Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Engineers play a critical role in evaluating products throughout the software development lifecycle to ensure that the outcomes of each phase and the final product possess the desired quality standards. In general, a great SQA engineer requires a different set of abilities from development engineers to effectively oversee the entire product development process. While recent empirical studies have explored the attributes of software engineers and managers, the quality assurance role is overlooked. As software quality gains increasing priority in the development cycles, both employers seeking skilled professionals and new graduates aspiring to excel in Software Quality Assurance (SQA) roles face a critical question: What makes a great SQA Engineer? To address this gap, we conducted 25 semi-structured interviews and surveyed 363 SQA engineers from diverse companies worldwide. We use the data collected from these activities to derive a comprehensive set of attributes for great SQA Engineers, categorized into five key areas: personal, social, technical, management, and decision-making attributes. Among these, curiosity, effective communication, and critical thinking emerged as defining characteristics of great SQA engineers. These findings offer valuable insights for future research with SQA practitioners, contextual considerations, and practical implications for research and practice.
Wed 15 AprDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
14:00 - 15:30 | Human and Social Aspects 3Journal-first Papers at Oceania IV Chair(s): Igor Steinmacher RESHAPE LAB, Northern Arizona University, USA | ||
14:00 15mTalk | Exploring Empathy in Software Engineering: Insights from a Grey Literature Analysis of Practitioners' Perspectives Journal-first Papers Lidiany Cerqueira BRAVAS in Tech, João Pedro Silva Bastos UEFS, Danilo Neves IFS, Glauco Carneiro UFS, Rodrigo Spinola Virginia Commonwealth University, Sávio Freire Federal Institute of Ceará, José Amancio UEFS, Manoel Mendonça Federal University of Bahia | ||
14:15 15mTalk | A comparative study on reward models for user interface adaptation with reinforcement learning Journal-first Papers Daniel Gaspar Figueiredo Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain, Marta Fernández-Diego Universitat Politècnica de València, Silvia Abrahão Universitat Politècnica de València, Emilio Insfran Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain | ||
14:30 15mTalk | Self-monitoring of Developers' Emotions: the Case of Agile Retrospective Meetings Journal-first Papers Daniela Grassi University of Bari, Filippo Lanubile University of Bari, Nicole Novielli University of Bari, Luigi Quaranta University of Bari, Italy, Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology Link to publication DOI | ||
14:45 15mTalk | What Makes a Great Software Quality Assurance Engineer? Journal-first Papers Roselane Silva Farias Institute of Computing (IC), Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Brazil, Iftekhar Ahmed University of California at Irvine, Eduardo Almeida Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) | ||
15:00 15mTalk | Women’s Participation in Student Software Development Teams: A Cross-Sectional Study on Role Distribution Journal-first Papers Claudia Maria Cutrupi Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Letizia Jaccheri Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Sofia Papavlasopoulou Norwegian University of Science and Technology Link to publication DOI | ||
15:15 15mTalk | Negativity in Self-Admitted Technical Debt: How Sentiment Influences Prioritization Journal-first Papers Nathan Cassee University of Victoria, Neil Ernst University of Victoria, Nicole Novielli University of Bari, Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology Link to publication DOI | ||