Quality Assurance Vs. Audit

David Ingram has written for multiple publications since 2009, including "The Houston Chronicle" and online at Business.com. As a small-business owner, Ingram regularly confronts modern issues in management, marketing, finance and business law. He has earned a Bachelor of Arts in management from Walsh University.

Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Software quality assurance engineers and testers oversee the quality of a piece of software's development over its entire life cycle.

Sample of Reported Job Titles

Quality Assurance Analyst (QA Analyst), Quality Assurance Director (QA Director), Software Quality Assurance Engineer (SQA Engineer), Software Quality Engineer, Product Assurance Engineer, Software Test Engineer

Software quality assurance engineers and testers have an eye for detail and are committed to improving the performance of the products a company sells. They ensure that the software packages being sold meet or exceed the customer's expectations in performance and value. The biggest software companies spend millions of dollars of their budget on hiring quality software assurance engineers to head their quality assurance departments. This money is well spent, because the software quality assurance engineer will make sure that the product is top quality before it is marketed and sold.

A software quality assurance engineer is involved in the entire software development process to ensure the quality of the final product. This can include processes such as requirements gathering and documentation, source code control, code review, change management, configuration management, release management and the real testing of the software. Software quality assurance is often confused with software testing, but should not be. Testing is a big part of software quality assurance, but it is not, by any means, the only part of it.

Software quality assurance engineers must be familiar with the entire software development life cycle in order to be effective. They may start out as software engineers or as testing engineers. They should have strong communication skills, be good at documenting their work, and must be able to work well with different groups. They often become the middle person between the developers and the customers, so they need to be able to understand, and convey, both viewpoints. In addition to running tests, software quality assurance engineers diagnose problems, recommend solutions, and determine whether program requirements have been met.

Training requirements vary depending on the job, but many employers prefer applicants who have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, or a similar degree.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary of a Software Quality Assurance Engineer & Tester in 2018 was $90,270.

Belonging to professional organizations & LinkedIn groups can provide you with networking, informational interviewing, & job shadowing opportunities, as well as assist you with finding internships and jobs.

Research & Internship Listings

Information retrieved from Science Buddies: Software Quality Assurance Engineer & Tester, O*NET Online: Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers.

Best free PDF editors 2023: Their top picks

If you work with PDF files regularly then a PDF editor is an indispensable tool. Whether it’s part of your job, you manage PDF files for your own personal use, or you just need to complete a one-off editing task, a top editor program is an essential piece of software. Full-featured editors such as Adobe’s Acrobat Pro DC might provide all of the bells and whistles, but a free PDF editor can still offer most of the important tools of a paid service for no additional charge.

Plus, many free PDF editors are browser based, which means that you don’t need to worry about about platform- or device-compatibility issues.

Of course, free products won’t come with every feature of their premium counterparts. So, if you find that you need more advanced tools such as password protection, Bates numbering, or e-signatures, then you’re probably better served by a premium PDF editor.

PDF Candy – Best free PDF editor overall

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Free

PDF Candy is the rare free PDF editor that offers a lot of the features you’d typically have to pay for. We’re talking scanning, multiple file-conversion options, and OCR functionality. While the free version has access to the expansive toolset of the paid version, you’re limited to one PDF task per hour. For unfettered access, you need to shell out $6 month.

Apple Preview PDF editor – Best free PDF editor for Mac users

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Built into macOS

Mac users have an excellent PDF editor built right into their operating system. Although its ostensibly a photo viewer, macOS’s Preview app is rife with PDF-editing capabilities including tools for adding text and shapes, redacting content, making freehand drawings, inserting sticky notes, and capturing your signature using your trackpad, camera, or iPhone.

Sejda PDF editor – Most versatile free PDF editor

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Free (Premium $7.50/mo)

Offered as both an online tool and a desktop editor, Sejda is capable of performing dozens of tasks including editing, form creation and filling, Bates stamping, file encryption, and more. If the daily usage limits are too restrictive for you, you can upgrade to the affordable paid version.

While there are a number of different types of PDF file formats, they all fall under the umbrella term of PDF documents. A PDF form is a type of PDF document that has editable form fields a user can fill out. Typically, parts of the document are static and can’t be changed in a PDF form. These usually include questions and instructions for those who end up filling out the form later on. In a PDF form, the content fields a user fills out are typically open to editing and can offer a list of possible answer options or can be written in freely.

Yes. They are two entirely different document formats. While you can export from one file format to another, they are not the same. Word file formats are usually used for word processing, editing, and making changes to text. PDF documents on the other hand, are most often utilized for viewing, sharing, and printing documents. Additionally, Word files can be read and/or written to and contain some version of the “.doc” file format. Whereas PDF files are typically read-only and contain the “.pdf” file format.

Yes. If you have a PDF document that you do not want anyone else to be able to edit, you can protect the file. You can do this by opening the file in Acrobat, clicking Tools > Protect. Then you have a few options as to whether you want to just restrict editing with a password, or if you want to encrypt the file for further safety. Once you choose how you want to protect the PDF document, you can set a password and save.

Yes, many free PDF editors such as their top pick PDF Candy, allow you to merge two or more PDFs into one. As most free PDF editors are browser-based, you will just need to open up the PDF editor application or website in your browser and click the “Merge” option. It will then ask you to add the files of all PDFs you wish to merge. Once the files have been added, just make sure that they are in the correct position and alignment you want before proceeding with the merge. Afterwards, all of your previously PDF files will be merged together into one new PDF document.

Yes and no. Google doesn’t provide a designated free PDF editor itself, but there are third-party Chrome extensions that you can use to help get the job done. Alternatively, you can make use of Google Drive to edit a PDF document. Simply upload the document onto your Google Drive and then select the file and right-click and select Open with > Google Docs. The file will be opened as an editable Google Docs text document. Then just make your edits and when you’re finished click File > get > PDF Document to revert it back to a PDF file.

This method is a quick and easy way to edit a simple PDF document, but be careful as Google Docs can run into formatting issues if your original document has complex visual formatting such as tables and graphs. In this case, it’s best to use a designated free or premium PDF editor.