Don’t be afraid to fail
For the first time in Serbia, testing community got its big event, a two day conference which was held in Belgrade, named “Belgrade Test Conference”, where our QA engineer Andrea Jerinic held an inspiring keynote lecture “I-Tester”. Andrea did not just hold the lecture, she also participated in creating the agenda for this event, and, as she said, it gathered a lot of interesting lecturers and a lot of people who were willing to hear more about testing process.
She also gave an introductory speech during the opening ceremony of this testathon, where she said that the tester community had finally got its gathering and that she hoped it would become a tradition which would be noticed by other companies and organizations, and also in formal and non-formal education.
“I was very honored when people from the “Supernova Events” organization called me to help them organize this event and gave me the opportunity to express myself and show young people how the magical world of testing works. This was my first engagement in such an event and I hope that testing is now a bit closer to those who wanted to know more about this part of IT”- said Andrea.
The first Test Conference in Belgrade
Her lecture was a part of the so-called starter track where she had to explain what testing was to people who had never tested any application nor had any idea what testing was at all. It was challenging because she had to squeeze her experience and love for this job in 30 minutes and keep in mind that people who were listening to her had no idea what a testing process actually was. Beside this topic, she gave them a glance at how this works in practice, when you are a part of a development team.
“I explained that testing goes hand in hand with development and that these two processes do not exclude each other, but they complement one another. Although the mindset of a tester is different from the mindset of a developer, that is actually an advantage, because it is our job to find flaws in an application, among all those scenarios that developers cannot think about nor that is their job. Maybe sometimes you will be challenged by them to explain why you did something to break their app, or you will need to defend your test scenario and your “bug” (to break their well known “it’s not a bug’ it’s a feature” explanation), you have to keep the next thing in mind: you are all part of one team and your duty is to make that team work as one and to deliver the qualitative product”- stated our colleague.
Don’t be afraid to fail
How she managed to become a tester from a journalist, what she had to learn and where, what her experiences were like during various projects she was working on, what she had to learn along the way, and, also, how she handles relations with her team members - Andrea included all of this in her keynote, aiming to bring the testing process closer to the auditorium through practical examples. As she explained, it’s not always peaches and cream, and you are in a constant process of learning, because, it is not only expected from a tester to know how to create test scenarios, but he has to be some sort of a test manager, analyst, executor, reporter, investigator… a person who has so many abilities, technical and soft skills.
“It is a role for a person who has extensive education and various interests, who is not afraid to learn over and over again, who is persistent and stubborn, but yet not afraid to fail. Because, FAIL is just the first attempt in learning”- concluded Andrea.
