Join Stacey Brown, President of MindLink Resources, for a webinar that will examine the top 10 qualities of a quality assurance (QA) tester. Learn how to bring out these traits in your current QA staff and how to watch for these soft skills when screening new candidates. When localizing products, the QA step is essential in confirming the translation and making sure the product was successfully prepared for the target market. Managers trust the QA staff to catch translation and engineering errors and ensure product readiness to avoid quality issues caught by the end customer. Many managers make the mistake of assigning this critical role to a linguist who may not have the right characteristics of a good tester. When selecting QA staff, it is important to consider skills beyond just linguistic and technical. There are many “soft skills” to watch for in a candidate that will give localization managers the confidence that even small errors will be reported by their tester. In this webinar, Stacey will discuss the top 10 qualities of a quality assurance (QA) tester, how to bring out these traits in current QA staff, and how to watch for these soft skills when screening new candidates. About the presenter Stacey Brown is the Talent Management Specialist and President of Mindlink Resources, LLC.. She has a passion for surrounding herself with talented people. For the past 15 years she has successfully built teams of contractors providing a variety of services at large fortune 500 companies in the Pacific Northwest. She specifically has over 12 years of experience recruiting, training and managing QA specialists. Stacey has a degree in Communications and an MBA in Technology Management.

1. Top 10 Qualities of a QA Tester
or . .
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2. Overview
• Audience:
• This webinar is for anyone who cares about
quality for translation projects
• Agenda:
• Solve a Mystery
• Understand Qualities of a QA Tester
• Encourage the Best from your Testers
• Get the help you need
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3. The Mystery…
• The Crime…
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4. The Theories
• Was the QA step Skipped?
• Need 5 positive
experiences to undo 1
negative one.
• They’ll tell 16 people
about their bad
experience.
• We’re assuming QA was not
skipped and this error was
missed somehow…
…but how??
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5. The Suspects
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6. What does a QA tester do, anyway?
How do you see the Role of a QA Tester?
100% 88% 100%
63%
The QA Tester reviews The QA Tester reviews The QA Tester reviews The QA Tester should
the translation and the localized product the localized product think of themselves as
makes sure there are and makes sure the and makes sure the the end user and share
no grammar mistakes product works as product is culturally their experience.
or inconsistencies. expected appropriate for the
target audience.
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7. So, Why do Testers Miss Bugs?
Listed in Order of Tester’s Experience:
1. The QA tester didn't have the skills
required by the project
2. The QA tester didn't have good
instructions from the lead
3. The QA tester felt rushed because of a
tight deadline
4. The QA tester was not trained adequately
for the assignment
5. The QA tester spent too much time
learning tools
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8. The Clues
• Skills shortages
• Lack of training resources
• Limited QA Lead Time/Availability
• Tight Deadlines
• Diminishing budgets
• Enormous amount of tools to learn!
=MISSED BUG REPORTS
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9. What about these tools?
• TMS=Translation Management Systems
• Several options available (for example):
• SDL, Projetex, Across Language
Server, Cloudwords, GlobalLink, GlobalSight, i
plus, iTrac TMS, Ontram , Plunet
BusinessManager, Sajan, Transifex, Wordbee, World
Server
• Twenty percent of medium-to-large LSPs
offer a house brand of translation
management (Common Sense Advisory)
• Many testers work for multiple
customers, each using potentially a
different TMS.
• Best practice—try to be tool independent!
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10. Mystery Solved?
• There is usually not one reason a
product is released with an
embarrassing bug. . .
• But there are ways to help avoid this
happening again!
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11. Understand the Qualities of a QA Tester
Listed in Order of Tester’s Experience:
1. Understanding localization process
2. Detail-oriented
3. Native-level language skills
4. Able to learn technology
5. Good Communication
6. Good Team player
7. Flexible
8. Curious
9. Good Sense of Humor
10.Empathetic
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12. Understand More Qualities of Good
Testers?
• Other qualities listed on survey:
• “Willing to take feedback from engineers/client/lead”
• “Always ensuring that the quality standards are not compromised.”
• “Familiarity with the culture of the target audience”
• “Some translating skills and experience”
• “Computer and internet navigation skills (testers usually are not
given time to learn basic skills when a project is to be done)”
• “Technical skills necessary to complete the specific project (eg.
knowing how to use an iTunes before testing an iTunes software)”
• “Sense of professionalism - going above and beyond. If any errors
are found, even if they are out of scope, they should be included
in the report.”
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13. Encourage these Qualities in your Test
Team
• “Make the project ready on time, answer the questions fast
, give good instructions for the scope of testing”
• “Provide clear instructions on the scope of the
testing, provide training on any special tools or programs
used in testing, and be available to answer questions or
address issues as they arise.”
• “Help me to develop a solid understanding of the project's
goals, and how the various elements will fit together for a
successful outcome.”
• “Provide enough time to work on the project. (e.g.
"spend up to 5 hrs and stop" would result in partially
perfect, partially not-reviewed end-
product, which, after all, is seen as a bad product)”
• “Provide enough background information to maintain
consistency in translation, tone of the voice, style
used by the client.”
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14. Support The Testers
• Do your pre-work
• Run Psuedo Localization
• Perform Code Reviews
• Use Single World-Ready Binary (microsoft.com)
• Localization teams are less likely to find
localizability problems in multiple language
versions that may require multiple fixes and
branches of source code. (UniCode)
• The localization process becomes mostly a UI
translation. Thus the localized product testing
becomes less technical and more of a grammar and
spell-checking job
• Right-skill the task
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15. Get Help
• Using 3rd party for QA:
• You know you’re using the right-skilled person
• You know you are using the best QA methodology
• You can consolidate the tools
• You are showing your customers you care about
quality
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16. In Summary
• Your goal is to not miss bugs!
• Do this by knowing your testers
• Make the right assignments to the right
people
• Providing support to them
• Find your Watson…
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17. Grace is learning Portuguese
• You may think you have quality—but what
counts is what the end user sees…
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18. Stacey Brown
sbrown@mindlinkresources.com
Skype: staceyj.brown
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/staceyjbrown
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mindlinkresources
www.mindlinkresources.com
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