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Hi,
During my studies in Wroclaw I started to work as tester in Nokia Siemens Networks.
The journey continues for last 6 years in many different projects related to SAP, automotive, software configuration and integration, Continuous Integration, cross-browser testing of web-apps, cross-platform testing of mobile systems and applications any many other. In free time I also expand my knowledge about exploratory testing and scrum/agile coaching. There is still a lot do do and learn in our speciality 🙂In 1980 I was trained as a COBOL programmer. And I was taught that a COBOL program is not complete unless there’s a testset with it. So for each program I ever made I also created a testset. As a designer I tested complete systems in a way we nowadays call system testing.
In 1989 our project needed to organize an acceptance test, and since I was interested in quality the project manager asked me to be “test coordinator”. I didn’t know what that meant but just started discovering and learning. We did quite a good job. All based on common sense.
In 1998 I changed jobs and entered a team of 23 professional testers. That was the official start of my carreer in quality and testing. Since then I started reading and talking, but also writing and presenting about testing. Since then I have contributed to 15 books on the topic of Quality and Testing (of which 3 times as an author, 5 times as projectleader and the rest as contributer or reviewer). Also I combine my testing hobby with my photography hobby, you can find my photo’s at the back of 6 books.
Today I enjoy presenting, training, writing, discussing etcetera about the wonderful topic of Quality and Testing. (to me Testing is “just a quality measure”, testing alone is not enough to achieve fit-for-purpose quality.I am priyank shah and working as test analyst in one of software company. So far i had working with MNCs and currently working for small software firm where you are complete owner of your product. so here you are the door keeper without his approval product can not reach to market. So i think that the challenging role which software tester plays.
In earlier days, many people see software devloper as easy going job like you know routine 9 to 5 job. No need to face do or die situation etc. As software testing is gaing its imporatant and it is as important as development. Nowadays many new products (with bigger ideas) are available and everything move to agile since everyone wants to release their product as early as possible, and no one should be rejected due to bad quality. so QA here plays constructive appraoch. And now a days i can say a good tester need to be good developer also who can automate certain things and efficitly use his instinct and thinking out of box capabilities to run adhoc scenario. Days are gone where tester, who just executes test cases mentioned in spreadsheet. Also I belive i want to learn as many things as possible, and testing is the best work area since many area of testing is still untouchable.Hei!
I have worked With software testing for about 30 years and am currently manageing a section of 16 well skilled testers and test managers. My employees work in Close Connection With the Development teams. We are turning more and more agile.
I was a Sys Admin. I relocated to an area with no sys admin jobs but a host of tester jobs …..
My dad promised to gift me an iPod nano if I scored well in my Engineering grade (way back in 2007/08 I guess)
Luckily things became easy for me and that semester we got 2 courses – Software Engineering and Software Testing which went on to become my favorites (till date). Not only I studied a bit more than too much for the iPod but also for the love of the topics. I even kept on meeting my professors post the classroom sessions to know more.
I remember answering Software Testing as my favorite topic during campus placements -and getting selected as well 😉One thing led to the other and my career was crafted while I was still an undergrad. Here I am in the test Huddle community sharing my experience with you all.
And yes, I did get the iPod Nano and also topped my batch in that semester 😉
Suraksha Mattoo
in.linkedin.com/in/surakshamattoo/I was looking for a job and friend of mine told me about open tester position. At the beginning I was suspicious, but soon I realized that the testing is actually something what I wanted all the time.
Then
In fact software testing was my first legal job. I have joined Samsung Poland R&D testing departament, where I could see great number of different approaches to Software Testing. I have also been able to see the effects of terrible management practices, especially the resulting tester-developer conflict.How it looked like
Software testing in Poland is not yet stabilized, its treated as some kind of “mystical-guru” job.. I have taken this job to get some holiday-cash, as it required no initial experience, and in fact it was giving lowest-possible salary for full-time job. Being creative and stubborn, and being forced to stay at this “holiday job” because of life situation, I started enjoying this work and its challanges. Especially fixing the “tester-developer war” was really satisfying, despite no global results of my activities.Now
I have resigned that job half year ago, and from that point I am leading QA team in small mobile company. As person responsible for the QA process, I have prevented the “tester-developer war” from happening here, and now I consider my work situation as interesting and satisfying.It was quite straight forward for me, I was looking for my internship after post graduation and got a chance to work in a software testing based company. The product was so interesting that I caught so many issues with it.. 🙂 My project manager got quite happy with me and offered me a job. Next thing, I accepted it and I love software testing everyday even more!
A friend told me that testing is a fun job. I did let myself be overloaded in previous (that time current) workplace and was starting to look for alternatives.
it was not the wisest decision in the terms of financial stability, my ability to be useful and so on. But i do not regret it 🙂i jumped and there were supportive people to catch me – 1st years were tough – underpaid, living on my own yet – i learned quite a lot 🙂
there are still miles of things for me to learn – but it was worth it 🙂-^. ^=-
~~ ~~I have joined the software industry pretty randomly and without any sort of prior knowledge on how it will be. I was a telecom engineer and joined a large corporate after my graduation. I figured out I am not learning anything new other than really working hard for the company. The work environment was also not peaceful. People are always competing with each other, but not with themselves. I was looking for a new opportunity. This small gaming company called Trippert Labs called me for an interview. I haven’t even applied for the job. They got my CV from one of my friends. I somehow left all other opportunities and joined the gaming company. That company got acquired by Playdom and PLaydom got acquired by Disney later!
I was a fresher with no knowledge about testing terms. The product team that time was in Mountain View, CA and devs in Seattle. I was the 1st and only QA of the mobile studio and released the 1st full fledged game all alone. I had to learnt fast that time and all the learning helped me later a lot to plan and release many games smoothly. I was addicted to gaming and loved the job. The team grew bigger with time. I have trained and led local and offshore teams and released many games. I am now working with a start up and building the QA team here. I loved the journey and I don’t regret at all about deciding to be a QA few years back!
A vortex of coincidences captured me into the universe of IT.
I once studied Environmental Chemistry at university, but when graduated, I was thrown into unemployment.
This right after having my PhD application rejected by the new government, that were elected almost simultaneously.
I was supposed to have been writing my PhD in Brussels within the walls of EU and I had my request accepted with the old Environmental Minister.
But new government, new focus and new politics to attend.Sitting this one over and first feeling a little betrayed, I needed to re-think my future and strategic planning.
I found a job in the Finance and Mortgage domain through my network. Bills needed to be paid.Things moved fast and before I knew of it, I had done an excellent job in being a GUI Tester on the company’s newly launched webpage and from this, being the really annoying Defect Manager but talented tester.
I became a real fan of software testing, and when I was offered promotion as Test Manager, I thought that this could might be my future. I looked into the market for inspiration and ended quickly up as working as a Test Manager.
This is almost 10 years ago, and my god things are moving with Warp Speed. I thought I was to be a Test Manager my whole career out, but lately I have found myself focusing more and more in the technical side. I want to be a Test Architect? Perhaps? Or?
