🚀 Getting Started: Your QA Toolkit

You're ready to begin — here's what you need.

Must-Have Soft Skills (More Important Than Tools)

1. Attention to detail — spot what others miss
2. Clear communication — write bug reports anyone can understand
3. Curiosity — ask "what if?" and "why?"
4. Critical thinking — challenge assumptions
5. Patience — bugs hide, but you find them

Essential Tools for Beginners

Free Alternatives:

• Trello for simple bug tracking
• Google Sheets for test cases
• Browser DevTools (built-in!)

Your First Real Skill: Writing Great Bug Reports

A good bug report saves hours of debugging.

Story: How Alex's Perfect Bug Report Saved 3 Days

Alex found a tricky bug: "Users can't complete checkout on mobile."

The developer spent 2 hours trying to reproduce it — no luck.

Then Alex sent a detailed bug report:

• Title: "Checkout fails on iOS Safari 14+ when cart has 5+ items"
• Steps: Exact numbered steps with screenshots
• Environment: iPhone 12, iOS 14.5, Safari
• Expected vs Actual: Clear comparison
• Video: Screen recording showing the exact failure

The developer reproduced it in 5 minutes. Fixed it in 1 hour.

The difference: Alex's detailed report saved 2 days of back-and-forth. That's the power of great communication.

Template:

1. Title: Clear, specific, brief
2. Actual vs Expected: What did happen vs what should happen
3. Steps to reproduce: Numbered, exact
4. Screenshots/Video: Visual proof
5. Environment: Device, OS, browser
6. Severity: Critical/Major/Minor/Trivial

Your Task This Week: Find 3 bugs in any app you use daily.
Write professional bug reports for them.

(Share them in our community when it launches!)

Next: Your clear path forward.