With our reliance on software today, testing is a super important responsibility, which is carried out by many roles within a team, but primarily by skilled people called Testers. Today is International Tester’s Day, and we have talked to three of our Testers in Visma about their typical workday, how they work, and what they like most about their job.
Q&A with Fernando Peñasco Soto
Quality Assurance Manager, Visma Raet
What was the first bug you found and what problem did it solve?
The very first bug I found was a 500 error in the application: the server was not responding and the application showed an error message. It was discovered running some exploratory testing without any previous experience on the application.
It happened at the very beginning of my professional career as a QA (Quality Assurance). It was the first week working on the project and I was trying to learn about the application to be tested. I was following a test script provided by a teammate and also clicking around to learn as soon as possible. The application showed a 500 error and it was the first time the team faced it. Then I tried to reproduce it and it was systematic—I reported it immediately.
We prevented this issue from going to production and probably to be reported by our customers. Then we decided to do some more exploratory testing in our daily work.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Usually, I feel happy during the day because I do what I love.
Being part of a development team is something I really like and enjoy the most. Testing tasks are my preferred ones and I also enjoy the automation part.
Because I am a father of two daughters, sometimes I need to stop working and take them to school in the morning or in the afternoon to take them back home. To me it is very important to be able to make both activities compatible.
How do you schedule your time?
Well, it depends. Most of the days I usually check my inbox to review the automated night executions because in case of failures the team receives alerts. Then, if something happens, I spend some time reporting the issues to my mates and analysing the root cause to determine the reasons.
After that I attend the daily meeting and inform my team about progress and next tasks. Then, I usually continue with my testing activities. Before lunch I usually check the status of previous reported issues to validate them again, and update the issues on the management system when needed. During the afternoon, I usually reserve the time to automate more test cases and maintain the existing ones.
What’s it like working at Visma?
I personally think that Visma is a very good place to work because you can schedule your own time together with your team and organise the testing activities based on the workload. Basically, you can make your own decisions and this is something I really like. To me this is autonomy.
Q&A with Oana Vanca
Test Lead, Support Tools Team, Visma Software International
What was the first bug you found, and how did you find it?
Funny fact: the first bug I found, I found when I was a software developer and it was related to XML files. Nobody thought that XML files could be so big that a normal parser could not open that file and extract data correctly. I found it when I was playing with data and asking what would happen if I opened a 25GB file.
Three months after fixing this issue, we received a 19GB file that would have been impossible to open without the fix. It was at that moment that I realised that I enjoy finding problems more than fixing them.
What does a typical day look like for you and how do you schedule your time?
I always start with cuddling my dog, it gives me energy to start the day. Then emails, daily meetings and short planning for the day. Knowing what I need to do and having well-described tasks help me keep my day organised.
What’s it like working at Visma?
Visma is something different, it’s more relaxed and enjoyable, I feel respected and valued.
Also, the testing community is growing and anyone can get involved and can contribute to the knowledge database which can be very helpful.
Q&A with Theodoros Poufinas
Senior Software Test Engineer, VTH Cloud Platform, Visma Cloud IAM
What was the first bug you found and what problem did it solve?
One of the first bugs I found was related to the email sent to a user whenever someone wanted to change the email address. The email wasn’t delivered to the new email address and the user couldn’t confirm the change.
We had a list of manual tests that needed to be done for each deployment, so I found the bug during testing. If the issue would have been released to Production, customers that needed to update their email addresses couldn’t do it anymore.
Did the discovery have any impact on how you do your job going forward?
Yes, I immediately started looking into ways of automating all manual tests to make sure a bug like this wouldn’t slip if there was a human error during testing.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Once I wake up, I eat breakfast, do my chores and start working with a cup of coffee by my side. I always enjoy a good cup of coffee!
First thing is looking at my email inbox, getting up to date with the latest changes. I also check my Jira board and start working on the tasks that are assigned to me. I eat lunch at around 12:00, then at 14:15 we attend our Daily Meeting (we do not like having it first thing in the morning). Then I continue working on my cases, attending meetings when necessary until the end of the workday.
What’s it like working at Visma?
Visma makes sure each employee can have a good work-life balance. We have freedom in deciding how we work, which I believe is important in order for anyone to be able to find what works best for them, since there isn’t a universal recipe that applies the same to everyone.
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