Hi Michael,
Do you think you will ever revisit the idea of doing a PhD? Perhaps you could change the focus to something within the testing field 🙂
Hi, I got involved with software testing in year 2000. I had worked as a quality engineer in an internet company. So far I had been responsible for web site look and feel validation and launching some major corporates main pages on a weekly pages. Then a new project started, which was to develop a content management system and integrate that with a couple of other systems. The customer wanted that project to have a Test Manager. My managers wanted me to take that role, because I had the most technical background in the team. Basically, I did not know anything about software testing, when I started, Everything was learnt by the hard way, meaning trial and error. I read some books and there were couple of good sites available of the subject. I had very experienced and enthusiastic Project Manager. Together with him, we came up with our own practices, such as, everyone tests in the team, including the developers executing system tests. Those were busy times, there was so much to learn every day. A bit later on, we had a Program Test Manager for all Projects in scope. He had started his career by the same year as I had born. He also brought in a team of experienced testers. A new phase of learning started for me! I think the most important things of testing I learned during those couple of first years. I still carry those things with me, although it is not so easy to put them into words. One is of course, the power of team work, producing the results together. In our program, there were people from over 20 countries, so the second must be the diversity which brings varieties of thinking. The third one is the most difficult for me to explain. It is of what I learned from my old Test Manager. It is of knowing when something can be said verified and when not with data transfers being made in the test environment. I learned that it is equally important to keep in mind, what has been tested as it is to know what we were not being able to test. We haven’t seen for years with him, but still send a birthday card to each others, every year.
seija That’s a great story. It goes to show that having the right manager at the right time can really make a difference in how a career can progress. Nice touch that you still send cards to each other too.
I had just finished college with my associates degree in Information technology while working as a mail room clerk. I got to talking to a supervisor about getting my degree and a week later I was called into a conference room to talk and it was there I was asked if I had ever thought about testing and trying to break software code.
I said no but it sounded fun. 14 years later I am still doing just that. One of my favorite phrases that I have on a t-shirt is “If it ain’t broke, your not trying hard enough.”
@charles I like that phrase. It really is the testers mantra!
Oh, you think that testing is a job, but you merely adopted testing. I was born into testing, molded by it.
I started testing shortly after I learnt to walk and talk – but that was mainly testing my father’s patience. The actual love of software only came later – when I was about 6. I started coding using BASIC on a ZX Spectrum, but didn’t ever become particularly good at it. I enjoyed the design portions as much and frequently ended up frustrated by my lack of programming ability.
I eventually ended up in IT as a programmer-type, but my obsessive focus on quality pushed me into testing… my passion since 1999.
Started formally testing with a Lockheed Martin Space Systems IV&V team back around 1996 (wow, I’m old). I’m now a developer, but there’s no doubt that my testing experience has helped me be a better developer.
I was a linguist that kept saying yes to software testing projects. Little by little I started learning about the web, some scripting, some networking, got more and more drawn to this world. So one day I decided I should do this full time.
After a few years as a developer, major changes were planned to the way the software was going to be developed and delivered; in line with emerging technologies at the time. This coincided with a downturn in the economy and a scaling down of spending on software development. Some members of the existing development team were invited to learn the new skills required by the changes and others were offered alternative employment within the same business. I took the offer of alternative employment in a re-organized team – within the TESTING business unit. With the encouragement of a new test manager and the influence of his infectious enthusiasm for testing, I settled quickly into the new role and have been happily employed as a ‘tester’ for more years than I was previously as a developer.
Early in my testing career, I read the book “A Practitioner Guide To Software Test Design” – by Lee Copeland, and obtained the ISTQB (ISEB) Foundation Certification, which have proved to be valuable assets.
As a tester, I have been privileged to work alongside some exceptionally clever individuals at all stages of the SDLC and have been a member of teams engaged in projects across a variety of industries and commerce. I enjoy analyzing the requirements, assembling the scenarios, writing and running the test cases, and the pleasant side-effect of learning a lot about the industry in which the testing is taking place.
BTW: I am called ‘thecoach’ because I am an accredited sports coach.
@michael That’s a nice little story. Out of curiosity what sport(s) do you coach?
Thanks Ronan. I am a coach in the sport of Lawn Bowls and the ages of the current crop of ‘students’ range from 14 to 80.
@michael Interesting Michael. You certainly have the climate for the sport over there. Here in the west of Ireland, I imagine a lawn bowl season would be very, very short.
