2024 - Overstory - QA Sampling
Some of the analysis which needed to happen for a delivery would include 10s of thousands of items. QA would be done on a handful of random items and the effort required to find which items are appropriate was very high. I determined that we needed to define an appropriate sample size, and then determine some rules for which items were representative. I did this by first of all looking at various statistical sampling methods, including the rule of three and confidence intervals, in order to calculate what the sample size should be, in conjunction with working out on average how long the QA of an average item takes. I then developed a suite of queries using PostgreSQL which allowed us to automatically create a sample set in the database based on a number of different parameters, one of which was whether or not it had good Google StreetView within x days and y meters, ready for QA. This improved the amount of time it took to QA to the extend that we were able to triple our output.
2019 - Vicon - Location Based Virtual Reality Software and Hardware
Managed and conducted the testing for the release of innovative new software and hardware for the Location Based Virtual Reality market. This involved the release of a brand new software offering, along with new motion tracking camera, active clusters and network beacon. I managed the cross team functional, integration and performance (including network) testing of the hardware, software and firmware; conducting the majority of the software testing myself, whilst continuing to manage the testing for the other market sectors.
2016 - Fugro - Integration of vessel and underwater vehicle simulation systems
I managed the testing for a project involving two companies collaborating to produce an integrated vessel and underwater vehicle simulation system. The project was challenging due to the complexity of the two engineering tools, the hardware involved which included the Kystdesign Remote Operated Vehicle pilot chair, the very different working practices of the two companies, and the different locales of the teams, with one company based out of Norway with the main developer in Russia, and ourselves based across two offices in England. I maintained strong communications by ensuring that in addition to the local daily standups, testers attended weekly scrums with the distributed teams, and additionally the whole team communicated regularly via skype.
I developed a shared Test Strategy, and borrowed equipment in order we could fully integration test from within our office. I communicated updated test plans, cases and bugs to the other team on a regular basis, and the whole development team went out to Norway to do pair programming and testing in order to foster common understandings and team relationships. The project was delivered as a success as a training program for off shore teams.
2015 - Fugro - Transition to Jira and TestRail from TFS
As part of a project for Fugro Opcos to all utilise the same software, it was decided that we would migrate from utilising TFS including Microsoft Test Manager, to Jira and TestRail. This necessitated a change in process for the Test Team in order to fit in with the agile life cycle used by the main company. I introduced a definition of done for the Testers, a new workflow for the test life cycle, templates for the test plans and bugs, dev-test handovers, and test-product owner handovers.
2015 - Fugro - Automated Test System
When I started with Fugro, there was a system running over night to test the dynamics engine, but nothing to test the front end. There were no regression suites, manual or automated. I arranged for there to be an end of iteration regression rave, where for the first sessions we built the regression suite, and then once it was in place the whole team would pull together manually to run it. In the mean time, I led a project to build a new automated test system around the original, based upon the microsoft accessibility framework.
Due to the visual nature of the simulation software, there wasn't an off the shelf product which fitted our needs. I ensured the system was data driven, via excel spreadsheets, which allowed us to query and check the UI, and also do image comparison within user defined tolerance levels. Once this was in place, we started to transition the manual regression tests over to the automated system, which was run nightly on our latest build. This provided a considerable saving, as the manual regression suite went from taking the entire development team at least 2 days, to taking the test team and a subset of the development team half a day to run, whilst the automated test system did the rest.
I introduced a new process whereby any new functions had to be considered for automated testing before the test process could be closed, and any requests for change to functionality, needed to either update any existing automated tests, or build new ones if they didn't already exist. This reduced our technical debt considerably. In addition, I set up a rota to investigate any failures, to ensure the builds were always green.
2013 - Workplace Systems - Transition to agile
Managed and partook in the testing of a new piece of functionality in the online workforce management software, whilst also championing a change to an agile SDLC. The functionality allowed workers to bid for available shifts, via a standard browser, or through their tablet or mobile. The functionality was available to multiple customers dependant upon config, with client specific rules with regards to working practices, notifications, costs etc. I promoted daily stand ups for progress updates, produced weekly reports, and held retrospectives for lessons learnt.