Meet Daniel Blumberg, lead Software QA Engineer at PartnerHero.
Technically he’s been working in software testing since he graduated in Computer Science from Idaho State University in 2013 but his experience with software testing dates back to much earlier, as a kid playing video games.
“I remember getting a Nintendo 64 for Christmas when I was 6. I loved seeing how technology could create these interactive experiences. I also particularly enjoyed seeing how I could break them; get behind walls and areas I wasn’t supposed to, testing the draw distance for textures, trying random things just to see what happened. Before I had a concept of what it was, I was already doing QA testing and enjoying seeing how things are put together, and how they could unravel.”
A born problem solver, Daniel knew from a young age that he wanted to work in computer science. In school he learned about the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and knew that within the software development process, his talent and passion most aligned with testing.
Before finding his place at PartnerHero in 2018, Daniel was an SQA Engineer at other companies. Through these roles, he had a chance to hone the concepts he learned in school and develop his skill with various tools and testing procedures. Daniel also got exposure with various team structures, and learned how to communicate and coordinate with diverse roles and skillsets to make a meaningful product. Daniel draws on this knowledge and experience in his current role to provide structure and confidence to growing products and codebases
At PartnerHero we run SQA teams for our partners like Udemy and Cirrus Insights as well as in-house for our own software releases of Aprikot.io and Beacon. In the two years since Daniel joined the company, SQA has gone from being a small project to a central part of our growth and software development process.
“Just like a car or a person, code requires regular maintenance. Without this organized testing structure, code would be unreliable. Not having reliable checkups can cause issues to be released with your code. On the other hand, having regular testing can ensure peace of mind and confidence in the product you are creating.”
In the realm of software testing services that we offer partners, there are four broad services: Manual Testing, Automated Testing, User Acceptance Testing and Localization Testing.
For Manual Testing, our engineers work as discerning user advocates in order to maximize overall user experience. For example, making sure your unit tested code works in a staging environment or running end to end tests manually to ensure everything feels smooth.
Within Automated Testing, we can help set up an automated testing environment or just help expand your code coverage. We use industry standard testing automation tools and frameworks to provide scheduled regression tests, perform visual/snapshot testing, maintain test suites, refactor tests, monitor test failures and maximize code coverage by implementing new test scripts for feature updates and bug fixes.
Once our partners are ready to let users see their app, we work alongside them through the UAT process to make sure their target demographic is satisfied with the product before it hits production. Finally, our worldwide staffing model means that we have talented individuals in various time zones that can make sure your translations make sense or make sure that dynamic UI elements stay consistent across regional settings.
As our world becomes more automated, Daniel sees the role of software testing growing and becoming more important. “As we continue to replace manual labor with automated tools in our everyday lives, the need for these tools to be in pristine working order is more and more paramount. As certain jobs become mostly or entirely automated, having people that can oversee, program, and maintain these products becomes increasingly important because the risk associated with having code issues becomes greater and greater.”