A Senior automation engineer should be able to work independently on modules from start to finish and ask the right questions. Key areas for a Senior to focus on include processes, estimations, the Test Pyramid, programming languages, test automation frameworks, improvements, build tools, libraries, coverage, databases, design patterns, best practices, testing types, CI/CD, reporting, metrics, communication, Git, BDD, code review, coding standards, team leadership, conflict management, and business communication. Resources provided include books, presentations, documentation, and Epam webinars to learn about these topics.

1. How to Become a Senior
Ivan Katunou

2. About myself
• More than 10 years of experience in IT
• Software Testing Team Leader and Resource
Manager at Epam Systems
• Organizer of “Morning Coffee with
Automation engineers” meetups
• Past projects:
• Epam Systems – Hyperion-Oracle
• CompatibL – Sberbank, RMB
• Viber Media
• Contacts:
• ivan.katunou@gmail.com

3. Agreements
• Mostly for software test automation engineers
• Seniority levels differ
• Specific areas (Web UI, Web Services, Mobile, Desktop, etc) not
covered
• Only main areas covered
• Some slides contain useful links to presentations, books, articles

4. Congratulations! You are in IT now!

5. Where to learn from?

6. Too Much Information

7. Senior. General description
• Able to work on a module on one’s own, i.e. able to implement it
from the beginning till the end, able to ask the right question to the
right colleagues

8. Senior. General description
• EPAM Competency levels for automation engineer -
https://competency.epam.com/jobFunction?jobFunctionId=18

9. English – B2

10. English – B2
• To improve your English level significantly consider either attending
classes at a language school or studying with a tutor
• Watch movies/TV-series without subtitles
• “English Grammar in Use” is a rather good book to improve grammar

11. Processes

12. Processes
• Knowing and understanding processes you and your team follows is crucial
for a Senior. Majority of projects follow Agile way nowadays so
learn/refresh your knowledge of the following documents:
- Agile Manifesto;
- Agile principles;
- Scrum Guide.
• (EPAM) Webinar Software Development Models and Methodologies.
• Books «Основы Scrum. Практическое руководство по гибкой
разработке ПО» С. Рубина, «Гибкое тестирование. Практическое
руководство для тестировщиков ПО и гибких команд», Лизы Криспин

13. Estimations

14. Estimations
• Knowing how to estimate time for accomplishing tasks
• (Epam) Webinar Estimations Advanced

15. Test Pyramid

16. Test Pyramid
• It is important to know what it is, how and to what extent it is used at
your project
• Here you can find detailed information on it
• Presentations «Автоматизация тестирования: отбрасываем
лишнее и проверяем суть» Игоря Хрола, «Автотесты: такие же, но
лучше» Игоря Хрола, «Пирамида Тестирования через призму ROI
калькулятора и прочая геометрия» Антона Семенченко, «Ideal test
automation process or the full story about test pyramid» Николая
Алименкова
• Articles «Правильная автоматизация», «Automation QA — это
отдельная команда?»

17. Programming language basics. OOP

18. Programming language basics. OOP
• Refresh your knowledge on basics of Java/.Net/Python/JavaScript,
learn on previously missed parts
• In case of Java, it is good to know Java 8 features since more and
more projects start leveraging it. Same applies to Python 3
• Books Java. Библиотека профессионала. Том 1. Основы Кея
Хорстмана, Язык программирования C# 6.0 и платформа .NET 4.6
Троелсена, CLR via C#. Программирование на платформе
Microsoft.NET Framework 4.5 на языке C# Рихтера, Изучаем Python
Марка Лутца

19. TAF at your project. How to develop one from
scratch?

20. TAF at your project. How to develop one from
scratch?
• Which tools, libraries, frameworks are used at your project? What was the
reason those ones were chosen? Are there any analogues? What
advantages and disadvantages do they have? Based on which criteria they
were chosen (e. g. supported platforms, programming languages,
paid/free/open source, community)?
• Which layers and modules are present at your TAF?
• Webinar (EPAM) Test Automation Framework building
• Presentation (EPAM) «Выбираем правильный движок для тестовых
сценариев при автоматизации тестов»
• Article «Советы и рекомендации по развёртыванию процесса
автоматизация тестирования с нуля»

21. Improvements For Your TAF

22. Improvements For Your TAF
• What kind of changes have you insisted on to improve existing
automation? How did it help?
• Presentation Николай Алименков «Как сделать ваши
функциональные тесты действительно быстрыми»

23. Build tools

24. Build tools
• How can you use build tools for automation? Do you create projects
using build tools? Do you run tests by means of build tools? Do you
manage dependencies automatically? Spend some time investigating
how it is configured at your project.
• Maven documentation - Maven in 5 minutes, Maven Getting Started
Guide
• Webinars – (EPAM) Build Tools, (EPAM) Build Tools

25. Test Automation Library

26. Test Automation Library
• Which test automation library is used at your project? What
functionality of it do you use? What else could you use?
• TestNG documentation - TestNG Documentation, TestNG
Tutorialpoint, A Quick JUnit vs TestNG Comparison, TestNG Maven
Project Example, How to Execute TestNG Tests With Maven Build
• (EPAM) Webinar Unit testing frameworks for Java: TestNG /JUnit

27. Which tests to automate? Coverage

28. Which tests to automate? Coverage
• Book Святослав Куликов «Тестирование программного
обеспечения. Базовый курс», раздел «3. Автоматизация
тестирования»
• Presentation Павел Стрункин «Когда стоит закончить
автоматизировать?»

