Keeper Projects: Catching Up With Experienced QA Engineer, Domagoj
As a software outsourcing partner, Keeper Solutions has a growing team of over 80 highly-skilled developers that work with a range of different companies around the world. Some have been working with the same company for an extended period of time. Many work on a short-term project by project basis. All of them work on fascinating projects, delivering world-class products.
In our Keeper Projects series we check in with one of our team and find out what they’re working on. In this post, we speak with Keeper QA Engineer, Domagoj.
What does a typical day look like for you right now?
First, a coffee to start the day!
The morning is usually reserved for executing or analyzing automated regression tests as well as identifying and strategizing the testing on any new features or bug fixes. The team also has our daily status meeting in the morning and I tend to handle any pressing emails or Slack messages around that time as well.
The afternoon is reserved for test creation and execution. During the afternoon hours, the whole team is online. The availability of all team members helps make any planned testing more streamlined.
What’s your current tech stack?
My QA stack is ‘Postman’ for integration tests and ‘Cypress’ for UI tests. My DEV stack is .NET BE on Azure and React FE on Vercel.
Could you tell us a little about the current project you are working on?
The current project I’m working on is centered around offering turnkey solutions for day-to-day financial advisory operations. The idea is to provide an application that consolidates all aspects of investment account management onto one platform, e.g., client account organization, trading, modeling, rebalancing, reporting, etc.
What’s a recent challenge that you faced during this project and how did you overcome it?
One of the most pervasive challenges on the project was convincing the dev team and project owner about the importance of detailed API testing. This includes a comprehensive suite of API integration regression testing. By sticking to this philosophy and executing on it, the amount of API bugs uncovered, presented transparently to the team, was eye-opening.
How do you make sure that you stay sharp and up to date with the latest trends and techniques?
By exposing the quality engineering (QE) team to the architectural solutions presented by DEV. This allows for each team member to do their own research around the technologies in the project.
Aside from this, there’s always YouTube subscriptions and social media tech pages I follow. On a more personal level, I tend to keep in touch with and maintain relationships with tech enthusiasts that I’ve met throughout my career.
Of course, working with an outsourced partner means that you are working remotely and trying to maintain relationships long distance. What do you do to make sure you stay connected and maintain relationships with the teams you work with?
There are many tools out there which help to enhance collaboration outside of email and videoconferencing (Zoom, Teams, etc.). Slack I feel is a great tool; a good 85% of all of my team’s interactions happen through Slack.
Tools aside, I love reaching out and working directly with people. For me it’s a mindset. Helping to build a cohesive team by learning about people you work with and their working style. I think most people appreciate that type of interaction also .
What do Keeper Solutions do to ensure that you progress in your career?
Keeper leadership is always attentive to any employee requests, including those concerning career progression. In my experience Keeper has done this in a more informal way, with one-on-one meetings being the most common means of connecting.
In your opinion, what makes Keeper Solutions different?
The people would have to be my top answer here. Everyone I’ve met and worked with is very skilled at what they do and extremely comfortable to work with. The level of collective support from Keeper people is off the charts.
You don’t see this depth of authentic collegiality or companionship very often.
What advice would you give a company that is considering working with an outsourced software development partner, and wants to ensure operational success?
I generally don’t give advice to companies in this capacity, since I have no proven track record of success in providing outsourced software development.
But if I had to, I would advise them to hire a seasoned professional. Not just for software development, but for any project big or small. If you are working on something and don’t have the required experience, it’s important that you address those weaknesses and make the right hires!
A massive thank you to Domagoj for sharing his experience with us and filling us in on what he’s currently working on.
The Importance of QA in Software Development
At Keeper we always recommend that QA engineers be included in the development process as early as possible. When a QA gets involved early in the process, there will be fewer bugs and surprises down the line. We firmly believe that quality assurance shouldn’t just follow development. It should be at the heart of it.
If you’d like to talk to us about strengthening your QA capabilities, get in touch today.
Image Credit
Photos by Emile Perron, Marvin Meyer, Lauren Mancke, and Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash
