At Petards Rail, we appreciate the skills, experience and attributes of our team of experts – which spans Software Engineers and Service Engineers to QHSE and System Architects. To showcase the talents of our team and provide an insight into their expertise, we will be sharing ‘A Day in The Life Of…’ articles with you.
Here one of our Software Test Engineers, shares an insight
into their role.
What does your job involve
At its core, the job of a software test engineer is to find bugs in the software, ideally before the customer does. This will enable the software engineer to fix the known issues before release.
What is a typical day in your role?
The work of a software test engineer is split in two main phases: the preparation phase where software requirements are analysed, new test cases are created, existing test cases are improved, reworked and if applicable, automated, and issues are retested; and the validation phase in which all relevant test cases are executed for a specific software release.
Apart from that, a test engineer can offer support to software development and project engineering departments when needed.
How did you get into this profession?
I had the opportunity to join a multinational company in the automotive industry and be part of an ever-growing test department. I was able to gain hands on experience in the system testing process and learn the role formal testing activities play in delivering the right product to the customer.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I am happy when my work has a positive impact on the quality of the software. So, what I enjoy the most is re-testing issues after they are fixed and closing them.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
Having to deal with unclear and changeable specifications/software requirements is the most challenging part of the job.
What advice would you give to others looking to move into this field?
A tester is a professional pessimist so I accept the fact that the software under test may not work as expected right from the start. I try to not see this as a negative but more as an opportunity for improvement.
Is there anything else you would like to add about your job that makes it interesting / special to others?
Testing has an emotional component because an important part of the job is delivering feedback on someone else’s work. It is important to always be mindful about this and show empathy and consideration when giving feedback. This will encourage cooperation and teamwork and reinforce the status of testing as a constructive activity.