29. Databases

30. Databases
• Book Святослав Куликов «Работа с MySQL, MS SQL Server и Oracle в
примерах»

31. Design Patterns

32. Design Patterns
• It is crucial to know basic design patterns, categories, why can they be
useful
• Books «Приемы объектно-ориентированного проектирования.
Паттерны проектирования», «Паттерны проектирования» (Java),
«Паттерны проектирования на платформе .NET», «Рефакторинг.
Улучшение существующего кода», «Рефакторинг с
использованием шаблонов»
• (EPAM) Webinar Design Patterns

33. Design Patterns in Automation
• Try to think of which of the base design patterns can be used in
automation. Which specific design patters exist in automation?
• Page Object – why do we need it? Explained here and there
• Presentations. Different kinds of page object - Алексей Виноградов
«Page Objects: лучше проще, да лучшe». Other design patterns in
automation - Николай Алименков «Design patterns in test
automation», Pawel Maciejewski «Test automation patterns – not
only Page Object», Вадим Зубович «Как не изобретать велосипед,
или паттерны проектирования для автотестов»

34. Programming Best Practices

35. Programming Best Practices
• (EPAM) Webinar SOLID
• Books – «Чистый код: создание, анализ и рефакторинг.
Библиотека программиста» Р. Мартина, «Совершенный код.
Мастер-класс» С. Макконела, «Паттерны проектирования» с
примерами на Java, «Рефакторинг. Улучшение существующего
кода» Мартина Фаулера, «Эффективная работа с унаследованным
кодом» М. Физерса

36. Types of Testing

37. Types of Testing
• Book Святослав Куликов «Тестирование программного
обеспечения. Базовый курс», раздел «2.3. Виды и направления
тестирования»

38. Test Plan/Test Strategy

39. Test Plan/Test Strategy
• Book Святослав Куликов «Тестирование программного
обеспечения. Базовый курс», раздел «2.6. Оценка трудозатрат,
планирование, отчетность»

40. CI Organization. Difference between CI/CD

41. CI Organization. Difference between CI/CD
• Do you have Continuous Integration at your project?
• (EPAM) Webinars - Infrastructure: Continuous Integration Concepts
(Jenkins) (Part 1/2), Infrastructure: Continuous Integration Concepts
(Jenkins) (Part 2/2), Continuous Integration with Jenkins

42. Reporting tools (Report portal, Serenity,
Allure). Explain difference

43. Reporting tools (Report portal, Serenity,
Allure). Explain difference
• What kind of reporting is leveraged at your project? Why was it
chosen? Can you leverage another reporting tool with more useful
features?
• Presentation Дима Гуменюк - ReportPortal.io - visibility of test
automation status, metrics...
• Documentation Allure, Report Portal

44. Automation metrics

45. Automation metrics
• Find out which metrics are being used at your project
• Presentation Антон Семенченко «Quality Assurance, Quality Control
и метрики Автоматизированного тестирования на пальцах»

46. Communication with developers, how did
they help you?

47. Git

48. Git
• Book Pro Git
• Course Git How To

49. BDD

50. BDD
• (EPAM) Webinars Architecture Aspects - BDD, BDD Frameworks
Overview
• Book «The Cucumber for Java Book: Behaviour-Driven Development
for Testers and Developers»
• Presentation Яков Крамаренко «Dont be fooled with BDD,
automation engineer! ;)»

51. Code review. How is it conducted?

52. Code review. How is it conducted?
• (EPAM) Webinar Code quality and Code review

53. Coding standards. (Google, Oracle, Microsoft)

54. Coding standards. (Google, Oracle, Microsoft)
• Usually existing code style is taken at a project and update it with
some minor changes. Companies like Google, Oracle, Microsoft have
their own standards. For example Google Java Style Guide. Usually
existing code style is taken at a project and update it with some minor
changes. Companies like Google, Oracle, Microsoft have their own
standards. For example Google Java Style Guide
• Find out what coding standard was chose at your project. Take a look
at the standards of the previously mentioned companies. What can
you add at your project?

55. Leading teams, delegation

56. Leading teams, delegation
• Quite often Senior specialist is in charge of leading QA team at his/her
project so knowing the basics of management is important
• (EPAM) Webinars Leading Testing and Development Team Part 1,
Leading Testing and Development Team Part 2

57. Conflict management

58. Conflict management
• Understand how to behave in case of conflicts
• (EPAM) Webinar Conflict Management

59. Business communication

60. Business communication
• It is important for a Senior engineer to be able to communicate with
customers fluently
• (EPAM) Trainings Communications Basic, Business Correspondence
Part 1, Business Correspondence Part 2

61. Best advice
• If you want to grow further be proactive, show initiative, don’t be
afraid to take responsibility, accomplish tasks, learn continuously

62. Questions?