QA Automation

Our Automation QA employees are responsible for developing and executing exploratory and automated tests. Automation QA responsibilities also include designing and implementing tests, debugging and defining corrective actions to ensure the highest product quality. They also review system requirements and track quality assurance metrics (e.g. defect densities and open defect counts.)

This is a very important role in our company's product development process so they have an interface with a variety of teams. Our QAs conduct tests before the product's launch to ensure the software is running smoothly and meets our partner's needs while focusing on being cost-effective. Ultimately, they monitor all stages of software development to identify and resolve system malfunctions to meet quality standards and to automate the biggest amount of features and processes.

As an Automation QA in Secure Group, you will have the opportunity to develop hard skills and soft skills and progress in our Career Journey as:

Level 1: Automation QA Developer
Level 2: Senior Automation QA Developer
Level 3: Automation QA Software Engineer
Level 4: Senior Automation QA Software Engineer
Level 5: Automation QA Architect
Level 6: Sr. Automation QA Architect

Introduction

In order to achieve the best of their performance, we will introduce the list of requirements and concepts our Automation QAs should focus on to succeed in our business, as well as their remuneration.
In order to progress in our Career Journey, they need to:

• Meet the criterias of the General ICs Job Level Chart & General ICs Job Step Chart
• Meet the specific criterias of the Automation QA framework regarding:

- General Knowledge a list of indispensable softwares, tools, platforms and more, for Secure Group, that they need to know (it can be a little bit out of the scope of their position).
- Specific Knowledge: a list of concepts, tools, software and etc, that are indispensable for them to develop under the scope of their position.
- Secure Group Knowledge: a list of products, company profile and features that they need to know in order to succeed in Secure Group.
- Basic IT Concepts: a list of essential concepts that we consider to be basic for our Frameworks and that we expect employees to master.

Observation: if there's any requirement that is repeated in the following tables but with different grades, the higher requested proficiency will prevail in the Performance Evaluation.

General Knowledge

To be able to reach Level 3 in our Career Journey there is some General knowledge regarding a variety of subjects that we request from our Automation QAs. This means that considering the KAI grades of proficiency, they will need to score from 4 to 6 in the following items:

General Knowledge
Concepts	Scrum
Frameworks	Scrum
Softwares/Tools/Platforms - Usage	Atlassian Bamboo
	Atlassian Bitbucket
	Atlassian Confluence
	Atlassian Jira
	BambooHR
	Docker Harbor
	Elastic Kibana
	Kamailio
	Libib
	OpenSTF
	Small Improvements
	Atlassian Jira SynapseRT
	Thycotic Passwordbox
Softwares/Tools/Platforms - Configuration	Docker Engine/Container
	Elasticsearch
Languages (Idioms)	Advanced English

Specific Knowledge

To be able to reach Level 3 in our Career Journey there is some technical knowledge we request from our Automation QAs. This means that considering the KAI grades of proficiency, they will need to score from 4 to 6 in the following items:

Specific Knowledge
Concepts	Agile
	Application Lifecycle
	Balanced Scorecard
	Defect life cycle
	IDE
	Test Automation
Frameworks	JUnit
	PHPUnit
	Selenium
Languages	CasperJS
	JavaScript
Libraries	Espresso
Softwares/Tools/Platforms - Usage	Appium
	Countly
	Git
	Instabug
	Jenksins
	SQuirrel SQL client
Softwares/Tools/Platforms - Configuration	Apache Tomcat
	Microsoft Azure

Secure Group Knowledge

To be able to reach Level 3 in our Career Journey there is some specific knowledge from our company that we request from our Automation QA team members. This means that considering the KAI grades, they will need to score a minimum proficiency considering Secure Group Knowledge in a Documentation level in the following perspectives:

