Ryan Haffner

Background

About Ryan Haffner

I've been in Software QA for nearly 20 years. In my experience, doing well here is pretty simple. You just put other people's needs above your own. This works well in most areas of life, but in software test, I believe the most important manifestation of this principle is to put yourself in the end-user's place. That means understanding how and why your product is used & running those same scenarios as test plans. Because of this, I believe automation is not always the right platform for complete testing. Automation is great when used properly, but tends to take out human error. Sometimes this is bad as you often need human error to find and catch bugs. This can be tough on bean counters, but in my experience, you will always get a better product when you add in the "human element". I gravitate toward groups that reward defect detection (even two days before a planned release). Good software QA means finding all the bugs you can, whenever you can.