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Quality Assurance (QA) has never been more essential – or more complex. Today’s software projects expect a single QA engineer to understand manual testing, automation frameworks, API validation, performance metrics and even security testing. There’s also the added pressure of accelerated release cycles, increasing risks and demanding client expectations for quality and speed.
In this environment, staying motivated isn’t just a personal challenge – it’s how QAs remain valuable contributors to product success. A proven approach is to balance horizontal growth (broadening your expertise across new domains) and vertical growth (deepening your mastery in specialized areas). Together, they shape the mindset and technical versatility needed in modern software delivery.
The business impact of strong QA
High-performing QA teams don’t just find bugs – they reduce business risk and enable faster, more reliable delivery. For one thing, according to IBM, it costs up to 15x more to fix defects post-production or after release, compared to fixing it during early QA stages. By identifying these defects early on, QA experts save a company money and help speed up development. Indeed, McKinsey noted that test automation and continuous testing can reduce release time by 20–30%, while improving overall productivity and market responsiveness.
Strong QA practices not only save money – they build customer trust, strengthen market reputation and shorten time-to-market.
Horizontal vs. vertical growth – the two paths of modern QA
Think of your QA career as a system with two axes:
Horizontal growth: expanding across domains
This means becoming more versatile by learning skills that extend beyond traditional testing. It’s about understanding how software operates holistically – its architecture, performance, security and deployment lifecycle.
Examples of horizontal growth areas:
- Security Testing: Learn to use tools like Burp Suite or OWASP ZAP to detect vulnerabilities such as insecure direct object references (IDOR), SQL injection, or broken access controls. Understand authentication flows, token management and how to integrate basic security checks into CI pipelines.
- Performance Testing: Explore JMeter or Locust to simulate user load, measure response times and detect bottlenecks. Learn to interpret results and communicate them as business risk (e.g., how latency impacts conversion or SLA compliance).
- Backend and API Testing: Gain fluency with Postman or REST Assured, understand JSON schemas, error handling and data flow validation. Tie it to real user journeys.
- Frontend Troubleshooting: Learn how browser developer tools, accessibility checkers and DOM analysis can reveal issues that affect user experience.
- DevOps & QAOps Collaboration: Understand CI/CD concepts, pipelines in Jenkins or GitLab and how automated tests fit into continuous delivery. Learn to deploy, monitor and test in staging environments.
This range will help you speak the language of developers, DevOps engineers and security analysts. Importantly, a more integrated testing culture is the byproduct.
Vertical growth: deepening mastery
Vertical growth is about specialization and leadership, while becoming a go-to expert or strategist in one or two critical areas.
Examples of vertical growth areas:
- Advanced Test Design & Strategy: Applying risk-based testing, boundary value analysis and pairwise testing efficiently; defining coverage metrics and measurable KPIs.
- Automation Architecture: Designing scalable frameworks (e.g., Selenium + Java, Cypress + JS, Playwright + TS), integrating them with CI/CD, ensuring maintainability.
- Quality Leadership: Leading trainings sessions and knowledge sharing workshops, establishing testing standards, mentoring new QAs, or managing a test strategy for an entire product line.
- Data & AI Testing: Learning how to validate data pipelines or model outputs as AI becomes part of enterprise systems.
From QA to QAOps: the new evolution
The traditional QA role is transforming into something broader – QAOps.
QAOps aligns QA practices directly with DevOps pipelines, ensuring testing happens continuously rather than at the end of development.
In this model, QAs:
- Automate test execution within CI/CD pipelines
- Collaborate closely with developers to integrate testing earlier (“shift-left” testing)
- Use observability and monitoring tools (Grafana, Kibana, New Relic) to validate system behavior in production
- Contribute to release decisions based on real-time quality metrics
By embracing QAOps, QAs move from quality control to quality engineering. This encourages proactive prevention and enables faster, safer delivery.
A practical framework for staying motivated and skilled
To stay engaged and avoid stagnation, structure your growth just like a testing plan and make it incremental, measurable and goal driven.
- Quarterly Skill Focus: Each quarter, pick one vertical skill and one horizontal domain. Example: Deepen your automation framework (vertical) while exploring API contract testing (horizontal).
- Outcome-Based Reflection: After every sprint, document impact – not just activity. Example: “Reduced test execution time by 40% with parallelization,” or “Identified API bottleneck saving 15% load time.”
- Dedicated Learning Slots: Block a few hours monthly for hands-on exploration. Treat it as a non-negotiable investment in your future skills.
- Peer Exchange: Share findings in demos or mini-knowledge sessions – teaching others solidifies mastery and boosts confidence.
A roadmap for continuous QA growth
| Time | Goal | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Immediate skill boost | Automate smoke tests in CI/CD, perform basic vulnerability scan with OWASP ZAP |
| 90 days | Measurable project impact | Build a reusable API testing collection in Postman and integrate it with Jenkins |
| 365 days | Strategic contribution | Lead the automation strategy for your product line or establish a QAOps workflow that cuts manual regression time by 50% |
Modern QA is not just about finding defects – it’s about engineering quality into every stage of development. By consciously combining horizontal exploration with vertical mastery, QAs evolve into strategic partners who drive innovation, improve speed and protect user trust. So what are you waiting for? Start now: choose one new domain to explore and one skill to deepen. Grow outward to understand more, and upward to lead better. That’s how you stay not just motivated – but truly indispensable in today’s evolving tech landscape. To learn more about how our QA specialists – and other software development experts – can support your business, get in touch by filling out this form.
FAQ
How does QA support business goals?
QA specialists reduce business risks and help speed up software delivery by detecting issues early and anticipating problems. These efforts help to reduce release time and raise overall quality, which in turn builds customer trust and enhances brand reputation.
What are some examples of horizontal growth in QA?
Horizontal growth means becoming more versatile by learning skills that extend beyond traditional testing, such as architecture, performance, security and deployment. Examples include security testing, performance testing, backend and API testing, frontend troubleshooting and DevOps.
What are some examples of vertical growth in QA?
Vertical growth refers to specialization and leadership. Examples include advanced test design and strategy, automation architecture, quality leadership, as well as Data and AI testing.
What is QAOps?
QAOps, or quality assurance operations, integrates QA into the entire software development lifecycle. QAOps aligns QA practices directly with DevOps pipelines, ensuring testing happens continuously rather than at the end of development. QAOps automate test execution within CI/CD pipelines, work closely with developers to integrate testing earlier, use observability and monitoring tools and contribute to release decisions based on real-time quality metrics.
About the authorOlga Lupasco
Quality Assurance Engineer
With more than seven years' experience ensuring that complex software meets the highest standards of quality and reliability, Olga combines a strong foundation in manual testing with expertise in API and security testing, including hands-on work with tools. Certified by ISTQB and a Professional Scrum Master (PSM I), Olga is passionate about clear communication and effective team collaboration in Agile environments. Her background also includes business analysis, where she’s written detailed user stories, managed tickets and facilitated scrum ceremonies to keep projects on track. Driven by curiosity, a meticulous attention to detail and a holistic approach to quality, Olga helps teams deliver robust, high-performing software that meets both technical and business goals.
