Tech Talks With Mesut Durukal

The introduction of digitalization has proven to be the most significant advancements made to the business industry. Be it eCommerce or anything like real-estate, enterprise technology and business-dedicated software have not only streamlined operations but even helped businesses to thrive.  

However, the sudden need for digital solutions have even increased the competition creating a need for distinction. Here, quality assurance and software testing comes as a savior allowing brands to create more saturated and well-defined user-experience.  

Besides, the rising inclination of people towards technology has made it more important for brands to work on functionality and performance goals. But aiming on such objectives require right focus on the knowledge and approach to development as well as quality integration. Moreover, pursuing products by keeping the quality perspective in mind could even complement the idea of scalability and sustainability.  

Since pursuing such digital objectives require quality information, we at BugRaptors constantly work on adding people to our QA connections list. This time, our in-house expert, Rajeev Verma interacted with Mesut Durukal, QA Lead, Indeed.com.  

With over 13 years of experience in the industry, Mesut has a knack for Industrial Automation, IoT platforms, Cloud Services, Defense Industry, Autonomous Robots, as well as software applications. He even holds proficiency in CMMI, Scrum, & PMP, as he served on several roles like Quality Owner, Chapter Lead, etc. 

On top of that, Mesut has strong technical know-how when it comes to test automation, CI/CD integration, building test strategies, and defining the overall lifecycle of the quality projects. He has even been a part of several programs and committees where he has participated as international speaker and even got recognized for his presentations. 

As far as his technical skills are concerned, Mesut holds all the expertise for Project & QA Management with experience on Agile (scrum framework), people management, process improvement, root cause analysis, audits & reviews, etc.  

He is an expert when it comes to handling Jira, Xray, TestLink, Test Rail and test automation technologies like Java, Python, Maven, API, Data-driven & BDD testing, Selenium, Cypress, Postman, Allure, AWS, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, etc. He has even worked on machine learning projects where he managed to work on testing part relating to classification & clustering problems in several STLC stages. 

With that being said, let us quickly jump on the interaction that he had with Rajeev and learn about his perspective on innovation in testing as well as future of QA Automation. Let’s begin! 

Rajeev: Who influenced you to get into this field? 

Mesut: I was not influenced by anyone to get into this field :), but I was influenced by some people later on. Cem Kaner is one of them. Wherever I look in software testing related topics, I see his name. He is like the father of exploratory testing. Among his quotes, my favorite is: “Pay attention to zeros. If there is a zero, someone will divide by it.” 

After I attended her keynote in Test Automation Days in Utrecht in 2019, I was super impressed by Dorothy Graham. Nowadays, there are several people trying to spread the energy around and encouraging ensemble learning. Maaret Pyhäjärvi is one of them with whom I paired in a learning course. 

That being said, apart from those names well known in the community, sometimes I am influenced by many people and try to embrace their ideas. So, in general, regardless of whoever I am talking to, I am trying to turn my radars on, thinking that I can learn or get inspired by anyone.  

Rajeev: How can a tester innovate? Do you have any specific examples? 

Mesut: A tester can innovate in several ways. Sometimes we may realize inefficiencies in the workflows being performed and can propose a new way. We can try to adapt new tools or approaches in our technology stack to ease the implementation or our deployments. Updating the code in a new way can introduce an improvement by reducing flakiness or execution time or maintenance requirement. 

So, testing is an activity which has a broad impact area. We can focus on fastening lead delivery time or finding issues as early as possible. For these purposes, there are several ways such as improving the coverage, enhancing test reliability, shifting left and collecting insights from the reported bugs. 

I have a lot of examples, but one of the most recent ones is the revision that I made in the automation framework. After I realized there was a decent duplication, I tried to implement a new way of running tests, in which the same scenarios could be executed in numerous configurations. This way, we achieved reusability and saved a lot of time and resources.   

Rajeev: According to you, what is the future of QA automation? 

Mesut: We are living in a crazy time in terms of technological growth. Maybe a few decades ago, it was easy to predict the near future, but nowadays soon after we get to know a new buzzword, sometimes it is already outdated.  

However, I guess Machine Learning is still not negligible. Automation already means utilizing machines in our processes to reduce the manual effort. So even if the methods that we are using, it will be still teaching to machines and letting them run for us. 

But what form of machines we will talk about in the future, I don't have any clue:) These days everyone is discussing Natural Language Processing algorithms which can do almost everything. The performance or the success is arguable, but it can write test scenarios, generate code, review code and solve problems. I don't be surprised if we have a totally new tool in a few months, which is way impressive. 

Rajeev: What are the ways you suggest to reduce or optimize the costs associated with software testing automation? 

Mesut: Most of the time, I realize several people or teams are trying to solve problems, which were already done previously. Let me list some keywords, and then I will explain what I mean. They are reusability, duplication, Silos, communication, teamwork. 

If we manage to provide solutions to multiple teams, they would not be losing time to solve the same problems again. This will reduce duplication. The success criterion here is to build strong communication channels. Unless a good collaboration is present in the organization, common problems cannot be figured out. 

There is one more aspect to minimize the cost, which is being close to the customers or end users. Sometimes we may automate things which do not cover anything which is done by users in production. So rather than being obsessed with numbers (i.e. number of automated test cases), it is more important to concentrate on writing effective tests.  

Rajeev: What kind of techniques do you use to manage your workload? 

Mesut: Firstly, I strongly believe in work-life balance. Previously, I was trying to complete what I was working on and not leave it unfinished at the end of the day. But recently, I just stop at the end of my work time and continue the next day. I learned that in 1 day, no one forgets what he/she was doing. This is even faster/more efficient than the former in the long term. 

On top of that, to manage the workload in my work time, I always take notes. I have a to-do list which is always open in front of me. This is not a bulk or messy document, but a structured one. I prioritize items and list dependencies. 

One of the things I would highlight is, I give it a try whenever I have a problem and investigate alternative ways, but after some time, I just ask. Sometimes there is an external issue which you are not aware, so better to ask before being stuck for too long time. 

Rajeev: What are the keys to building a great team? 

Mesut: Of course, we need strong development/analytical skills to create innovative solutions. But even if every single person in the team is super skillful, unless they are team players, there might be conflicts or alignment problems. Improving the technical background and being able to use the best tools/technologies is a key success parameter. 

But on top of that, to build a perfect team, we should provide all team members a confidence and comfort area where that say: “Yes, this is my team!” Some aspects of this ownership: 

• Trust 

• No fear to fail 

• Openness 

• Learning resources 

• Employee satisfaction 

• Support 

• Accountability 

Rajeev: How can our readers connect with you online? 

Mesut: https://twitter.com/DurukalMesut and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mesutdurukal/ 

At BugRaptors, we are working on everything that can help form a more connected digital world. And since it is testers, developers, and business analysts who can aid the revolution, stay connected with us for more such updates.  

For more information, reach us through info@bugraptors.com