What’s your job title?
I’m the Test Practice Lead for luvo Testing.
As a Test Practice Lead, what sort of duties do you have?
They are genuinely varied, from responding to tenders, reviewing, and writing articles, but more importantly, feeding my 25 years of Quality Assurance experience into the Luvo QA Playbook. The playbook is a practical series of focused areas that contains, amongst an extensive list of other QA practices:
- Sets of questions to ask stakeholders when creating test strategies and plans,
- Guidance on how test approaches change depending on the SDLC being followed,
- How to identify the quality risks that need mitigating,
- Tools guidance on how to use various test management tools and the reports these tools need to be able to generate for project reporting.
- Guidance on assessing the use of test automation and how to determine what the automation approach should be.
What are your goals for the next 6-12 months?
I hope to have the following critical areas of the Luvo playbook completed. (The numbers against each of the topics indicate the number of sub-topics being worked on.)
How long have you worked in the wonderful world of software engineering?
Well, it’s been quite a few years. I started in defence testing F/A-18 Avionics Systems, moved into developing software to test avionics systems, then started with test automation using SQA Robot (yes, it was a long time ago).
Since then, I’ve moved through different positions in software engineering, encompassing a career of over 25 years in software engineering practices.
What’s the most exciting thing about your job?
The most exciting part about being a Test Practice Lead is looking for ways to make QA and software testing “easier” using technology. Testing technology is getting more interesting with the incorporation of AI, machine learning models, and “No Code” test automation tools. I enjoy looking at these new technologies and finding ways to apply them to quality assurance across all project delivery.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging aspect is trying to get the knowledge out of my head and into a format that makes it truly helpful and practical. The next challenge is seeing how this information can and is being applied so that we improve its practical and hands-on application on real-world projects.
What’s your most used productivity hack?
What a good question. You would think that after all this time doing this stuff, I’d have a few, but what one person calls a “hack” is just how someone else works. Using Jira projects, regardless of size, is a great way to focus on the work.
The other great tool, considering how much documentation I create, is using Grammarly. It takes the pain out of writing documents and emails. It is a “just-in-time” document review. It is always sitting there checking and keeping track of the number of issues in the paper or email your writing—all in real-time.
What motivates you?
Learning new things about technology and the application of this technology to the QA space across projects. And working with great dynamic, agile teams is always very rewarding.
What’s a skill you would like to improve on?
I’m known to get too excited when talking about testing, especially in job interviews – LOL! On a more practical note, I need to improve my reading speed as the number of articles and books seems to be a never-ending growing list.
How would your friends describe you?
This is a rather tricky question to answer as I’ve never asked them! If I can think of one thing, it’s probably about having time to help people when asked. I guess getting asked your opinion is a nice feeling.
What’s your idea of a perfect day?
My perfect day would probably be touring around Europe and having lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Alps. But, since getting to Europe isn’t scheduled on the calendar for a while, the next best thing would be to catch up with a group of friends on a lovely sunny, not-too-warm day and have lunch overlooking the water.
Which show(s) are you currently binge-watching?
My binging is usually about three episodes back-to-back, so I have a few on the go. White Lotus because of all the Grammy awards, House of the Dragon, and The Rings of Power, given the amount of hype they both have received.
Reach out to Shane to see how luvo Testing can help with your quality assurance across any stage of your project delivery.
