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Tilak Sarkar

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Tilak Sarkar

Founder

Open Home Infotech

Tilak Sarkar is a member of:

Could you tell us briefly about your family background?

I come from a family that has long excelled in academics and many members of the family are myriad-minded with active interest in diverse fields. My father was a very successful businessman and my mother excelled in the role of home manager. My brother edited and published The Gentleman magazine.

Currently working at

I founded Open Home infotech (http://www.openhomeinfotech.biz)with the intention to provide industry-relevant training programs in Software QA and Programming. My job involves, beside general management, researching the latest trends and incorporating them into our course offerings.

Required Reading

(1) Software Testing Principles and Practices - Desikan and Ramesh (2) Software Defect Prevention - Kane and Bajaj (3) Effective Software Testing - Dustin (4) System Test Automation - Fewster and Graham (5) Next Generation Java testing - Cedric Beust and Hani Suleiman + http://www.softwareqatest.com

Role Model

I am gratly influenced by S. Desikan. He evangelized Software Testing when the field was not so popular and well-understood.Through his many speaking assignments he successfully highlighted the intellectual content of the profession and managed to attract many talented individuals in this field.

Areas for the Future

The ability to develop one's own test framework is going to be a key capability of an organization. Also the ability to quickly adopt and customize open source test tools would greatly enhance the cost-effectiveness of the QA Team which will be critical as competition from other countries grows.

Current and Previous Responsibilities

In my current role as the general manager, I am greatly involved with all aspects of business while in my previous role as a QA Manager with Ness technologies I was concerned with the performance of the Test Team and the organization's over-all capability building. Now the scope is wider.

Points of inflection

Getting an opportunity to build a team from the scratch and managing to become productive within a week in a complex distributed environment dealing with a complex enterprise product was the inflection point in my QA career. It was an enriching experience and challenges we overcame were manifold.

Tech trends to watch out for

With so much data flowing into smart phones and tablets, effective and efficient testing of mobile devices is going to assume critical importance and so is the case with the cloud testing. Automated test generation is going to look hot too.

Most Important Lessons

1. Some work on building good roads and some can drive fast on those roads. The appraisal system should be able to see and appreciate accomplishments of both these groups of people. 2. All QA professionals should be usability champions 3. Developers cooperate better with testers who know development

Essential Advice

Be proud of your profession. Do not join Software QA as a stopgap career arrangement or because you could not get into development. Always try to get into the shoes of the user and in case the user of the product is an enterprise, understand the domain and the big picture.

Parting thoughts

Software QA profession should welcome people from diverse backgrounds as testing is a team effort and having many different perspectives makes testing more effective.

Most Important Decisions

I was into automation in the beginning but when an opportunity showed up I moved to backend testing. Growing laterally is as important in a QA career as growing vertically which allows one to develop a nose for issues. Instead of becoming a specialist, I decided to become a specialist generalist.

A Fine Balance:

I educate the family about the demands of the job and discuss ways to accommodate the special needs of the profession. I feel the spouse should be a partner in your profession.I also mark time on the calendar so I can have quality time with my family. I thank them often for making things easy for me

Degrees that Matter

I do not attach much value to certification. Peer recognition and real accomplishments speak much louder than fancy certificates.

Plans for the Future

I want OpenHomeInfotech to produce QA champions of the future in the industry who will be well-rounded well-versed with soft skills, management skills and development skills apart from core software qa skills. They should not only be aware of future trends but they should be making them happen.