The work of Quality Assurance is not about clicking through the app, running scripts, or ticking checkboxes. As QA, you are the first real user of the product, who is giving feedback not just on defects but on product value, usability, intuitiveness, and user flows. The best testers think differently — they borrow skills and mindsets, and take inspiration from fields outside tech. In fact, QA has a lot in common with doctors, athletes, and pilots. Even though their work is completely different, there are a lot of similarities in their mindset and way of thinking.
From Doctors: Diagnosing Risks, Not Just Symptoms
Imagine walking into a doctor’s office with a headache. The doctor doesn’t immediately run every test available, like MRI, bloodwork, scans, etc. Instead, they start by asking smart questions to identify what causes the problem, to narrow the possible issues, and to determine the right diagnosis. The doctor will ask something like:
- When did it start?
- How severe is it?
- What other symptoms do you have?
The doctor uses experience, data, and probabilities to narrow down possibilities. Maybe it’s just dehydration, or maybe it signals something more serious. Only after assessing risk factors do they decide which targeted tests to run.
QA is very similar to this approach. Testers can’t check every possible path in an application — there are simply too many. Sometimes there is no time, sometimes it is not possible because of other limitations, sometimes it is not necessary. The QA should always focus on:
- Critical areas where failure would cause serious damage (payments, authentication, data security).
- Patterns and symptoms like slow response times, odd logs, or inconsistent behavior.
- Probabilities based on past bugs or known weaknesses in the system.
Just like a doctor, a great QA is part scientist, part detective: asking the right questions, narrowing down possibilities, and focusing where the risks are highest.
Lesson: Smart testers don’t test everything. They test where it matters most.
From Athletes: Discipline and Consistency Win the Game
Athletes don’t just show up on match day. They train daily, follow routines, and constantly refine their performance. For example, let’s think of an Olympic sprinter. On race day, the world only sees a couple of seconds of performance. What they don’t see are the years of daily training — waking up early, enduring endless drills, strict diets, and reviewing every misstep to make slight improvements each day. From all of that process, we, as spectators, are basically seeing only the top of the iceberg.
Success in sports doesn’t come from one training; it comes from discipline, consistency, and incremental progress.
QA excellence works the same way:
- Daily discipline: writing clear bug reports, updating test cases, and reviewing automation results on a daily basis.
- Consistency: showing up with the same focus for every sprint, not just big releases.
- Continuous improvement: learning new tools, new techniques, and always thinking about how you can improve the testing process and the quality of the product.
Just as athletes stay sharp by practicing regularly, testers stay sharp by continually improving their everyday testing habits. It’s not always fun, but it’s what builds long-term reliability and trust.
Lesson: Great QA is built on consistent effort and habits.
From Pilots: Checklists and Calm in a Crisis
Before every flight, the pilots walk around their plane and visually inspect it. Then they sit in the cockpit and go through a detailed checklist: fuel levels, instruments, controls, and communication systems. Even when the pilots have years of experience and have done a lot of flights, they are doing this process every single time before the flight. Also, they have another checklist to go through after the flight.
Why? Because even small oversights in aviation can be catastrophic, and many lives can be in danger. Checklists ensure consistency and prevent errors when the pressure is high.
QA should use the same approach:
- Release checklists ensure nothing critical is skipped before going live.
- Regression checklists provide confidence that old functionality still works.
- Bug triage checklists keep teams focused when issues pile up.
And when turbulence hits, or in our case, when a major production bug hits, testers, like pilots, must stay calm. Panicking doesn’t solve anything, and it will definitely won’t fix the bug. Clear communication, systematic investigation, and teamwork can help in this situation to resolve the issue.
Here you can also learn more about why some bugs slip through and how to prevent them.
Lesson: In QA, as in aviation, calm processes save the day when chaos strikes.
As we can see from all these examples, the world’s best testers think like:
- Doctors: diagnosing risks and focusing where it matters.
- Athletes: staying disciplined and consistent every day.
- Pilots: relying on checklists and staying calm under pressure.
Working as a QA isn’t just about learning and using tools or running scripts. It’s about a mindset — one that blends analysis, discipline, reliability, and thinking outside the box.
