To celebrate the relentless passion of testers, BrowserStack is honoring some of the icons in the testing space—those who push the industry forward by sharing their knowledge with the community at large through their thought leadership.
Dawid Dylowicz is a seasoned leader in software testing with over ten years of hands-on experience in helping multiple startups deliver the highest quality of products and services. He specializes in setting up and scaling quality and testing processes. He also curates Software Testing Weekly, a newsletter that makes software testing news easily accessible to everyone and is read by over 4,700 software testing professionals every week.
Tell us about your role as a Test Engineering Lead at Onfido
I lead an amazing team of five test engineers. Our vision is to enable safe, reliable, and effective software engineering faster. We develop and advocate for tools, processes, and practices that increase Onfido's identity verification service quality while simultaneously increasing the velocity of our engineering teams.
In my role, I put most of my focus on two things: helping people grow and making an impact on projects that support business goals. My team and I are currently working on mobile and web SDKs that help millions of people across the globe verify their identity and get seamless access to hundreds of services, such as Revolut.
What do you like the most about being a software tester? What inspires you?
What I like the most is how much impact you can make as a software tester.
You're constantly between the business, product, and engineering fields which enables you to influence the quality of the end product like no other role. Thanks to that, you can learn a lot about new things. And it's hard to get bored! I'm also hugely inspired by W. Edwards Deming's work and dedication to quality management.
What are some passion projects you're currently working on?
Software Testing Weekly, of course! It's been nearly three years now that I've been curating the best news on software testing and sharing them with thousands of software testers every week.
I'm thrilled and grateful to be able to help so many people around the world. It's such a great way to give back to this wonderful community. I keep being surprised by the feedback I get and the opportunities it brings to me. People clearly love it, and so do I!
What innovations/trends in the space of software development are you most excited about?
I believe that the quality of the process translates to the quality of the outcome.
I've always been interested in how testers can influence teams and processes to help prevent issues — not only to find them. Practices such as shift-left and shift-right testing, Modern Testing Principles, and the whole-team approach to quality are what I've been following for a while. And I think these trends are here to stay.
If not software testing, what would your alternate career choice be and why?
That's an interesting question! I've always liked challenging disciplines. When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a professional footballer. I played in a successful local team, and that's what I was the happiest about. But as a grown-up, I'm more interested in entrepreneurship and investing, so I'd probably choose something in this area.
What are you reading/learning right now? What made you interested in this?
Right now, I'm reading The Manager's Path book. After becoming a lead, I started looking for sources of knowledge and inspiration that would help me in my new role. A colleague of mine recommended this book to me, and it's been a solid point of reference ever since.
I keep revisiting it to see my progress and how my understanding of its concepts changes over time. Apart from that, I'm constantly staying up to date with the latest news in the industry by preparing a new issue of Software Testing Weekly every week.
What's your favorite software testing quote of all time?
"Inspection to improve quality is too late, ineffective, costly. Quality comes not from inspection, but from the improvement of the production process." — W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, 1982.
What advice would you give to those who are interested in entering the QA space?
First, learn about what it means to be a software tester. The simplest way would be watching some videos, reading blog posts, or just chatting with one. Then ask yourself if that's what you want to do. And, most importantly, why you want to do it. I saw a lot of people wanting to break into tech, lured by the high salaries and choosing software testing because "it's the easiest." But it isn't. So make sure you have the right intentions and motivation in place.
And once you do, have a look at the brilliant Quality Engineer Learning Roadmap by Blake Norrish. It'll help you understand what to learn. If I were starting now, I'd join communities such as the Ministry of Testing, where you'll likely find more advice for people like you. There are plenty of online resources to learn and practice testing, too.
I'd also recommend enrolling in one of the crowd testing services. This will help you train and get exposed to testing real apps. And maybe even earn some money!
Once you get the gist of it, you can stay up to date with the latest news, for example, by following newsletters or authors directly.
(Responses have been edited for clarity).
