The software industry’s working pattern has undergone tremendous changes in the last few years. Along with the culture of traditional on-site working, remote working existed. Now, quality assurance professionals can work without going to the office. They need to integrate themselves with the central management system of their workplace.
The rise of a new working system assured various benefits to the industry. But we all know everything has two aspects. Along with the advantages, there were several disadvantages too. Today we will focus on the benefits and drawbacks a quality assurance professional faces while working remotely.
Quality assurance professionals are the ones who take part in designing automated test cases. They also play an important role in identifying and debugging bugs with the help of automation testing tools such as Selenium, Playwright, and Cypress by sending them to the concerned software development team members. In simpler words, quality assurance professionals are the ones who ensure the correctness and quality of software applications.
When discussing working remotely as a quality assurance professional, the first thing that comes to mind is its advantages. This could be increased productivity, a flexible schedule, savings in travel expenditure, and an enhanced work life. But we must also understand the problems that arise with remote working. So let us know them.
Benefits of Remote Quality Assurance Work
People have a heavy workload in quality assurance, and working remotely can ensure various benefits. Here is a list of advantages you may access while working remotely as a quality assurance professional.
Enhanced Work-life Balance
As a quality assurance professional, you usually have a hectic schedule. You need to ensure the software applications’ quality and design its code, find bugs, and debug bugs. Also, you have your commitments and responsibilities. Remote working gives you the freedom to balance them at your own pace. Here you don’t need to follow a strict schedule. You have a well-balanced time for your personal and professional time. It also allows you to manage time and work effortlessly.
Geographic Freedom
You get geographic freedom when you work remotely as a quality assurance. You can work in a favorable climate. The quality assurance professional can efficiently work from their good place at a low cost of living. Most importantly, remote working lets you be close to your loved one. You can even explore places and do other activities and adventures without worrying about your job hours as you do not have to report to the office and follow a strict schedule.
Cost Saving
Quality assurance professional requires formal work attire when working on-site. So working remotely can save the cost of formal attire. Also, remote working gives you the freedom to work from any location of your choice without the need to go to the office. This saves the traveling cost. And most importantly remote work is not cost-effective only for the employees but also for the employers. They keep the overhead cost of providing utilities and maintaining workspace.
Increased Productivity
When working remotely, you have your workspace according to your specifications and away from distractions. This helps you to focus more on your work and thus increase productivity. Also, remote working safeguards you from distractions during working hours such as unnecessary and unplanned meetings or any noise or gossip among coworkers.
Access to a Global Talent Pool
When organizations allow quality assurance professionals to work remotely, they can hire people from the entire globe. This enables an organization to work with people having diverse skills and experience. Also, this helps in maintaining an effective and innovative set of quality assurance professionals from all around the world. This also offers organizations with experts to handle complex problems.
Cloud Technology
Quality assurance professionals use cloud technology while working remotely. This allows them to access and store data without requiring extra storage. Also, when data is stored in the cloud, it becomes easy for the quality assurance professional as everyone in the development team can access them remotely from any geography. Also, cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest make communication easier as they now have a medium for real-time interaction.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to run manual and automated tests at scale. The platform allows you to perform both real-time and automation testing across 3000+ environments where you can find different OS and browsers such as Chrome and Safari browsers online for getting real-world scenarios.
Reduced Commute Stress
Quality assurance professionals must travel to their offices for traditional on-site work. And this becomes a significant source of stress. Today with the increased population, no matter when you get onto the roads, there is always traffic. Spending longer in a crowded public place or transport can adversely affect physical and mental health. This does not provide a fresh start. Remote working benefits here and allows quality assurance professionals to work hassle-free.
Customized Work Environment
The freedom to customize your workspace according to your own choice is another benefit you get as a remote working quality assurance professional. This gives you an environment to focus on the work. The desired domain also provides peace of mind which is very important for mental health. The workspace can be any place of the professional’s choice, be it a home or an outdoor space. Personalize your workspace to boost productivity and reduce stress, meeting online demand for a more comfortable and efficient work environment
Drawbacks of Remote Quality Assurance Work
With benefits, everything has some drawbacks too. Here is a list of the drawbacks of working remotely as a quality assurance professional.
Isolation and Loneliness
Where remote work gives you the freedom to work at your own pace, it is also isolating, especially for those who are socially active or like being around people. As a quality assurance professional, you must quickly find bugs and solve issues. Being at the office helps you in this as you can discuss things with your teammates and colleagues. Immediate feedback and consultations are provided when working onsite.
Communication Challenges
Remote working is a barrier to effective communication. This is because communication is done through text messages, email chats, and other mediums in case of remote working. Limited face-to-face interactions are done due to the difference in time zones. Also, remote working directly depends on the network connection quality. Better the quality of the network leads to better communication.
Distraction at Home
Although remote working gives you flexibility, it also comes with distractions. When working from home, various other activities occur in the background. Some of the common examples can best be understood it. In a home, there are multiple individuals such as children playing and making noise, someone working in the kitchen and there may be the noise of vessels, or someone watching television. These all are a kind of distraction that won’t let you focus on your work.
Also, you may have to help your family in the household or fulfill any other responsibility. This may not let you give your hundred percent to the work.
Technical Limitations
One has to bear various technical limitations while working remotely as a quality assurance professional. The on-site office provides all the software and hardware required for analyzing and testing a software application. But in remote working, you must care for those at your own cost. Also, if any issue arises with them, you do not have access to the technical team. You have to solve them on your own.
Also, you need to pay your internet bills, which does not guarantee high-speed connectivity. And we already know how crucial high-speed internet is to work remotely and connect with the entire team involved in the software development.
Lack of Professional Development Opportunities
Remote working as a quality assurance professional limits your overall development and growth. To grow as a quality assurance professional, you must communicate with others of the same domain where you can share your insights and receive from others.
Also, the more you reach out to people the more you will learn and upskill yourself. And remote working also restricts you from attending live sessions and training. These may lead you to miss several good opportunities.
Security and Privacy Concerns
As a quality assurance professional, you keep data related to software applications secure. For this, you have to be more attentive to how you save the data and where you save them. The onsite office environment comes with a secure and controlled infrastructure. The data here cannot be misplaced or intruded. But, when working outside the office, you must ensure that the data are privately stored and cannot be intruded on by anyone. You must secure your work devices and other components with a strong password for this.
Overwork and Burnout
You have a heavy workload and short project deadlines as a quality assurance professional. Due to this, it becomes tough for them to detach themselves from their work. This leads to overwork, and they are fully drained physically and mentally. Sometimes, they have very little time for themselves or to fulfill their other commitments and responsibilities.
Conclusion
Quality assurance professionals are the ones who look after the design of automated codes and also design them. Ensures the quality of the software application, finds bugs, and helps the concerned development team member fix them. However, the recent changes in the working culture and evolution of remote working have brought various merits and demerits to the professionals.
Remote working has ensured flexibility for quality assurance professionals, but at the same time, the workers face overwork and burnout due to improper schedules. They are close to their loved ones, but indulging with them always distracts the work. Quality assurance professionals have their customized workspace and work at their own pace but are not integrated with their colleagues. This impacts their overall development and growth.
They are connected through emails but lack face-to-face interactions and live sessions. The biggest demerit of working remotely as a quality assurance professional is that people miss opportunities that help them to grow and develop their careers.