Product Owner
The Scrum product owner is typically a project's key stakeholder. Part of the product owner responsibilities is to have a vision of what he or she wishes to build, and convey that vision to the scrum team. This is key to successfully starting any agile software development project. The agile product owner does this in part through the product backlog, which is a prioritized feature list for the product.
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The product owner role requires an individual with certain skills and traits, including availability, business savvy and communication skills. First, the Scrum product owner needs to be available to his or her team. The best product owners show commitment by doing whatever is necessary to build the best product possible – and that means being actively engaged with their teams.
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Finally, communication is a large part of the product owner responsibilities. The product owner role requires working closely with key stakeholders throughout the organization and beyond, so he or she must be able to communicate different messages to different people about the project at any given time.
Quality Assurance Engineer
A software quality assurance engineer is someone who monitors every phase of the software development process so as to ensure design quality, making sure that the software adheres to the standards set by the development company. Software quality assurance engineers make sure that new products work before they are released to the public.
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A software quality assurance engineer is involved in tasks that include software design, writing source code, control of source code, reviewing code, configuration management, change management, program testing, integration of software, and release management process. He or she will typically break up the entire process into goals such as verifications, activities, measurements, abilities, and commitments. By doing this they can not only keep the task from becoming overwhelming but maintain complete control over the entire project as well.
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Software quality assurance engineers are sometimes confused with software testers. Software testers test parts of the software at different stages of development, whereas a software quality assurance engineer oversees the entire development process, which includes software testing, from start to finish. The monetary success of the software product is largely due in part to the quality of the product as well as the product’s ability to hit the market on time. Both are the responsibility of the software quality assurance engineer.
Business Analyst
The Business Analyst is an agent of change. Business Analysis is a disciplined approach for introducing and managing change to organizations, whether they are for-profit businesses, governments, or non-profits.
Job titles for business analysis practitioners include not only business analyst, but also business systems analyst, systems analyst, requirements engineer, process analyst, product manager, product owner, enterprise analyst, business architect, management consultant, business intelligence analyst, data scientist, and more. Many other jobs, such as management, project management, product management, software development, quality assurance and interaction design rely heavily on business analysis skills for success.
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Business analysis is used to identify and articulate the need for change in how organizations work, and to facilitate that change. As business analysts, we identify and define the solutions that will maximize the value delivered by an organization to its stakeholders. Business analysts work across all levels of an organization and may be involved in everything from defining strategy, to creating the enterprise architecture, to taking a leadership role by defining the goals and requirements for programs and projects or supporting continuous improvement in its technology and processes.
Scrum Master
Scrum masters serve as facilitators for agile teams working under the scrum methodology. They’re the point person responsible for understanding the big development picture of each sprint. They bridge the needs of product management, sales, marketing, operations, and product development.
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The scrum master works closely with the product owner to translate epics, stories, and other items on the sprint list into actionable tasks for developers. While they don’t need as much context and business savvy as product owners and product managers, they must have a solid understanding of the reasoning and implications behind each initiative.
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Scrum masters assign and delegate tasks appropriately, ensuring the team’s work aligns with priorities and the overall schedule and ensuring the team is fully deployed and not idle. They use the rituals and processes of the agile methodology to keep the team on track. The methodology fosters communication and quickly addresses any issues. The goal of scrum is to maximize productivity and speedily deliver value to customers.
DevOps Engineer
Scrum masters serve as facilitators for agile teams working under the scrum methodology. They’re the point person responsible for understanding the big development picture of each sprint. They bridge the needs of product management, sales, marketing, operations, and product development.
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The scrum master works closely with the product owner to translate epics, stories, and other items on the sprint list into actionable tasks for developers. While they don’t need as much context and business savvy as product owners and product managers, they must have a solid understanding of the reasoning and implications behind each initiative.
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Scrum masters assign and delegate tasks appropriately, ensuring the team’s work aligns with priorities and the overall schedule and ensuring the team is fully deployed and not idle. They use the rituals and processes of the agile methodology to keep the team on track. The methodology fosters communication and quickly addresses any issues. The goal of scrum is to maximize productivity and speedily deliver value to customers.
Business System Analyst
Business systems analysts can be called BSAs, computer systems analysts, and even systems architects. But no matter the label, these professionals are defined by the goal of helping an organization operate more efficiently and effectively through the design and implementation of information technology systems, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
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They use both business and information technology tools to evaluate a company’s operating systems and procedures and design improvements. They typically consult with managers or other leaders of functional areas to understand how they use IT systems, research emerging technologies that might be a good fit for the company, analyze costs and benefits, implement new systems and train the system’s users, or write instruction manuals.
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The BLS notes that business systems analysts tend to specialize in certain systems—based on what their company uses. Analysts could focus on financial computer systems or engineering computer systems for example.
QA Automation Engineer
Also known as quality assurance automation engineers, QA automation engineers design automated tests to validate the functionality of web and mobile applications. Their job is to create the initial test designs, write the scripts, install the automation testing protocols, and report the results.
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Automated QA testing relies entirely on specialized tools to execute test cases and generate results, whereas manual testers follow a written test plan and report the defects to developers. The two methods can be used concurrently, but each is best used in a specific area.
Manual testing is ideal for assessing the user experience (UX), and the look and feel of an application—which can only be done by a human. It’s most often used for newly-designed test cases, and on an ad-hoc basis for test cases with changeable requirements.
Automated testing runs on frameworks created by testers. It’s suitable for large-scale software testing, and is generally more accurate than manual testing. The major benefit is that it saves time, especially in regression testing which can become tedious for manual testers.
The manual testing process cannot be recorded, but automation test scripts are reusable—so automated QA is a boon for repeated execution testing and successive development cycles. Automated tests can be run 24/7 without the need for manual input, although manual testing procedures can be used to cross-check results.
QA Analyst
Quality assurance analysts – also known as localization analysts and test analysts – test programs, games, and any software to make sure they are reliable, fully functional, and user-friendly before they are released to the public. They use a test plan to inspect thousands of lines of code to make sure they are entirely error-free. They look for flaws and weaknesses in the program, such as an unappealing interface, and report back to the developers on their findings. They may also fix any system problems or glitches and make suggestions for how to make a software program work better. They must also ensure that the software is right for the market in which it will be released, is translated into the local language, and is culturally compatible.