Senior Software Quality Assurance Analyst

Sr Software Quality Assurance Analyst

Job ID: 2013-17674
# of Positions: 1
Posted Date: 8/27/2013
Job Location: US-IA-Iowa City
Position Type: Regular Full Time
Category: Information Technology

Overview

Pearson has one defining goal: to help people progress in their lives through learning. We champion innovation and we invest in models for education that deliver on our promise for effective, accessible, and personal learning from early literacy, college and career readiness to professional education, through data informed instruction and inventive applications for mobile and digital learning.

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, has global-reach and market leading businesses in education, business, and consumer publishing and is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges (UK: PSON; NYSE: PSO).

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V/D, and a member of E-Verify.

Responsibilities

This professional Assessment & Instruction Quality position will be responsible for ensuring that all project deliverables meet customer expectations. This will be accomplished through:

1. Understanding customer requirements as close to the source of the information as possible
2. Ensuring customer requirements are properly documented in the Customer Requirements Allocation Document, Functional Specification, and/or Customer Requirements Questionnaire
3. Ensuring IT test cases are thorough and complete through test case reviews
4. Documenting Acceptance Test (both internal End to End and Customer) Test Cases
5. Performing Acceptance (both internal End to End and Customer) Testing
6. Documenting, communicating, and tracking software defects
7. Performing any production validation activities needed to ensure all deliverables meet quality standards

The position will perform Black Box testing and production validation on Mainframe and Client Server technologies, actively participate in both internal and external program team/customer meetings, and research new testing tools. This position will be responsible for the following testing activities:

'Employ the appropriate level of tact and diplomacy needed for maintaining a cooperative relationship with both internal and external customers, and have an ability to communicate with both technical and non-technical people
'Ensures professional communication (verbal and written) at all times whether it's related to participation in project meetings, problem reporting, status of assigned projects, resolving issues with the business units, developers, or effectively coordinating testing efforts with other areas
'Review and Analyze Customer Requirements Allocation Document, Functional Specifications, and/or related documentation for the software product
'Understand customer specifications and identify, document, and review conditions and scenarios to be included in the Acceptance Test (both internal End to End and Customer) execution
'Executes Test Scripts, automated and manually, and identify variations from expected results
'Regression test and properly identify potential impacts on other system components
'Ensure all deliverables meet or exceed quality standards
'Responsible for maintaining and tracking quality control schedule
'Accountable for on-time completion of assigned tasks
'Document, communicate, and track software defects through the issue tracking system and participate in root cause analysis to determine preventative solutions
'Perform editorial quality functions as needed
'Identify inefficiencies, recommends solutions, and gain support for resolutions
'Applies continuous effort to acquire knowledge of various applications to gain proficiency
'Ability to quickly learn and assimilate new information
'Work with operations, program team, software development, and external groups to improve quality methods
'Evaluate testing methods and recommend software testing tools to be used
'Work with minimal or no supervision on multiple concurrent projects
'Quickly gain and share expertise on the applications being tested

Senior Software Quality Assurance Analyst also includes the following:

'Help mentor and grow team members in best practices for QA activities related to the software development lifecycle
'Help mentor Software Quality Assurance Analysts in developing the project test strategy and test plans
'Identify and document department standards and procedures
'Work with management to perform root cause analysis and implement preventative action plans

Qualifications

'US Citizen or Permanent Resident--No H1B or Green Card sponsorship is available for this posting
'Bachelors degree in Computer Science, MIS, or other computer related discipline; or the equivalent experience in computer related field required
'5+ years experience in software quality and/or software development position required.

'Ability to represent organization in a professional, courteous, and helpful manner when interfacing with internal and external customers required.
'Strong problem solving and leadership skills required
'Excellent writing and verbal communication skills required
'Must be able to multi-task, be flexible and detail oriented, and work in a changing environment
'Must be capable of designing test scenarios with limited or incomplete information
'PC skills, including experience with Microsoft Project, Excel, Word, etc., required
'Familiar with Windows, LINUX, and/or Mainframe environments required
'Ability to learn new products quickly, meet deadlines, and contribute creatively throughout the entire development process required
'Experience managing testing activities for multiple applications/releases preferred
'Basic understanding of database structure and design preferred
'Knowledge of object-oriented programming languages preferred
'Advanced knowledge of software development lifecycle and QA/software testing methodologies and concepts preferred
'Experience documenting customer requirements preferred
'Ability to work extended hours may be required to support existing application and to meet delivery dates for new or revised applications
'One or more years experience with automated testing tools preferred
'Previous experience maintaining CMM compliancy preferred
'One to two weeks travel per year