7 Essential Skills You Need in Any Software Automation Engineer

You may have heard the many cries and excuses about manual testing, how it’s “dead to the world” and “no longer relevant in this thoroughly technical world”. For the most part, they aren’t wrong.

Things have drastically changed since technology became more accessible to everyone, and even though manual testing is in a field of its own it can’t do anything to compete in this new age.

That’s where automated testing comes in. It’s a position that handles many of the problems you would likely see out of the technical side of your business, and your business can only benefit from having one.

However, picking the right software automation engineer to do the job can be a tricky thing. You’ll need one that you can trust to handle this position and help your business to continue to grow and succeed.

So how do you go about finding one? We have the answer to your question.

What to Look for in a Software Automation Engineer

Here are just a few things your automation test engineer should be able to handle when they work for you. Make sure your potential candidate can cover these areas first before you hire them on.

Your Test Automation Engineer Should Have Troubleshooting Expertise

It goes without saying that your engineer should be able to carry out some of the most basic of troubleshooting requests, but they should definitely be able to carry out more than just the basics when your company is on the line.

Troubleshooting is an art. It takes more than just a simple test or a few questions to get to the bottom of a more complex situation. Finding out what’s going on with your technology and solving the problem take major expertise.

An automation engineer has the knowledge to use automated testing equipment to streamline their troubleshooting. This, along with any prior experience and technical know-how, will help them to get to the bottom of the situation.

They Should Know Agile and DevOps Methodology

Every day, more companies are trying to make speed and precision a priority in their business. After all, the faster you can move your services, the more you can make sales and grow your business.

An experienced test automation engineer should understand this concept, and be able to help you by offering a strong agile and DevOps methodology.

Like the name would suggest, agile methodology would allow the engineer to offer speed to the test project. This allows the automation testing process to move much faster than if the engineer were to simply do it all manually.

The DevOps methodology, on the other hand, helps to promote and enhance teamwork though technological modifications. When this is done correctly, your company will have a higher-quality end product as well as faster processing time.

With such important operations on the line, it’s clear that you’ll want to have someone with a high level of expertise leading this sector of your company.

Technical Programming Skills are a Must

This is a technological field, and your automation test engineer should have a considerable background in programming as a result.

Automated programming is done in large part by prepackaged software to help speed up the testing and troubleshooting. That being said, the engineer needs to know about the types of computer programs before they run analyses on them.

Now, we know what you might be thinking. Coding is part of the manual testing field. Why would an automation engineer need to know about that?

Well, we’ll tell you why. First off, knowing how to work with manual programming software is a good way to assure you have a fallback.

In essence, it works in much the same way as an automatic car. Even though the car has the ability to change its own gears automatically, there’s still the option of manually shifting between the lower gears in case a situation calls for it.

It works in much the same manner for programming. When your automation engineer uses automated technology, they will have a faster and easier way of solving the process.

If that technology doesn’t work, however, they can still rely on manual programming to go in and solve the issue so you won’t have to worry about slowing to a halt with your business plans.

They Need Experience with Configuration Management

As businesses get more complex, so too does the technology needed to keep them going. Your automation engineer needs to understand this so your company won’t be left behind in the dust.

Your database will grow over the years as you continue to hold important information, but no matter how big it gets you’ll still need to hold on the information you have.

Configuration management (CM) is the ability to manage the data history in your company. There are a number of programs that an automated engineer can use to carry out this task, and it’s a big plus if they know the common CM tools.

These tools help to manage large systems or ones that are high volume, so having automation experience will make it much faster to sort through and organise.

Going the manual route would require loads of time, staff, and resources, and there’s a higher margin of error to think about as well. Having a test automation engineer takes care of all of that – but only if they’re qualified in that field.

They Should Be Familiar with Web and Mobile Technology

The web powers everything we do, and that doesn’t change when it comes to business.

New programs are constantly being created on the web, and with that come new codes, new layouts, and new builds. The automation engineer needs to understand all of this so they can keep up with the latest in web software.

Knowing about the site will allow the engineer to understand the type of application used, the scalability, and how it was constructed, so that they know what program their working with and they can solve any problems in less time.

This same concept goes for mobile technology. Whether or not the app needs an internet connection to work, it’s still made up of digital components, and these components require testing as well.

And automation test engineer should be able to work with mobile technologies with no problem, and make it easier for your business to have a mobile presence.

Social Networking is (Surprisingly) Necessary

Social networking has been a big part of building your business presence. It helps people to get a better sense of who you are, what you do, and where you stand, and it also allows you to build your fan base and attract more customers.

That being said, a test automation engineer should have a good grasp on how this all works. This knowledge should help them on a personal level, as well as on a professional level that can benefit your company.

For their own benefit, social networking can help the engineer stay up to date with the ever-changing world of computer technology. They can use it to collaborate with other automation test engineers and share information.

This level of collaboration will allow them to work out any problems they may encounter on a specific project, and will keep them up to date on what to expect from future updates in technology testing.

On the other hand, social networking can also help them to streamline their services for your company by collaborating with and learning from other testers, they can serve your business needs better and keep your business going.

Being Creative is a Definite Plus

Finally, it’s worth saying that being creative in this field is extremely helpful. As said earlier, technology and testing habits are constantly changing, and having a one-track mind will make things very difficult for the engineer down the road.

By being willing to consider different routes to solve a problem will allow the test automation engineer to further troubleshoot the situation. As a result, they will most likely come to a situation much faster—which gets you moving sooner.

At the end of the day, make sure you’re willing to look into and find out as much as you can about your automation test engineer before you hire them. Your company will thank you for it.

Don’t Settle for Any Less Than the Best

We’ve shown you what you need to look out for when choosing a software automation engineer to help your business. Now you need to know where to find one with these skill-sets that you can trust to get the job done.

Luckily for you, we’ve got you covered.

At Divy Recruitment, we make sure to give our customers the best in automation testing processes. Our goal is to make sure your company succeeds in every aspect of business, no matter how technical the job may be.

We can help you with interpreting big data, offer you the latest cybersecurity, build upon your company infrastructure, manage your latest IT projects, and much more.

Have any questions or concerns about what we do? We’d be more than happy to hear from you. Please reach out to us and we’ll be sure to answer any questions that you may have.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.