QA Team at Droptica. Interview with Testers

Testing is a very important part of the development process at Droptica. As a result, errors are caught in projects carried out for clients so that the target implementation is effective. I invite you to an interview with many years of extremely experienced testers.

How did your work with testing at Droptica start?

Michał Potasiak: When I came to Droptica, I knew that I would like to become a tester, so I completed the course earlier and obtained the ISTQB Foundation level certificate. Additionally, I had some technical basics as I graduated from an engineering degree in Management and Production Engineering focused on computer software production. I think that the basic knowledge of programming languages and the whole process was my advantage and something that allowed me to adapt quite quickly in the company.

Daniel Nowak: My work started a bit by accident. When I was in a college and looking for a job, my friend said that Droptica was recruiting for the position of a tester. I wanted to work in IT, so the position suited me. Before I went to the interview, I had to prepare myself properly. It seems that the interview went well since I have been working at Droptica for 7 years.

What is your working day like? So what does a software tester do?

Michał Potasiak: I start my day by reviewing the results of automatic tests. They are performed at night, always on the latest code, so you can get feedback pretty quickly that something needs to be improved in the code or tests. The next thing I do every day is checking Jira's current tasks and their priorities. It helps me better define what I should do for the day. The next task is the Daily meeting, where we discuss the project progress and plans for the day with the team. The next part of the day is very dependent on what day of the project cycle we currently have and what tasks we are working on. Of course, the most common task will be to check the correctness of task execution by developers or retests after corrections made. Another common task is completing test cases. Keeping them up-to-date helps you to run regression tests efficiently afterwards. On my project, I also write and maintain automatic tests. You could probably mention a few other things here, such as scrum meetings, discussing tasks with developers, updating test documentation. The fact is that each day is slightly different and brings new challenges.

Daniel Nowak: I start my working day with a review of the automatic test results, then a list of tasks assigned to me. At 9:00 AM Daily of the Support team takes place and I start testing tasks. And then, just like Michał says.

How does cooperation with developers or work on the project look alike?

Michał Potasiak: In my case, it seems that a lot in this matter is imposed by the Scrum methodology, which improves software development quality. The entire development team (the tester is also a member of the team) meets during Scrum events, where they discuss the project together. That's why we know what we're going to work on. We also know what limits the number of questions that are asked during the implementation of tasks. As for the technical aspect, I work in a distributed team, so we don't meet physically every day. Therefore, we must support ourselves with technology. The most common tool we use is Slack. It is convenient for both asking quick questions but also discussing longer in threads. It is a bit less effective in video conferencing, which is why we use Bluejeans for this purpose. We keep tasks and information about them in Jira.

Daniel Nowak: I work mainly in the Drupal support team at Droptica. We have a lot of projects here, on which developers perform tasks. Dev performs a task, passes it to QA, and I check and change the status accordingly (I return or send it for review for the client). When it comes to the typical human aspect, I think cooperation is smooth - everyone feels like a member of one team. Therefore, there is no stereotypical friction between tester and developer.

Do you have a routine in your daily work?

Michał Potasiak: In my opinion, the routine can be broken down into two factors. The first - positive results from the acquired experience. It allows you to predict with greater probability where errors can be found in the project. The problem is that there is also a second aspect which causes that when we do something routinely, it can put us to sleep.

Daniel Nowak: The variety of projects in the team does not allow for a routine. I use my experience in routine tasks, but if possible, I try to automate them to get rid of the most routine tasks.

The weirdest / hardest mistake you've come across?

Michał Potasiak: During several years of working at Droptica as a tester, I have encountered several strange errors, such as data disappearing or mass mailing (fortunately in the test environment). It is difficult to choose the "best" one because it will be something different for everyone. For me, the strangest case was when an application was affected by old data stored in a Google account that spoiled its appearance. And when it comes to the most difficult one, for me the most difficult mistakes are always the ones that the developer cannot easily reproduce at home. Developers correct their mistakes without hesitation. The problem arises when these errors they cannot reproduce. Usually, it is due to differences in environments, which we limited at Droptica, thanks to Docker-Console.

Daniel Nowak: We were migrating to Drupal 8 a few years ago. It was a system with a huge amount of users to migrate. The client did not mention that some of the users were added manually by the administrator, not via the registration form. This one small fact meant that manually added users did not have the appropriate permissions to view the purchased content. A small error in the design arrangements found by accident caused quite a big bug to be fixed in Drupal.

What are the most interesting projects at Droptica regarding testing?

Michał Potasiak: I would say that the project you are currently working on is always the most interesting. I can learn something new from project to project. Since the Drupal technology is being developed it offers possibilities in the testing process. The variety of projects at Droptica is impressive, so you can learn something crucial on each of them and it can be helpful in testing your next project.

Daniel Nowak: Interesting projects are those where we check a lot of logic, complicated in terms of the variety of user roles. And also those where, in addition to manual testing, there is time to test automation.

Summary

Recently, Michał Potasiak wrote an article about automated tests on multiple browsers. I mention it because the text was met with lively interest not only in the Drupal community, but it is also worth mentioning because knowledge sharing is an important element of organizational culture at Droptica. Thus, the benefit for customers is undeniable - thanks to the development of our testers' competences, each project at the testing stage is managed efficiently and with the most efficient use of time.