“A Software Tester becomes All in One while Testing – A Designer, A Coder, A Tester, A Quality Engineer and An Implementation Engineer”
The business model has shifted towards a consumer centric one. This implies that the idea that the customer is the king is being given prime importance. Hence, customer satisfaction is a criterion which cannot be ignored by business enterprises. In order to guarantee this satisfaction, Software Testing in the process of Software Development, has become a vital requirement.
Moreover, the shift towards the Agile model and the need to fasten market responsiveness, have only pushed for the emergence of new professional roles within the Testing domain. This has also resulted in confusion and substitution of different professionals. However, the issue of SDET vs QA or a SDET vs. QA Engineer (QE), is very much a real one.
This implies that the difference between Software Development Engineer in Test and Quality Assurance Engineer, is something which should be accounted for.
In this blog, we shall try to delve into the issue of QA vs SDET. The topic of a Software QA Analyst vs SDET or that of a QA Engineer vs SDET will be sought to be dealt with primarily, in terms of their roles and responsibilities in professional capacity.
If you wish to read more on the topic of SDET vs Tester, do read our blog on “Difference between SDET and Tester”
Who is a Quality Analyst (QA)?
As the name suggest, a QA is responsible for assuring the quality of a software product. The term is assumed to be a substitute for tester and refers to someone who is responsible for monitoring and ensuring that the processes of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) in software development, comply with the quality assurance standards.
Even though, the term, Quality Analyst is blindly associated with Manual Testing alone. However, these individuals might happen to conduct Automated Testing too.

Who is a Quality Engineer (QE)?
As the name suggests, this individual is responsible for utilizing his expertise in applying engineering practices to different aspects of the SDLC, in order to improve quality. The emphasis on quality, will hint at the fact that the role of a Quality Analyst and that of Quality Engineer is quite close.
However, the role of a QE goes beyond that of a QA, as the former needs to draft a blueprint of a quality plan, generate incident reports, conduct code reviews, be a part of different kinds of software testing processes, make use of CI test environments, as well as use tools and methodologies exploited by developers.
