By Robert Leitch on February 20, 2015
Julia, tell me what you do here.
Testing.
Wonderful! Testing what, exactly?
Right now I'm testing Structure 2.10
With the help of Testy Bear
Fantastic. So how do you come to be testing Structure releases at ALM Works?
Should I describe the hiring process?
Hmm... how about you tell me what came before that, and what made you apply for the position?
That's easy. I saw a job description with the word 'JIRA' in it and a nice purple company logo.
Very cool!
Before ALM Works I was working in a massive organization, and then I came here and I could feel the creative atmosphere and it was amazing. I knew I was in the right place.
So how long ago was that?
About two years now.
Time flies... are you still enjoying the creative atmosphere?
Yes. We work a lot, but we have lots of fun too, like watching an amusing video together after lunch, building huge Jenga towers on the coffee table, coming up with ideas for Summit t-shirts or just discussing how brain activity depends on the retina.
So apart from all the fun and neuroscience, what are the best parts of your job?
That's not such an easy question. I like the fact that testing is not only testing, it also involves administration and management with a bit of development thrown in.
No, wait! I know the best part - it's when somebody says "Thank you for the Testy plugin!"
Aha, Testy - tell me more about your involvement in that?
I usually create checklists for testing and there aren't many tools specifically for working with checklists as opposed to test cases. One day I realised that it would be great to create all the testing stuff right in JIRA beside the development tasks.
I needed to be able to create my checklist test cases quickly and group them in a hierarchy and... wait, that's Structure! So I asked the developers to add a column for me, where I can set simple pass or fail statuses. And they did it!
So Testy was your idea? Why was it was built as a plugin for Structure and not incorporated as a core feature?
It was my idea but Igor and the Pashas did the hard work. I just discussed features and use cases with them.
Testy is a plugin because not all our users are testers and not everybody needs it, but it relies on Structure features like hierarches and views, so it couldn't be a standalone product.
That makes sense. Are there any plans to develop it further, or is its simplicity going to remain an important feature?
Simplicity is the main feature here and it will most probably stay that way, but we do have some planned features, like adding comments to test results.
Right, enough about work. How do you spend your time when you're not working?
In my spare time I work on the JTalks open source project. I'm part of the Saint Petersburg testing club, we hold seminars and discussions once a month... and sometimes I just chill out. A few weeks ago I did one of those room escape things, where you get locked in a room and have to solve puzzles to find the keys and get out.
Julia in her spare time
I see that your pastimes coincide with your professional interests...
And our teambuilding days, remember when we all made dinner together? And when we made pancakes in the office on Pancake Day?
Mmm, pancakes... I'm hungry now. Is there anything you'd like to say to our readers while you're on the air?
Yes! I'd like to thank everyone who sent us suggestions and feedback for Testy, and to everyone else - please post suggestions on our public JIRA or our Structure UserVoice forum, and reviews on Atlassian Marketplace.
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