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Be the QA Engineer Developers Actually Want on Their Team

"But it works on my machine!"

Every QA engineer has heard this phrase, often accompanied by a developer's confused expression or a slightly defensive tone in a Slack message. It's such a universal experience that it has spawned countless memes, even being branded on t-shirts.

However, behind this humorous exchange lies a real challenge:  the potential for QA and development to operate as opposing forces rather than a unified team. Developers become reluctant to work closely with QAs. And when QAs and developers fail to collaborate, product quality suffers, resulting in frustrated users, missed deadlines, and strained team dynamics.

As a QA, you need a structured approach that helps you become the kind of QA engineer developers genuinely want on their team. This approach has five key elements: creating detailed bug tickets, understanding the developer's perspective, communicating effectively, building deep technical knowledge, and demonstrating dependability.

Let’s start with the first.

1. Detailed Bug Tickets

Detailed bug reports accelerate debugging by providing developers with the necessary context to diagnose problems efficiently.

Although finding bugs is essential, providing comprehensive information that helps developers quickly understand and resolve issues is what truly adds value. Effective bug tickets should include, but are not limited to:

  • Environment details (OS, browser version, device type)
  • Application version or build number
  • Clear, reproducible steps
  • Expected vs. actual results
  • Screenshots or screen recordings
  • Relevant logs or error messages

Sharing your initial analysis can give developers a valuable starting point. For example, assuming you notice a payment failure in an e-commerce application and, upon investigation, you discover that the payment service returns a "401 Not Found" response. So, in your ticket, you suggest that the payment service might be offline and attach relevant log data.

The developers, on the other hand, eventually determined that the issue was within the payment microservice itself. Although your initial hypothesis might not have been specific, providing these findings gave developers a concrete starting point that accelerated their debugging process.

By consistently delivering high-quality bug reports with this level of detail, you transform bugs from frustrations into collaborative problem-solving opportunities where both QA and development contribute their expertise toward resolution.

2. Developer's Perspective

When testing features, seek insight from those who built them.

Developing a strong working relationship with developers requires understanding their challenges and respecting their expertise. This collaborative approach improves test coverage while demonstrating that you value their knowledge.

When consulting with developers, you can ask thoughtful questions such as "What edge cases should I focus on?" or "Are there any implementation details I should be aware of?". Asking such questions accomplishes two important goals.

First, it provides valuable technical context that improves your testing effectiveness. Second, it positions you as a collaborative partner rather than an adversary looking to find fault, which builds mutual respect. Developers appreciate it when testers recognise the complexity of their work.

Consulting developers can be beneficial in situations like:

  • Complex business logic implementations
  • Features with significant technical constraints
  • Areas with known stability issues
  • Functionality that interacts with third-party services

Over time, this collaborative dynamic leads you to gain insights that help you test more effectively, resulting in more robust features and fewer production defects.

Remember that seeking input doesn't diminish your testing expertise—it enhances it by incorporating valuable developer knowledge into your testing strategy.

3. Delightful Communication

How information is conveyed significantly affects how it's received and acted upon.

Communication skills are fundamental for QA engineers, extending far beyond simply reporting findings. An essential aspect of communication is understanding that communication is more than stating what is correct. Communication involves presenting information in a way that helps developers accept and address the issue in a constructive manner.

This requires tailoring your communication style to the individuals you're working with. Effective communication means:

  • Presenting facts objectively without assigning blame
  • Adapting to individual communication preferences
  • Choosing the right channel for different types of information.

Different developers have different communication preferences. Some prefer direct written communication through tickets or chat, while others respond better to face-to-face discussions. Some appreciate detailed technical explanations, while others prefer concise summaries focused on impact.

Observing these preferences and adapting your approach accordingly will make developers more receptive to your findings, facilitating productive problem-solving rather than defensiveness.

4. Deep Technical Knowledge

Technical knowledge significantly enhances a QA engineer's ability to find meaningful defects and collaborate effectively with development teams.

As software development continues to evolve, with practices like shift-left testing becoming more prevalent,  understanding the technical underpinnings of applications has become increasingly valuable.

When you understand how software works beneath the user interface, your testing approach fundamentally changes. You gain the ability to identify potential issues during design and code reviews, before they become actual defects. Your test design also improves as you target integration points and service boundaries where defects often hide.

Your communication with developers also becomes more effective when you share a common technical vocabulary, which increases your credibility. Perhaps most importantly, you can contribute meaningful insights about quality risks during architectural discussions, shifting quality considerations earlier in the development lifecycle.

This evolution leads to what I call becoming a "full-stack QA". That is, someone who can evaluate quality across all layers of the application stack rather than relying solely on black-box testing approaches. Developers value this comprehensive perspective because it means you understand their challenges while still advocating for the end user.

You can read more on the four must-have technical skills for QAs in the AI & No-Code Era. This technical foundation allows you to expand beyond UI-level testing to evaluate systems more comprehensively.

By developing technical knowledge alongside your testing expertise, you position yourself as a valuable partner who brings both quality advocacy and technical insight to the team.

5. Dependability

Dependability means consistently demonstrating your commitment to quality in your team's projects.

This is a long-term attribute that complements the other four aspects of our framework. It means features you sign off on typically have minimal bugs, building your reputation as someone reliable who completes tasks effectively and proactively raises quality concerns. You can build dependability by consistently following through on your commitments.

When you promise to test a feature by a deadline, make every effort to meet that timeline or communicate early if something changes. Thorough testing that catches important issues before release further strengthens that reputation. Dependability also means knowing how to balance quality standards with practical constraints. Not every feature needs to be perfect. Experienced judgment helps you decide when “good enough” meets the team's goals. Providing honest, evidence-based quality assessments rather than vague opinions helps developers trust your judgment.

You can deepen your impact by engaging early in the development process, participating during requirement reviews and design discussions. This way, you help spot potential issues before code is even written, showing you're not just catching problems but actively working to prevent them.

Dependability isn't achieved overnight. It demands consistently doing the right things and doing things right. But when you reach this level, it's not only the developers who will value your presence, the entire team will feel fortunate whenever you're working alongside them.

From Quality Gatekeeper to Development Partner

The relationship between QA and development works best as a partnership focused on delivering value to users.

When you master the 5D framework, you create higher-quality products through collaborative problem-solving rather than adversarial gate-keeping. Effective communication facilitates this transformation by fostering trust and a shared understanding between teams.

As you implement these practices, remember that building these relationships takes time. Start with small changes, demonstrate your commitment to collaboration, and watch how your interactions with developers transform from potential tension points to productive partnerships.

As Steve Jobs famously said, "Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."

References


MagicPod is a no-code AI-driven test automation platform for testing mobile and web applications designed to speed up release cycles. Unlike traditional "record & playback" tools, MagicPod uses an AI self-healing mechanism. This means your test scripts are automatically updated when the application's UI changes, significantly reducing maintenance overhead and helping teams focus on development.

Aldy Syah Daviq Ramadhan

Written by Aldy Syah Daviq Ramadhan

Aldy is a dedicated QA professional with expertise in automation and manual testing, focused on building efficient testing frameworks and ensuring top-quality software delivery.