Overcoming software QA burnout with surfing

Life changes and challenges as the future emerges. Fear and anxiety pose risks to business owners, employees and our families due to the uncertainty of the future. With the rapid development of technology with artificial intelligence and cloud, the world of Metaverse will become important in the near future. Life should be lived in happiness, leading a healthy lifestyle, good relationships and productively fulfilling our responsibilities in the company we work for.

Overcoming software QA burnout with surfing

Programming is in demand all over the world, but we need a break from the stress of work. Therefore, practicing a sport like surfing helps an employee think better and provides the input needed by the company or project team.

Testing tools and teams

One of our responsibilities in the technology industry is to write code to automate Desktop, Web, Mobile, Visual Regression, API, Database, Security, Performance and Command Line Interface using DevOps methods adopting Agile best practices using version control such as Github and Circle , for continuous integration and deployment pipeline in a container environment with Docker and Google Cloud for cloud technology after the software lifecycle. These technologies are needed by technology companies such as Cyber ​​​​Security Firms, Meta (Facebook), Google and Amazon to easily detect issues, edge cases and regression errors during development stages in development and test environments because it is important to have certainty that the product quality meets the requirements.

Leading a QA team of 1 or more people is also an important responsibility because it covers a greater testing footprint and allows for any number of features to be tested in each project sprint. Peer review of test cases, automation scripts and test plans is a required practice in the organization. This will make the testing activities understandable and enable you to obtain highly reliable work results. Apart from the team, a good relationship with the members will take the project to the next level as the employees will do their best to complete the task as soon as possible. Working to analyze your team based on status by receiving reports listing open bugs and metrics daily and weekly will determine what improvements we need to work on to ensure our team’s productivity reaches its full potential. Once the application is tested in integration tests, functional tests, non-functional tests and passes the acceptance testing phases according to the exit criteria, the Beta version of the software can be made publicly available.

This will also build trust in the product and convince managers and stakeholders that the team is effectively carrying out its tasks. This will lead to more investment in the project if proper ROI company analysis is applied. In my experience with QA testing, not all projects can be done remotely as there are devices and information of a highly confidential nature, e.g. the latest Oculus Quest, that can only be tested in a specific country or area. Additionally, independent testing is more effective than a developer testing on their own program because QA is more interested in testing the software based on test cases and project requirements.

Work on test automation

Being a software test engineer is never an easy job. To fulfill its role, the encoder must be flexible to any required language of the project. We have many languages ​​that we need to know such as C++, Shell Script, Java, C#, JavaScript, Php and Golang and it all depends on the needs of the project. These languages ​​have their own libraries for developing methods to run tests using various tools such as Selenium, appium, request, yargs, smtp, locust, fuzzer and mysql which will also work on various platforms such as Unix, Windows, Linux and Mac . To deliver features based on project requirements and to be able to complete tasks in each sprint, the project team takes on a lot of responsibility. Only highly skilled software professionals will be able to do this job effectively as it requires a lot of experience and practice to make a very good contribution to the software project. Project estimates and deadlines force everyone on the team to work beyond their limits to ensure the project is delivered on time. The demand for each sprint in a project is so high that sometimes an employee gets burned out and has to think and think through problems to find a solution to solve the task.

Surfing in the Philippines

Surfing, in turn, is a sport that connects people with nature. In the Philippines, Taylor Knox and Evan Slater, professional American surfers, along with one of the famous surf photographers, John Callahan, went to the island of Siargao to surf and take surfing photos in the famous Cloud 9 back in 1992. They helped make the place famous around the world, opening accommodation, bars, restaurants, shops, bike rentals and surfing lessons that provided income and work for local residents. Siargao is now known as one of the best tourist destinations in Asia. There are many types of surfers, but they can be the athletic surfer who joins surfing competitions and the free surfer who works from home and surfs only in his free time to experience the inexplicable happiness that the ocean provides. Surfing is a very interesting sport that can be a good way to spend time with family members and socialize. Learning to surf will also help you better understand nature and care for the waters. Typically, coastal residents promote beach cleanups and educate residents on how to manage the beach and wildlife for the next generation. Moreover, surfing keeps our mind and body fit and healthy as it will contribute to success in our lives. Studies have shown that surfing helps mentally healthy people survive the challenges of everyday life.

Beat burnout with surfing

The trend is for IT professionals to work remotely from their homes or visit the office at least twice a week, this is also called a hybrid office setup. Many specialists also work in the office. People can surf in their free time. Programming software in QA, performing manual tests and practicing sports such as surfing is essential because it will make our lives healthier and happier. Because we are stressed at work, under the pressure of project deadlines and complex tasks, we always need time to meditate and think so that we can solve design problems effectively. By surfing, we can get away from our computers and maintain clarity before returning to the problem at hand. Mother nature has given us a quick and easy way to deal with problems by meditating in the sea and watching the beautiful sun. This helps us think better and solve problems faster when we return to work. Thanks to this, we do not have to take long holidays.

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