I’m starting a new assignment next Monday as mobile tester/developer.
It’s not my first rodeo so I’ve got a couple of ideas what I want to accomplish on my first day and first week, but it’s made me curious about what other people do on their first day?
I’ll share my own goals.
Day 1:
get to know the team
check out both iOS and Android projects and get them running on the simulator
get a feel for all the Scrum ceremonies and/or other meetings that are recurring daily/weekly.
test the application in a playful manner, write down questions, observations.
Week 1:
lots of hands-on exploratory testing
super nice would be if I could fix a bug I find during testing somewhere in the first week.
observe the testing that is already happening by others in the team, without changing it. I’ll only write down observations, things that I think should be improved or changed. I personally find it extremely annoying if a new person starts complaining about things at once, I think some time should be reserved to gather context.
create a Heuristic Test Strategy Model in the form of a Mindmap to help me model the application from different angles.
browse Confluence to see what is already written on testing and the development process.
pair programming with the iOS and Android devs to they can educate me about the code and the workflow.
plan an interactive meeting where I’ll explain what I think testing can and cannot do. The goal is to quickly find out if people in my team think different about testing and what problems that could give.
This list is not exhaustive, but those are the things I could think of right now.
Thanks for bringing this topic in the club, I will also start new job next monday and I’m curious what other do and how their start look like.
Following…
Depends on their onboarding process, but assuming I have some time/these things aren’t covered:
Get to know team, maybe even have some quick one to one intros with team members
Same with new line manager/peers if not covered by the above intros
Start figuring out the work processes and flows - who does what, when, and why
Ask many questions, make many notes and diagrams
Just hang out in meetings and team ceremonies and see how people interact and work together
Start getting an idea of where things are tested, how, why, etc
Depending on the role, get things set up locally and have an explore to see if I can get some context
Ask the other quality folk what their expectations/hopes/frustrations/etc are when it comes to us working together, the work in general, rest of the team, etc
Yes that’s a good one, I need to find a way to get to know people beyond the team in a remote setting. I’ve never done that before as in my last assignment I already knew everyone from before we changed to remote working!
There’s one person we’ve forgotten who can make your life at work comfortable or difficult.
As soon as you can, identify who the key person in the organisation is who takes care of your physical working environment, and spend some time getting to know them. They may be someone in the facilities management team, or they may just be a caretaker. They may not even work for the same organisation if you work in a rented or leased space. But find them and get on their good side; because the time will come when there is something wrong with your work environment, and that person is the one that can help fix it. And without them, you will not be able to do your best work.
So when I started the job I’m leaving atm, I set Day 1, Week 1 and Month 1 goals.
Day 1:
all the things set up on the computer
intro to the team
chill to the max and don’t stress
Week 1:
TEAM
make friends on the team
have chats with at least 2 team members about their roles
learn about team structure
start shaping ideas of the preferred ways of working/communication of individuals on the team
PROJECT
work out the parts and how they fit together
exploration of the product
find out current sprint and quarter goals
AUTOMATION
test code set up and running on my machine
write first test
familiarise with test project structure
Month 1:
TEAM
sound understanding of roles and personalities
ability to adjust tone and Bruce-intensity to the individuals
memorise faces and names
chill bantz
gently begin to shut down use of female descriptors for me, if it’s safe to do so
learn Russian greetings for Russian team members
PROJECT
actively taking part in refinement, planning and retrospectives
sound intuitive understanding of how the product works
AUTOMATION
writing tests independently
able to remember the super convoluted steps for managing tests in Xray/Jira
So that was my shizzle last time. It was my first time working on a super mature automation project, hundreds of existing tests, and my first time working with Java and also Selenium. So there was a lot to learn getting going. I also had a reading list for books or articles to help me catch up on those things and the practices used in the team, eg Story Mapping, Cucumber etc.
This time I am feeling a bit more lost ahead of time, not sure what to expect, so I will probably make some goals after arriving xD
she could be interested also !