An important role in the software industry is that of a Qa tester. A tester is generally one of many involved in the experimental phase of software, providing feedback that will be correlated and presented to the developers before the product is released to the public.
Qa testers are usually IT industry professionals with experience in the industry. Testers are usually given a copy of the software to test and offer feedback on. This is beneficial for the developers as they can receive the opinion of professionals within the industry.
Qa testers may sometimes involve members of the public, some of whom are selected to take part in what is known as a beta test. A beta test is generally an unreleased version of an application that will be released to the public at a later date. By using the public as testers, the software developers can gain a clear picture into the useability and how the program will run outside of the testing environment.
Testing roles vary greatly, some involving little or no experience, while others may require years of experience in the IT profession. Generally, these roles are paid on a per-project basis, with some testing roles conducted on a volunteer basis.