Tech Talks With Benjamin Bischofff

The world has been adapting and aligning with the digital revolution faster than ever. From websites becoming the business showcase to service-dedicated applications that have simplified the interactions with end-users and the service providers, the transformation is happening at a very fast pace.  

Besides, the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies have complemented the entire virtual landscape allowing development of more user-oriented, futuristic, yet sustainable digital entities.  

With an industry experience of more than 8 years and overall tech experience of more than two decades, Benjamin has his focus on crafting technologies that can meet the standards and can complement the user experiences through effective software testing and code craftmanship.  

With all that information about Benjamin and his work experience, let us quickly jump on the interview to understand his perspective on agile, keeping up with testing career, API testing, and more.  

Let’s begin! 

Tushar: When it comes to agile teams, what can QA do to add value? 

Benjamin: QA is an essential part of agile software development. It is not only about finding errors. Rather, it is about building and promoting a quality culture that is distributed across all roles of the software development lifecycle. As quality professionals, we can help maintain visibility into and assess the status of an application, help determine the direction a development should take, and of course be responsible for when and under what circumstances to release. We should not be gatekeepers but facilitators.

Tushar: How to stay ahead and keep your testing career moving forward in this digital age? 

Benjamin: For me, it is important to always know about the latest trends and applications of test methodologies, tools and programming concepts. As a test automation engineer, I am naturally a bit biased towards the technical aspects. In general, it is important to stay curious and question things. The most important aspect is communication and sharing knowledge. Therefore, it is very important to follow serious resources about software testing, to attend conferences and to exchange ideas with other people in this field. 

Tushar: Can you please share insights on how to trust your test automation? 

Benjamin: In order to trust test automation, a unified view of what the goal of automation is must first be created. Otherwise, trust will be difficult to achieve. It is also important to approach an automation project with the same standards as other software projects. Aspects such as costs, maintenance, reporting, visibility, monitoring, CI/CD integration, etc. must be considered and carefully implemented.  

Tushar: What’s the most important trait someone would need to work in the QA industry? 

Benjamin: The beauty of QA is that there is no set path to it. I, for example, was a developer for many years and went more and more in this direction out of interest. I think that's one of the main points: to have a great interest in improving software projects and their development and to always stay curious. I believe that good communication skills are very important, coupled with analytical thinking, sometimes around the corner. 

Tushar: What guidance do you have for aspiring testers who are eager to speak at conferences or events? 

Benjamin: It is helpful to start small, e.g., with presentations for colleagues, knowledge sharing, meetups. There are many ways to train public speaking. When addressing conferences, my experience is that it may take a relatively long time to get the chance to speak. Don't lose heart if it doesn't work out right away! 

Tushar: What is the best approach method to perform API testing? 

Benjamin: Whether you're testing a user interface or an API, for me it always starts with exploration. Of course, it also helps if you have good documentation and proper tools available to make requests, manage environments, and analyze API responses. I'm not a big believer in "best practices", the optimal way to test an API is always based on specific questions and requirements. Personally, I really like the Karate framework as a tool, so much so that I have written a book about it: “Writing API Tests with Karate”, published by Packt. 

Tushar: How can our readers connect with you online? 

Meeting digital sustainability goals is not easy. Especially, when you need to stay ahead of the curve by working on innovation and experimentation, meeting the end-user objectives in balance with business goals gets tricky.  

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