Warm Springs Computer Works
Fremont, California

What is a Test Engineer?

Good question! Complicated answer. Depending on who you ask, the answers can be as different as day and night.

Test engineering covers a wide range of disciplines, products, and tasks. Typical tasks involve product engineering to include provisions for testing the product, determining how the product is to be tested at different stages of its life, developing the corresponding test equipment, developing the software to drive the test equipment, evaluating the test data, and reporting on the test results. The test result may lead to changes in the product's design.

Test engineers typically perform tasks in many diverse fields: hardware, software, QA, management, procurement, writing, fabrication, and, of course, engineering. One paramount skill is knowing when to seek outside advice and help on specific parts of a project. Others include designing a special circuit, developing the best algorithm, applying a new instrument, or researching a different technique.

This section will be expanded as more interesting descriptions arrive. Some of the responses so far reflect a wide range of opinions and duties.

Contributor One
A test engineer is someone who likes to try and break things. Sometimes we are the messenger of bad news. When the product doesn't work, it must have been tested wrong. You might say that we are the creative accounts to the design world. LabVIEW was initially created for us but has gone much further and allowed me to break more things in a smaller time frame. Life is fun.

Contributor Two
Designing hardware and software that exercises devices to determine if they are functioning properly.

Contributor Three
Welcome to the land of many mirrors! Also known as Test Equipment Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Integration and Test Engineer, System Test Engineer, Unit Test Engineer, Test Development Engineer, Hardware Engineer, Software Test Engineer, and Software Programmer. Each one may do one, many, or all of the following: Write the specification; design the test plan, test equipment, and test software; locate, order, and chase down all of the parts, commercial test equipment, operating environment, or other hardware and software to do the testing; build the special test equipment, write the software and integrate into a functioning test station; document the hardware and software using schematics, blueprints, flowcharts, development folders, user manuals, calibration manuals, or any other manuals that are needed; selloff the test station to the contracting agency or manufacturing department; teach the technicians or engineers how to use the test station; and finally, maintain and update the test station over its lifetime.