My slides for the presentation "The Road to QA".

1. R O A D T O Q A
A N O K AY I S H S U C C E S S S T O RY
C T M 2 0 2 2 - 0 2 - 2 3
B E N J A M I N B I S C C H O F F

2. A B O U T M E
• Benjamin Bischoff
• Test Automation Engineer @ trivago
• 20 years of development experience
• 7 years of SDET experience
@bischoffdev / softwaretester.blog

3. T H I S I S N O T A B O U T B R A G G I N G
D I S C L A I M E R

4. – E V E RY O N E I N I T
“Do I want to keep doing what I do?”

5. 1 5 Y E A R S O F
D E V E L O P I N G
S O F T WA R E
D O I WA N T T O K E E P D O I N G W H AT I D O ?

6. L E T ’ S G O B A C K
H O W I T A L L S TA R T E D

7. C O M M O D O R E C 6 4
I T A L L S TA R T E D I N S C H O O L

8. F I R S T B A S I C C O D E
M A G A Z I N E L I S T I N G S

9. I N T E L 8 0 2 8 6
O U R F I R S T P C

10. VA R I O U S B A S I C D I A L E C T S
1 9 9 0

11. 1 9 9 5 / 9 6
• Student Exchange in Michigan, USA
• My love for programming deepens

12. S I D E P R O J E C T S
• Playing around with PHP
• Trying out Flash with a friend
• First contact with game
programming
• First team work experience

13. V O C AT I O N A L
T R A I N I N G
1 9 9 9

14. I T S P E C I A L I S T
A P P L I C AT I O N
D E V E L O P M E N T
• Web development
• Crystal Reports
• Working for customers

15. 2 0 0 1
O H N O !

16. - N O T E T O S E L F
“Don’t rely only on formal education!”

17. F I R S T “ R E A L ” J O B
• Web and Flash development
• Team work
• Organization
• Documentation

18. 2 0 0 3
A G A I N ? ! ?

19. – E V E RY O N E I N I T
“Do I want to keep doing what I do?”

20. F R E E L A N C E R
2 0 0 3

21. 2 0 0 3 - 2 0 1 0
• Self employed web & Flash
developer
• Working with customers
• More organisation
• Making code reusable

23. 2 0 1 0
G A M I N G I N D U S T RY

24. 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 6
• Finally making a real game
• Working in a larger team
• Coordinating frontend and backend
• QA as “necessary evil”

26. 2 0 1 2
O H N O !

27. T O O L S & S E R V I C E S
• Serious Java development
• Lots of documentation
• Working with multiple teams
(including QA)
• First real usage of unit, integration
and functional testing

28. S E L E N I U M
W E B D R I V E R
M Y F I R S T “ F R A M E W O R K ”

29. D O U B T S
N O T E S T I N G C A R E E R PAT H

30. – E V E RY O N E I N I T
“Do I want to keep doing what I do?”

31. T H E J O B O F F E R
T E S T A U T O M AT I O N E N G I N E E R

32. T H E W E B A G E N C Y
• Slightly more money than the Test
Automation Engineer job
• SAP Hybris development
• Juggling three clients at the same
time

33. H I T T I N G A N
O B S TA C L E
• If you think you can eventually make
it - keep trying
• If you know you can’t - quit!
• Yes, QUIT!

34. - N O T E T O S E L F
“Never work for external customers.”

35. D E C I S I O N P H A S E
B A C K T O S Q U A R E O N E

36. T H E J O B O F F E R
T E S T A U T O M AT I O N E N G I N E E R

37. P R O S & C O N S
T H E C R U X W I T H O N L I N E O P I N I O N S
-Twitter -Quora
-Blind

38. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Don’t listen to the internet.”