Secure Group Knowledge	What's Expected	Impact	Product	Minimum Grade
User Documentation	Good, user-level knowledge regarding the product and its functionalities. From the user documentation, all employees across the company are required to be well aware of our solutions’ core features and functions such as the Password Advisor or how to send an automatic crash report.	This knowledge helps us facilitate a user-centric approach internally, which we believe is essential to develop our business and solutions. The user documentation helps team members understand user behavior and needs more thoroughly and feel the impact of their everyday efforts.	Secure OS	4
			SAS	4
			Secure Chat	4
			Secure Email	4
			Secure Vault	4
			Secure Manager	4
Sales Documentation	Employees should gain significant knowledge regarding the business side of Secure Group. They need to be aware of commonly used concepts in our day-to-day activities such as our business and distribution model, value proposition, selling prices, key selling points, and target audience.	The information in the Sales Documentation supports employees in their daily routine. It conveys the overall business vision within the company. This documentation contributes to making employees aware of how our solutions are distributed, who are our key partners and target market to know exactly the people towards whom team members’ efforts should be aimed. Alignment on company-wide priorities is also achieved through clear communication of our value proposition and key selling points, helping everyone understand the things that matter most.	Secure OS	3
			SAS	3
			Secure Chat	3
			Secure Email	3
			Secure Vault	3
			Secure Manager	3
Support Documentation	People within the company need to be aware of commonly occurring problems with our solutions. From the Support Documentation, employees should also extract general level knowledge regarding support processes, the issues that we’re currently having product-wise, and the approach to troubleshooting them.	o The Support Documentation helps employees understand short-term priorities more clearly and communicate more openly why they’re needed. It also gives them general knowledge of how to spot and report a problem, which helps us facilitate a company-wide contribution to product development. Last but by no means least, it helps team members understand customers pains and behavioral patterns to strengthen our user-centric approach.	Secure OS	3
			SAS	3
			Secure Chat	3
			Secure Email	3
			Secure Vault	3
			Secure Manager	3
Functional Documentation	Through the Functional Documentation, employees should get a thorough understanding of the solutions and their multiple features. People that work closely with the products must understand exactly how they function, how users interact with them, how to configure different settings, and what’s the expected behavior of different software solutions.	o The information in the Functional Documentation helps employees whose work is closely connected with our solutions, to gain significant in-depth knowledge into their functionalities that far exceeds users‘ understanding. Such thorough product expertise helps us remain objective, evaluate market data more adequately, and constantly increase our internal expertise.	Secure OS	4
			SAS	4
			Secure Chat	4
			Secure Email	4
			Secure Vault	4
			Secure Manager	4
Technical Documentation	Employees concerned with the Technical Documentation and more concretely - software development, must gain complete mastery over all solutions. Such people are regarded as technical experts and need to be well aware of data structures, relational databases, algorithms, programming languages, models, etc.	The Technical Documentation is used to make sure people that are technically involved in product development have the required knowledge to perform their day-to-day tasks, optimize our solutions more easily, and support other teams with their in-depth expertise.	Secure OS	4
			SAS	4
			Secure Chat	4
			Secure Email	4
			Secure Vault	4
			Secure Manager	4

Basic IT Concepts

To be able to reach Level 3 in our Career Journey there are some IT concepts that we request our Automation QA team to master. This means that considering the KAI grades of proficiency, they will need to score from 4 to 6 in the following items:

Basic IT Concepts
Category	Concepts	Description
System Administration	Linux server set up	How to install a Linux server/workstation distribution How to prepare a coding environment on a workstation
	Remote servers with SSH connection	How to set up SSH How to connect to a server How to use a key to connect to SSH
	Users management	How to create, remove and modify users on a Unix system How groups work
	File permissions	How to grant/remove different levels of access to different parts of the file system with chmod and chown. How to read files permission
	Init systems	How to configure Init system to start/stop processes at specified run levels How to start and stop services
	Firewall configuration	Understand the need for a firewall How to limit inbound network traffic to specific ports
	Basic monitoring	Understand the free memory, disk usage, load average and other metrics for server performance
	Package manager	How to install software packages and how to update them
	Web Server	How to set up a static web server How to Set up a LAMP server
	Static file deployment	Understand some automated method of updating: using rsync to keep the files up to date or similar
	Basic Docker management & administration	What is Docker engine and what is a docker controller How to set up a basic docker environment on a workstation How to create, RUN, Pause, Unpause, Start, Stop Restart, Kill container
	Active Directory	What are the major features in Active Directory Domain Services (trees, trust, forest) How to create a user, add a mailbox, etc How to create a Group policy and how to enforce it How to troubleshoot and configure Windows 2008 R2 - 2012 R2 How to use the administration tools (Active Directory, DNS etc)
	Storage	What is NFS, ISCSI, Samba How to share folders in windows What is a Security Descriptor What is Access Control List (ACL) What is a parent directory and a child directory
	Email Server	What's the difference between a transaction e-mail and an email API What's the relation between Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), Domain Name System (DNS), Mail Exchanger (MX), Post Office Protocol (POP), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) What are the SPAM rules and how to use SPAM engines
	PKI	What's a PGP universal server What is a Certificate and a Certificate Authority What's the difference between a Public Key and a Private Key and what are they used for How to configure a web server certificate with SSL (port443) How digital signatures work and how it's related to the authentication What's SSL, TLS, PGP, OTR, OMEMO
	Reading logs	What are the basic network events: Intrusion detection, packet blocked or allowed, access log How to read the MSexchange tracking log and understand an event How to read the PGP server log and understand an event How to read, request and identify the problem in the Web Server or API server log
	Virtualization	What is VMware Server/Desktop application and how it works How to replicate VMs How to restart VMs
	XMPP	What's the XMPP protocol and how to use it What are the main extensions
	SIP Protocol	What is the SIP protocol and how to use it How to differentiate media from signaling
System Administration - Day to Day Ops
	Day to Day Ops	How to set up a network printer and put it in the correct driver into a print server How to set up a working station and advanced drivers configuration How to set up a network printer and put it and the correct driver into a print server
	Commands	What are the universal keyboard commands for operating systems What is a command line What are the most common CMD commands and what are they used for (Ipconfig, Ping, Dir, Nslookup, Tracert) What are the most common PowerShell commands and what are they used for
	Hardware	Understand Advanced hardware: terminology, troubleshoot and the relation between them
	Root cause analysis	What is cause and effect and how they are related What is an event in a system log How to navigate an event using a timestamp
Android Development	Android Studio	How to create a project and how to connect a device How to execute real-time debugging
	Adb command	How to perform basic adb to capture log How to load an OS via adb What are the most basic adb command and how to use them: devices, push, pull, reboot, reboot-bootloader, reboot recovery, fastboot devices, fastboot unlock, install How to execute USB debugging
	Android SDK	What are layouts and views and what's the relation between them What are activities and their life cycle
	SQL	What is SQL and what it does How to write a simple SQL query
	Android OS architecture	What are the basic components of an Android Phone: Android Runtime – ART Linux Kernel, Libraries, Application Framework, Applications
	AndroidOS or Android App log	How to identify actions in an app that can cause a log entry
Networking concepts	Network concepts	What's the OSI model and how to use it What is DHCP What is DNS and the type of records as well as how to edit and check them What are the differences and relations between Internal DNS and External DNS What is a VLAN (from a VERY high level) What is TCP and IP What are the differences between UDP and TCP and when to use each one of them
	Basic firewall concept	What are the NAT rules What is Port forwarding used for How to set up port forwarding
	Basic Traffic Sniffing	How to set up Wireshark on a workstation and connect to a device How to use a proxy to intercept traffic
	Basic Networking Command	What are the most common CMD commands and what are they used for (Ipconfig, Ping, Dir, Nslookup, Tracert) How to use web tools: mxtools, visual trace route, dnstools, etc…
Programming	HTML/CSS	How to write or modify a very simple web page and basic HTML tag
	RestAPI, JSON	How to post to an API request How to understand the result using a tool
	Basic arithmetic functions	How to work on complex Excel or to use VBA formula How to apply general basic arithmetic in any programming language
	Variable	What is a variable and how to use it What is math, string, array and boolean and how to use them
	String manipulation	Understand how to concatenate, trim, manipulate strings in any programming language
	Looping - flow control	Understand basic IF, THEN, ELSE clause in any programming language Understand how to build a looping array in any programming language
	SDLC	What is the Software Development Life Cycle concept What are the phases of the SDLC What are software development models
	Version Control	What's version control and where it's used How to identify and administrate revisions
	Conditionals	How to apply BASIC boolean algebra What are Logical operator (And/Or) and how to use them

Salary Grid

Automation QA			Step
Level
	Individual Contributor Path	Management Path	1	2	3	4
	1: Automation QA Developer	-	1.500 lv	1.650 lv	1.800 lv	1.950 lv
	2: Sr. Automation QA Developer	-	2.500 lv	2.650 lv	2.800 lv	2.950 lv
	3: Automation QA Software Engineer	Manager	3.500 lv	3.650 lv	3.800 lv	3.950 lv
	4: Sr. Automation QA Software Engineer	Sr. Manager	4.500 lv	4.650 lv	4.800 lv	4.950 lv
	5: Automation QA Architect	Head of	5.500 lv	5.650 lv	5.800 lv	5.950 lv
	6: Sr. Automation QA Architect	Director	6.500 lv	6.650 lv	6.800 lv	6.950 lv
	-	Sr. Director	9.000 lv	9.400 lv	9.800 lv	10.200 lv
	-	Chief of	11.200 lv	11.600 lv	12.000 lv	12.400 lv
	-	VP	13.400 lv	13.800 lv	14.200 lv	14.600 lv