive details of the work being done.
I actually had to sign an NDA for one of the mods I tested. But the restriction that entailed was primarily that we would not be talking about features in progress that might or might not make it into the next patch. It's a bit different with a mod I suppose, since there's no commercial interest in keeping testers quiet.
I appreciate your concern, but I opened this thread to talk about the job itself, not go into glorious detail over my projects. Keeping things vague is the best way to avoid breaking an NDA. Giving people information about the process itself I think helps put things into perspective for people not involved in the industry. I've hopped around in QA for 4 years and the only things I ever got dinged for were a few poorly written bugs.Steve Waltz said:Confirmed: This is a real QA tester.
Be careful, yea? You?re dancing on your NDA right now. I?m a little worried for you.
OK, questions:
Do you use any automated tools? Or are you aware of any, assuming you don't use them? I'm basically wondering if the QA department does mostly manual testing or how big is (approximately) the automation of the tests.
Also, how closely with the developers do you work (in general)? Next room? Same building? In a galaxy far, far away? Do you keep in touch (though, dunno, emails, meetings and stuff) or is it maybe mostly through the issue submission form?
How long does the QA cycle last? Ongoing since mostly the beginning? X amount of months before release?
Do you use any automated tools? Or are you aware of any, assuming you don't use them? I'm basically wondering if the QA department does mostly manual testing or how big is (approximately) the automation of the tests.
Also, how closely with the developers do you work (in general)? Next room? Same building? In a galaxy far, far away? Do you keep in touch (though, dunno, emails, meetings and stuff) or is it maybe mostly through the issue submission form?
How long does the QA cycle last? Ongoing since mostly the beginning? X amount of months before release?
There are plenty of tools we use to capture screenshots and crash dumps, etc. Anyone can report a bug, but without evidence that it actually happened or where in the game, there is little the devs can do to fix it. I'm not sure what you mean by "manual" testing. Testing a game is us playing the title both as a user and as someone attempting to break the code. We have particular tests that we run (for example, if you are testing multiplayer, how long it takes for people to match up), but the job is fairly open.DoPo said:
The devs have their own in-house QA team. I've never been a part of the dev QA though so no, the devs have always been offices away or further than that. Personally, I've rarely been in the same state as them.
We communicate through the database (most of these have comment sections, but we need to keep professional), and our higher ups will visit their offices or talk over the phone. I've been able to voice-chat with them when doing multiplayer tests that they were involved in and they might have occasionally visited the offices, but it's pretty rare for a basic tester to have any contact with them offline.
I mean as in not using tools/frameworks for automated testing. For example Jemmy, Selenium, Jasmine, JBehave, TestComplete, Boost, RSpec, or even something as simple as AutoIt or xdotool, can all do automated tests of various kinds. Manual testing generally refers to somebody running something manually, even if it is some other tool that collects the data (say, performance metric or something else).Ad_Astra_ said:
Yeah, what we do is more manual. I'm sure the dev QA team probably has more automated tests given that they have access to every build made, but with outside QA it's more hands-on. I've dabbled with TestComplete on my own before, but that was when I was attempting to get into development prior to starting QA.DoPo said:
Is QA something you could make a career out of? Or would it just be something done on the side?
Pretty sure I have no chance of getting hired to do QA, but i'm curious.
Pretty sure I have no chance of getting hired to do QA, but i'm curious.
I've seen people make a career of it, but I don't know how much longer I personally will be doing it because I'm pretty burnt out after 4 years. When we are in crunch, I see people in my office who never get to see their kids or significant others because of how brutal it can be. My boyfriend is in Alaska but the people in the office who live with their partners see them about as often as I see mine when we get down to the last few months before submission.Morgoth780 said:
The money is not bad and the benefits are fantastic, but there are little to no unions within the games industry, especially for QA. Your work will be dictated by the state's laws. The thing about any tech industry is that the project deadlines come before anything else with a few exceptions (maternity/paternity leave, family emergency, hospitalization, etc).
This is not to say that you will be treated badly, but it is a warning to all who want to be a tester that it's not just playing games and making money. A project can take over your life and you need to be prepared for that.
And I think the above answers your other question: no, you probably can't manage an 8-12/14 hour testing gig as a side job.
Umm, yes - believe it or not, QA is a job. And believe it or not, a good tester is worth their weight in gold. If not more. Ask any decent software engineer - if they deny it, they aren't decent. That's not even No True Scotsman, it's the simple truth.Morgoth780 said:
Unfortunately, the reality is that QA aren't paid with bags of gold, however, they are being paid.