39. F I N A L LY…
T E S T A U T O M AT I O N E N G I N E E R

40. W E B ( ? ) T E S T
A U T O M AT I O N E N G I N E E R
• Release & Test Automation team
• Development and maintenance of
our e2e test automation framework
and all related pipelines
• Point of contact for all test
automation matters

41. D E V T O Q A
W H Y I S T H I S I S A G O O D I D E A ?

42. K N O W L E D G E
S H A R I N G
• Change of perspective
• Getting to know the Application
Under Test
• Knowing who does what
• Teach and learn

43. A P P R E C I AT I O N
• QA is a necessary part of the SDLC
• QA develops the product as well
• Do not underestimate QA!

44. C O M M U N I C AT I O N
• Deliver needed features for testing
• Get a sense of pain points
• Develop processes together
• Enable easier exploration

45. B R I D G I N G T H E G A P
• Being an active link between
developers and QA
• Working with developers to improve
SUT testability
• Introduce software craftsmanship
principles to QA

46. T H E T R I A N G L E O F D O O M
T U R N I N G T H R E E I N T O T W O

47. R E L AT I O N S H I P
T H E T R I A N G L E O F D O O M
D E V E L O P E R S , Q A & T E S T A U T O M AT I O N T E A M
Q U A L I T Y A S S U R A N C E
T E A M
D E V E L O P M E N T
T E A M
T E S T A U T O M AT I O N
T E A M

48. Q A & TA B E C O M E O N E
D E V E L O P E R S , Q A & T E S T A U T O M AT I O N T E A M
T E S T
A U T O M AT I O N
Q U A L I T Y A S S U R A N C E T E A M
D E V E L O P M E N T T E A M

49. I M P R O V I N G D E V S K I L L S
W H AT A B O U T C O D I N G ?

50. T E S T F R A M E W O R K S
A N D P I P E L I N E S
• Adding required features
• Parallelisation
• Resilience
• Working with/around SUT
• Documentation

51. O P E N S O U R C E
D E V E L O P M E N T
• Code Craftsmanship
• Clean code
• Test coverage
• Documentation
• Forcing yourself to stick to guidelines

52. O P E N S O U R C E
D E V E L O P M E N T
• Cluecumber Report Plugin
• Cucumber BDD reporting
• Originated from a
company hackathon

53. T E S T S A R E C O D E
• Maintenance
• Bugfixes
• Refactoring
• Code reviews

54. – M E T O M Y S E L F
“Working in QA has improved my coding skills.”

55. Q A I S N O T T H E O N LY O N E
E V E RY O N E I S R E S P O N S I B L E F O R Q U A L I T Y

56. J O B P I N G P O N G
T H I S I S W H E R E M Y C V L O O K S F U N N Y.

57. 2 0 2 1
G A M I N G I N D U S T RY 2 . 0

58. 2 0 2 1 - 2 0 2 1
• Back to the former company
• Automation Engineer for 5 months
• Realised that the gaming industry is
not for me anymore

59. H I T T I N G A N
O B S TA C L E
• If you think you can eventually make
it - keep trying
• If you know you can’t - quit!
• Yes, QUIT!

60. J O B S T I C K I N E S S &
R E T E N T I O N
• Creating value
• Being valued
• Company culture
• Learning opportunities

61. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Maintain your connections when you leave.”

62. B A C K A G A I N
T E S T A U T O M AT I O N E N G I N E E R

63. B A C K E N D T E S T
A U T O M AT I O N E N G I N E E R
• Embedded into core QA
• Development and maintenance of
backend test automation frameworks
and pipelines
• Development of test strategies

64. K E Y L E A R N I N G S
W H AT I P I C K E D U P A L O N G T H E WAY.

65. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Test automation is not the end.”

66. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Test automation is a tool.”

67. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Test automation is a product.”

68. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Don‘t be afraid to question things.”

69. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Listen to your users.”

70. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Never stop learning.”

71. – N O T E T O S E L F
“Communication is key!”

72. @ B I S C H O F F D E V
S O F T WA R E T E S T E R . B L O G