Tech Talks With Jency Stella

From the expansion of digital objectives in operations to the introduction of advanced software technology and progressive network capabilities, things have never been the same.  

However, there is still a large section of business industry which is lagging the game and is struggling to meet its tech objectives. And the reason behind the limited success often comes out to be the missing quality perspective.  

Since it is necessary to underline the need and importance of quality assurance and software testing as a part of quality engineering initiatives and progressive software development lifecycle, we constantly aim to reach QA experts to feed on their knowledge and insights on the test process and approach.  

This time, our in-house expert, Vivek Rana, Quality Assurance Team Lead interacted with Jency Stella, Lead QA Engineer at Billennium, who brings 9 years of experience on board. Though she is long connected with testing, as a lead QA engineer, she is a passionate API tester and loves to devote her time investigating on the concept of APIs and facts around software testing.  

She even runs a blog called “A Software Tester’s Blog” which is a space for sharing a tester’s tech work-life. She is a mother to a 4-year-old but his passion for software testing has pulled her to become an ISTQB-certified professional with certifications like CTAL-TM, CTAE, CTFL that makes her a certified mentor. She is a blogger, community contributor, and occasional Youtuber. As a person, she believes that sharing experiences is vital to understand different people in different light and considers knowledge sharing an essential act to perform.  

With that being said, let us quickly jump on the interactions that happened between Vivek and Stella, while taking insights to her ideologies, workplace beliefs, and other queries surrounding agile testing and test automation.  

Vivek: What’s one thing about your job that almost no one agrees with you about? 

Jency: Testing is ideally a value-added activity, which often people disagree, in a recent community event I spoke on the “Value of Testing” theme, hope it opened doors to understand the importance of testing (Anyone who wish to listen do check here: https://youtu.be/tH5ycLArz4c)  

Few pointers from my talk to address this question: Testing was once a constraint gradually turned to be a need and now in this Agile world it is an asset that adds value to a project, which often people fail to accept. 

To quote Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory in Agile Testing, “the real goal of testers or rather testing team is”….to work with the customer or product owner in order to help them express their requirements adequately so that they can get the features they need, and to provide feedback on project progress to everyone.” 

And that’s something that even users will think of as “value added.” 

Vivek: What goals are you pursuing right now?  

Jency: My current goal is to boost my project management skills, as I believe that Tester’s really run a mini project within the project they work. Test planning, resource allocation, test execution time estimates, scheduling time for defect correctness and planning time for retests - all these are small, individual projects that contribute to the overall QA for the software project.  

All of these efforts require some project management skills, which I feel I need to learn and explore more, so I'm planning to put some effort into this genre. As my Step-1 moves in this learning path I have prepared and cleared my ISTQB - CTAL (TM) Certification which helped me to understand the core principles of Test Management, hoping for some doors to open now to do some hands-on in this area with the learnings obtained so far. 

Vivek: How do you balance life and work? 

Jency: Being a working mom, this has become an important factor in my life. I strongly believe that if you love what you do, automatically things will move at a smoother pace, but you need to couple your passion with some discipline and planning habits.  

So to achieve this you need to first - set your boundaries i.e set limits on your work time and set aside time for other activities. Switch off the phone, limit your access to work emails or go internet-free for a few hours. Learn how to say ‘no’.  

And another thing like I mentioned - Enjoy your work - Do what you love and love what you do’ has become a popular catchphrase. While all work can be tedious or stressful at times, if you really hate your job or it’s making life impossible, consider changing jobs or even careers. 

Vivek: How do you fit testing activities into an agile cycle? 

Jency: Agile methodology's highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. 

The use of the agile methodology in testing is relatively new compared to the traditional waterfall approach. Depending on needs, the methods can be used. It can be Test-Driven Development (TDD) where test cases are written before any development is conducted. Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) where users, product owners, create business focused testing standards that align with end-user’s stories. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) where product functionality is defined by creating examples of specific software behavior that need to be produced by the code. Exploratory Testing where testers have the ability to navigate through software in development without test cases to explore, investigate, and evaluate product design and functionality. 

Based on which we can fit the testing in an agile cycle.   

Vivek: What is the best way to increase the visibility of your test automation? 

Jency: One of the best and fruitful ways to increase your automation visibility is with Code Reviews. Your test suite should be thought of as your development code. Code reviews is an awesome way to ensure that everyone is following the processes you’ve laid out, and it will also make visible any deviations from the best practices you have in place. 

Another way is to conduct some internal technical knowledge sharing session, where you can highlight the technique and logics you have incorporated in your test suite. 

Vivek: What advice would you give to women who would like to start a career in tech? 

Jency: The tech industry is often treated as a challenging space for women, but in many areas, it does have a lot of qualities that make it ideal for women. The flexibility offered in the tech field is unlike anything I have seen in any other industry. In many tech companies, it is commonly accepted that people can work on their own schedules and often work from any location. This makes a big difference when trying to have a career and a family. In addition, the tech industry is also often a place where power is held by people selected according to merit, which is also helpful for women as it removes some of the subjective judgments women can face in the workforce. 

I think the most important advice for girls or women who want to consider a career in tech is really the same advice for all women and girls anywhere - that the key thing is to believe in your own abilities. Studies show that women often underestimate their own abilities, which holds them back from taking on the challenges that help any of us achieve our potential.  

If women believe they can succeed, they will. Think positive and love what you do with all charm and courage, don't fear. 

Vivek: What is the best way to get in touch with you? 

Jency: You can reach me via: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jency-stella/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jencystella19 

(OR) can email me your queries, here is my personal email - jency.stella19@gmail.com 

BugRaptors as a quality assurance brand is always focused at transforming the digital landscape for better. Right from enterprise technology to anything that is made to reach the masses, we can help you engrave quality into your tech initiatives.  

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