Tech Talks with Melissa Tondi

Exploring the Perspective of Quality and Process Engineering Enthusiast

During the last few years, the concept of Quality Assurance has entered almost every industry. Right from the development of websites to enterprise specific software technology, testing has turned to be an extremely important part of release lifecycle.  

Since every QA enthusiast have got their own approach to QA and testing techniques, it is extremely crucial to have an outlook of how varying perspectives could add more value to the entire QA industry. At BugRaptors, we with our round of tech talks, always try to reach out industry influencers for having their expert take on QA.  

This time, we had an interview with Melissa Tondi, Director, Quality Engineering at Guild Education. She is a speaker, writer, and a highly motivated Quality and Process Engineering expert with 15 years of rich experience. More importantly, she has got a strong hold of communication skills that helps her keep things well organized while sticking to the detail. She is a solution-driven expert who advocates a strong effect on change. Above all, Melissa has a great focus on collaborative management. 

With Melissa having all this expertise, we found the extreme need for communicating with her and therefore our expert Rajeev Verma approached her for the interview. The session helped us have some unique and interesting insights on test effectiveness, the challenges she has faced, her approach to managing exploratory testing, and a lot more.  

Without taking much of the time, let us quickly dig into the interview to explore the amazing conversation our expert Rajeev Verma, had with Melissa Tondi.  

Rajeev Verma: Did you always want to be a software tester?  

Melissa Tondi: Not at first. I wound up in the industry when there was an opportunity to perform user acceptance testing after-hours and I jumped at that opportunity. That made me think about testing as a profession and ever since then, I’ve been in either testing, QA or QE.  

Rajeev Verma: How to evaluate testing effectiveness?  

Melissa Tondi: There are many ways but some of the most successful have been: tracking the number of user-found issues and looking for a decrease in those reported issues due to the increase in testing. Then tracking the number of testers found issues (defects or bugs) and seeing those decrease against requirements but increase during unscripted testing.  

Rajeev Verma: What Are You Excited to Learn More About This Year? 

Melissa Tondi: AI and ML and how to incorporate that more and more in to the natural testing cycle.  

Rajeev Verma: What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing in your role right now and how are you tackling it? 

Melissa Tondi: Hiring actual Quality Engineers who have the skill set to be consultative with more technical folks on the teams on the code quality and the overall efficiency of the SDLC. 

Rajeev Verma: What will be the toughest obstacles for Test Teams in 2021?  

Melissa Tondi: Continuing to be early adopters and embraces of technology and to be the user advocates within project teams  

Rajeev Verma: According to you, what is the secret weapon for project success?  

Melissa Tondi: When all members of the team believe each person has an equal position within the team. That creates more collaboration and camaraderie which fosters better communication and optimization.  

Rajeev Verma: How do you go about managing Exploratory Testing?  

Melissa Tondi: Sometimes encouraging a time-boxed approach so testers build it into their normal day-to-day activities. Otherwise, unscripted testing (whether exploratory or ad-hoc) is done normally and there is a desire to increase it from cycle to cycle.  

Rajeev Verma: What are three books you’d recommend to the readers and why? 

Melissa Tondi: Agile Testing by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory. How Google Tests Software by James Whittaker, et al. Experiences of Test Automation by Dorothy Graham 

Rajeev Verma: How can our readers connect with you online? 

Melissa Tondi:  Twitter: @melissatondi.  Email: Melissa.tondi@gmail.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-tondi-186551 

At BugRaptors, we always try to bring you extraordinary when it comes to software testing technology and practices. Since the best way to dive the deepest secrets of the industry is leading great conversations, we believe in cultivating an environment full of information. After all, exploring practices and learning on experiences is the only best way to bring out the best of QA industry.  

Stay tuned for more such interesting updates.  

Or just in case, you need some expert hand to help you with your software testing services, feel free to reach our team through info@bugraptors.com