Covid-19 has been a challenge to many in the world. On Friday, March 13th we received an email from Corporate Communications stating that the World Health Organization has declared the Corona-virus a global pandemic. My company decided to temporarily close all office locations to help keep us and our communities safe and healthy. The process was seamless. One day I was docked in the office doing my work, then the next I was docked at home with no disruption at all – except for the dog barking at the Amazon delivery person. It truly was an impressive transition. As a company the transition was seamless but as a testing group, we needed to reconsider our roles. We have monthly commitments to our customers and if one of our team members fell ill someone else needed to step in. Previously we held Test Analyst positions or Test Engineer positions with a fine line of who did what (I was hired as a Test Analyst). Our new vision is for all of us to become Test Engineers – some will have more experience with analysis, and some will have more experience in automation but with the end goal of slowly blurring those lines. “As professional software testers, we need to step up to the challenge…” During this time, more than ever, we ALL need to be able to step up, step in, and help where needed. My team and I have intensified the expansion of our testing knowledge over these past few months by cross-training on test automation and analysis – while continuing to meet all of our deadlines. Each month, we’ve continued to successfully test and ship new data files to our customers on time – and I can proudly say I wore my new Test Engineer hat as I helped set up and run the Automated Tests. These are challenging times. As professional software testers, we need to step up to the challenge and continue to grow our strengths and share our abilities while continuing to work as a successful team. – Julia Hart, CTFL – United States Step up to the challenge and find your way forward with ASTQB’s software testing career path.
