Sujeet Kumar
Test Lead
Infosys
Sujeet Kumar is a member of:
Degrees that Matter
The QA/testing domain certification can be divided into 2 parts:
Domain and Technical
For domain expertise, build on the knowledge you have gained through experience, and brand it with some external certifications like INS21 for insurance.
For QA,i recommend ISTQB series for expertise.
The Journey So Far
I started my career with one of the largest software firm of India in 2006.Moving through different roles, i was promoted to 'Team Lead' position,in Oct,2011.Although getting into testing was a co-incidence but within 2 months in the testing unit,i realized, this was the place to be:)
Currently working at
Currently i am leading a team of test engineers and test analysts stationed out of India and Netherlands, for a large global bank.With multi-vendor model within the bank, I am responsible for agreement and stakeholder management and testing management(includes all phases of waterfall)for my domain.
Points of inflection
Building knowledge around testing and mapping it with functional testing-getting expertise in this would be the inflection point,since this process led to varied proceeds so far, the challenge to face clients at client location has been an enriching experience.
Current and Previous Responsibilities
Handling onsite and offshore team, meeting agreed timelines, testing activities management, stakeholder management,co-ordination in multi vendor environment are some of the activities to fulfill in the current role.
Project management and control are the added responsibilities in the new role.
Areas for the Future
Following are the areas for testing domain to look after:
a) Cloud: testing through cloud, automation and manual alike
b) Agile-waterfall: both methodologies have been succesful in their own right, possibility of combining them and using overall advantages in a common model
c) Data warehouse testing
Plans for the Future
In a couple of years, i will be more prepared to take on management activities in testing/QA space.
Changes in the industry
Earlier, there was a challenge in accepting 'independent' testing personnel,that perception has changed now.There is more acceptance of testing as a separate activity.But with this, expectation is also higher.Just doing testing and getting desired output wont suffice,get more involved with solution.
Required Reading
Books:
ISTQB books are my usual reference
Websites:
Linkedin testing communities
Publications:
SiliconIndia daily newsletter
In addition: keep reading CIO.com,gtnewsletter.com and techrepublic website for current information ongoing in IT at high level.
Parting thoughts
While testing still has certain challenges for 'acceptance', it would be great if testing professionals consider the challenge of job more beyond 'just finding a bug' or 'getting an expected output'.You have to focus on solution and its repercussions from business perspective.
Most Important Decisions
1. To get expertise in testing profession
2. Putting effort and time to learn new systems/applications in detail
3. Deciding to take complete responsibility of my work and
4. Receiving feedbacks and building on the inputs.
Most Important Lessons
1. Branding is one of the most important factors.
2. Client expectations keep changing with duration in agreement- you have to understand stakeholders to manage expectation and execution.
3. Being last in the waterfall model, testing comes at the end,pressure management must be learnt to handle this
Essential Advice
1. Understand your role
2. Understand the system in detail, if possible, technology and functionality both,if only one then functionality has preference
3. Keep yourself updated with changing trends in testing
4. Spend time on learning new systems/applications
5. Build your expertise
Tech trends to watch out for
Building knowledge around 'usage of tools' is important.Learning at implementation level is a must.