I became an Avaturian 8 years ago, and Avature has grown a lot since then. I worked in different teams and different roles, but one thing never changed: I kept my focus on quality.
Quality has always been a fundamental pillar in our organization, and as the needs of the area evolved together with the company’s growth, I got the opportunity to be part of Engineering Quality, a specialized team fully devoted to adding value to the QA area, where we work with 30+ Development teams. As part of Engineering Quality, all our energies go to organizing and evolving testing across the company, maintaining and implementing policies and best practices, and distributing knowledge to boost the growth of our 100+ QA Engineers.
But you might be wondering… After 8 years focusing on quality at Avature, how come I don’t ever get bored? Well, let me tell you some of the reasons.
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On a team level
1. As a company, our focus is on quality. Quality is everybody’s business, and the whole team is involved when it comes to improving it. Teamwork, all the way.
2. Teams are multidisciplinary, which means they’re made up by developers, QA engineers, product analysts… This allows you to learn from everybody around you. A terrific learning opportunity.
3. No two teams are the same, no two QA roles are the same. As a QA engineer, you can work in any of our two main areas, each one with a different focus:
- Development: Composed by several product-focused teams. All QA efforts point towards developing the best possible product. If you like manual testing and automation, this is the place for you.
- Technical Services: Composed by several customer-focused teams. All QA efforts are centered around testing customized products for our clients, such as integrations and portals, to make sure they meet all requirements. If you are into customer satisfaction, this is the place for you!
4. QA Engineers are part of the team, not individual contributors. Our day-to-day life at Avature is fully collaborative—we’re one more player in the team, we do not work on our own.
5. QA is a key participant in the release cycle. In the Development area, QA Engineers are part of the software development life cycle from day zero. We apply the shift-testing approach and are involved in the process since the moment specs are created. We do not believe in QA as the last link in the chain.
On a personal level
6. Every day in the life of a QA Engineer is different: testing stuff, meetings, log checks in production, bugs report, defects analysis, test plan development, requirements analysis, manual testing, development of automatic testing… Not a single chance to get bored!
7. We add value to all of our tasks. To do so, we work to eliminate repetitive and boring tasks, such as manual regression.
8. Our day-to-day is very dynamic. We work on different projects at the same time, which means we get the chance to explore different approaches and methodologies. If you enjoy challenges, you will thrive!
9. Our opinion matters. We have a say in everything we do and our work has an impact on the final result of projects. Managers value QA Engineers both individually—because of their skills and capabilities—and as team players—because of their contributions as members of a team.
10. There’s plenty of opportunities to grow, both on a professional and an individual note. While managers and technical leaders work as mentors who help you thrive, we foster the development of technical skills and also soft skills.
How does Avature help you develop technical skills?
- We count on an online learning lounge, constantly updated with new training sessions and workshops to boost your learning curve.
- We’re surrounded by engaging challenges focused on automation: we write code in different languages and using different frameworks.
How does Avature enable you to develop soft skills?
- We interact with lots of people, in different teams and roles, so here’s a big opportunity to put your communication skills into practice.
- We’re trusted with autonomy to handle our own priorities, which also encourages critical thinking.
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It’s because of all these reasons that I believe Avature is the coolest place to build a career in QA.
As part of the Engineering Quality team, we focus on assuring the quality of our product is excellent, but also on helping teams discover and fill those gaps that affect quality and prevent them from reaching their goals. While we work on improving processes, frameworks, and tools, our number one priority keeps being that QA Engineers know we’ve got their back—and that is the best of working in QA at Avature: quality is everybody’s priority, but we build it together as one team.