Quality Engineering on Og Maciel's Journal

Writing a Book: Check!

Thu, 23 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Growing up my dad used to tell me that there are three important milestones on a man’s life (though I feel that the same could be said about any gender):

Plant a tree
Have a child
Write a book

Through my life, I have planted quite a few trees, including a lemon and papaya tree I used to treat as my imaginary friends :)

I have also had the highest honor to be the father to three amazing girls!

Software Quality Engineering: Tales From The Trenches

Tue, 14 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love being a Quality Engineer, something that I have been doing for a living for the last 11 years of my life! During these 11 years, I have had the pleasure (yes, pleasure!) of being tossed around, torn to pieces and thrown at a lot of scary and difficult situations in the world of software testing!

Armed only with a strong desire to learn and excel at my profession, I have seen, heard and gone through a multitude of experiences, challenges, and opportunities. Have I ever been scared shitless or doubted my decision to become a Quality Engineer? Heck yeah! Have I ever felt like the dumbest person in the companies I have worked on? The answer to that question is a resounding “yes!” Have I ever cried? You can bet your bottom dollar I have!

Just What Is A Quality Engineer? Part 2

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The last time I wrote about Quality Engineering, I mentioned that some of the reasons why people are not familiar with this term are, in no particular order:

'Quality' is usually something that is added as an after thought and doesn't really come into the picture, if ever, until the very end of the release process
Nobody outside of a QA team really knows what they do. It has something to do with testing...
Engineering is usually identified with skills related to writing code and designing algorithms, usually by a developer and not by QA

A quick search on Google shows the following results:

Just What Is A Quality Engineer? Part 1

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever I meet someone for the first time, after we get past the initial niceties typically involved when you meet someone for the first time, eventually the conversation shifts to work and what one does for a living. Inevitably I'm faced with what, at a first glance, may sound like a simple question and the conversation goes like this:

New acquaintance: "What do you do at Red Hat?"
Me: "I manage a team of quality engineers for a couple of different products."
New acquaintance: "Oh, you mean quality assurance, right? QA?"
Me: "No, quality engineers. QE."

What usually followed then was a lengthy monologue whereby I spent usually around ten to fifteen minutes explaining what the difference between QA and QE is and what, in my opinion, sets these two professions apart. Now, before I get too deep into this topic, I have to add a disclaimer here so not to give folks the impression that what I'm talking about is backed by any official definition or some type of professional trade organization! The following are my own definitions and conclusions, none of which were pulled out of thin air, but backed by (so far) 10 years of experience working on the field of delivering quality products. If there are formal definitions out there, and they match with my own, it is by pure coincidence.