First got exposure to computers while doing a Science degree in university. Also I had courses in Quality Assurance. After graduating I did a technical course in Quality Assurance. The job didn’t arrive as expected and of sufficient quality or interest. Then I did a graduate diploma in programming and having a QA background I got interested in testing software. Have been testing software for several different companies of different types for more than 15 years now. The industry has changed a lot in that time; not least with the advent of Agile.
I first started in testing 7 years ago, by way of being in the right place at the right time mainly! I have been interested in IT since a early age but will hold my hands up and say I am not a programmer / developer. I studied computing at college, but eventually found my way in the Financial Services sector working for a help desk supporting IT products supplied to clients.
Eventually after several years I became tired of the help desk type role and was offered purely by chance a 6 month secondment to become a UAT Test Analyst. I’ve never looked back and from the moment I got involved with both UAT and the elements a Test Analyst requires. I knew I had finally found something I enjoyed and was reasonably good at! I managed to obtain funding to get the ISEB Foundation course. I subsequently spent the next 7 years a TA, moving onto become a test lead dealing with high profile projects aimed at the Corporate Online Banking sector.
Earlier this year I had a opportunity to move into the Higher Education sector into a Test Management role. The remit was to introduce formal testing to the University of Liverpool and to build a Testing Services function from scratch. I am now 7 months into my first formal Test Management role and am enjoying immensely the challenges (which there are many!) of this role.
My current view on testing is that it seems everyone has their own view on how best to apply processes , techniques etc. I am finding rather than try and do testing by numbers, the gut feel and your own personal experience in testing is something you should trust but at the same time building relationships with other testing professionals is absolutely invaluable in achieving a personal success.
I was sure about my choice. I enjoy doing my software testing, spreading my wings to performance as well as security testing – mainly on the web application. I am with Intel and yes, it feels great to contribute in this space.
I studied biology for 2 years, did my military service, studied “Information Engineering’, built my own ‘beta-computer’, built the test environment for Walrus-class submarines for the Dutch Navy. Did acceptance tests and sea trials, married Forien, changed job to Valori, became father of Jaap, wrote SmarTEST, became father of Muriel, Aleid and Willemijn and never considered quitting testing anymore. It suits my selfish genes, apparently.
I started out programming my own little games on the “portable” computer my dad brought home to work on in early 1980’s. The “portable” was a huge HP that came with a very little screen an printer build in the machine. At the end of that decade I was programming financial and administration software.
In 1997 I got the chance to change to testing which was good because I did not find programming that much of a challenge anymore. I have not looked back. I still do some programming related to test automation and some scripts here and there but no major programs.
In testing I mainly focus on the testing process, test automation and security. A big part of my work is coaching testers.
I am certainly a destructive kind of tester – I look for flaws and exploit them if possible. Validating is a important task that I perform but I am most happy when I can break software and step out of the boundaries of validating requirements.Software- Testing was never an area that I expected to be hired. Actually – even when I was interviewed I had no idea what’ll be on the horizon. I learned a mechanical Job in a factory and got into Quality Management with multiple companies. When I was with my last Company, I had a lot of Trouble with two co-workers. My Boss back then helped me away from that Person and I was “for only a few months” in a 2-shift. The other co-worker stole, was absent during his shift, … and we had to do his work. That was too much and after another something came up I remembered there was a Job-offer as an Application Engineer in the newspaper two weeks ago. So rang in to ask if the Job is still available – and it was.
So I dropped in 2 months before the economy crisis dropped in and after the longest interview I ever had, I had the Job. A few years ago I quitted on Windows and switched privately to OS X so I started almost from scratch. 😀 But I had a testing Job for a Piece of Software which is delivered with the CMMs by one of the biggest Players in the market. Started with a look-and-feel Software Dinosaur in Win 98 design and being later the first tester on a gobal Project that was released last week.And as a Bonus – one of my bosses resureced my Passion for mountains and alpinism. Later I also Switch after 20 years of Basketball to Climbing just to meet a few other Software testers to Exchange from time to time.
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