Changing a Career from Developing Software to Test Automation

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Benjamin Bischoff spoke about moving from a software development role into test automation at Online TestConf. He learned to test smarter, value QA, and find meaning in impactful, collaborative work.

There were a couple of challenges that Bischoff faced moving into test automation. He had little testing experience but a lot of development experience, so there was a lot to learn. First, he had to understand the pitfalls and challenges of testing, like what needs to be tested when, how, and why.

Another challenge Bischoff faced was understanding test levels:

I initially tried to test a lot through UI automation, not realizing that many checks would be faster and more stable as unit or integration tests on the API or database layers.

Learning when not to automate was crucial, like for one-time migration scripts, Bischoff said. It was difficult at first to realise that you can’t just jump into automation, but that it has to be done carefully and with the involvement of all stakeholders, he added.

Bischoff mentioned that his perspective on developers and testers changed along the way. When he first came into contact with software testers in his career, he saw them as a "necessary evil". As developers, they were under constant pressure to deliver features for their weekly releases.

When QA returned tickets because of bugs, it felt like they were slowing them down rather than helping them, Bischoff said. They saw testing as something that happened after the "real work" was done:

One incident I’m not proud of is that we in the development team knew we had a bug in our application, and we said to ourselves: as long as QA doesn’t find it, we don’t have a bug... But thankfully, that was a long time ago.

As a test automation engineer, Bischoff is part of their core QA team, and his attitude has changed:

I now know how important QA engineers are and how hard they work to ensure our products are as they should be. I realized how disconnected we were from understanding that quality is everyone’s responsibility, not just the job of QA engineers.

Bischoff mentioned that several things motivate him. The most important thing is the team that he works in:

My team is fantastic! We are a large international group and are constantly learning new things about different parts of the world.

This constant learning keeps him going. Not a day has gone by that he hasn’t learnt something new about technologies, approaches, and methods, he said.

It is important that he has a job there that gives him the opportunity to make a difference, Bischoff said. He gave the example from developing their in-house end-to-end testing framework:

Before this, teams were struggling with hard to maintain tests and unclear test results. By creating a robust framework with proper reporting and integrating it into our CI/CD pipelines, I could see the direct impact.

When other employees started coming to him for testing advice rather than seeing testing as an obstacle, he knew he was making a real difference:

I have had jobs before that I gave up because my work was meaningless – that is definitely not the case here.

Challenging and questioning his role enables Bischoff to grow his career. By pausing every now and then to ask yourself whether what you are doing is satisfying and fulfilling, you can take steps to change something if necessary, he said. Sometimes it has been necessary to make a clean break and change jobs or fields; so far, this has always turned out positively, even after initial setbacks, Bischoff explained:

I don’t want a job where I’m constantly doing the same thing and helping no one. When I encounter obstacles that I can overcome, it motivates me greatly.

Bischoff stressed how important communication is. The role of developers has changed significantly in recent decades, from quietly working through tasks to consulting, providing feedback, coordination and agile working. Without clear communication, it would be very difficult to pursue a common goal as a team and find good solutions, Bischoff concluded.

InfoQ interviewed Benjamin Bischoff about his career changes and learnings.

InfoQ: What made you decide to move from being a developer into testing and specialize in test automation?

Benjamin Bischoff: The decisive factor was my work in the gaming industry. I was part of a team that developed tools and services for game development teams. These tools had a major impact on the in-game economy and thus on the company’s income. This was where I first came into contact with software testing and realised how important it is for business-critical software.

The final deciding factor was Selenium. I used it in this context to validate that the end-to-end flows were working as expected. Seeing how web browsers can be magically controlled remotely was incredibly fascinating. During this time, my desire to use my development experience to move into test automation grew stronger and stronger.

InfoQ: What have been the key learnings during your career?

Bischoff: One important aspect I have learned over time is to express my opinion. This has repeatedly played a major role, not least when it came to making career decisions. The biggest example was when I decided to leave game development for test automation. Many colleagues thought I was crazy, but I’m glad I did.

Another huge learning came from my time as a freelancer after experiencing two bankruptcies of the companies I worked for. For more than six years, I was in control of my work but also had to learn the hard way that it is crucial to find clients, gather requirements, and be able to organize myself effectively to deliver what was needed on time. This still helps me in my permanent employee life.

Related Topics:

• Culture & Methods
• Test Automation
• Agile Conferences
• Motivation
• Automated testing
• Team Collaboration
• Careers

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