Benjamin Ashby Email & Phone Number

Warrington, Gb

Part of a small team of developers working on a platform for nonprofits to maximise their fundraising via Facebook. Starting as the sole QA I built the testing ethos within the business and have expanded to include 4 offshore QA's who report directly to me.My role includes the following:- Built an automated test suite for the existing product using Cypress- Set up and maintained a test suite in Testrail- Incorporated Jira into the business and was appointed Jira admin for most tasks- Proficient in Google Cloud deployments & triggers- API testing via PostmanI was also part of a separate development team earlier in 2023 building a new tool to maximise potential return on ad spend for non-profits. This product was scoped, developed and delivered within 3 months.

Bristol, England, United Kingdom

- Worked in a small team of developers working on a platform for libraries to manage their patrons more effectively- Projects included multiple mobile apps across Android & iOS as well as a desktop customer dashboard- Implemented automation testing using Cypress.io- Managed deployments of code to various environments for testing- Wrote comprehensive release notes for the business

Exeter, United Kingdom

Working on multiple projects using cutting edge technologies, such as React & React Native (on mobile) as well as graphQL back end for a SaaS platform for Funeral Directors to manage their business from the first call through to post funeral care for the bereaved.Starting as the only QA member in a large team of developers. I built up a strong testing ethos within the business, ending up managing 3 QA professionals.Working in a fully agile environment, consisting of multiple scrum teams. Involved in typical agile sessions, such as Backlog Grooming, Sprint Planning sessions, post sprint Retrospectives.Liaising with the wider business to deliver release notes & to communicate production releases. I also manage feedback from external clients that is fed back to the project manager to prioritise in the backlog.Tools used:- Cypress.io- Cucumber- Jira for managing bugs and sprint tickets

Exeter, United Kingdom

Working within a team of 6 people in an Agile environment on multiple projects.Day to day work involves:-- Working to an Agile methodology, which involves daily standups.- Being proactive in sprint planning and task breakdown sessions using Jira.- Peer reviewing code commits from developers in sprints using BitBucket.- Creating automated test plans using TestComplete (JScript/Javascript).- Testing RESTful API's using Ready! API.- Querying & manipulating databases using both SQL & PostgreSQL.- Maintaining a CI flow using Jenkins & Bamboo, also using TeamCity & Octopus Deploy depending on the project.I was also involved with migrating old test repositories from SVN to Git, and helping develop a new automated framework within the team.

Exeter, United Kingdom

- Founded the entire QA function from the ground up, to managing 2 junior QA analysts.- Became a part of the 'blur Academy' to tap into the best talent from local universities. Being the first touch point of the blur ecosystem, the interns would be working closely with me throughout, and this enabled them to gain a better understanding of the platform. Two academy graduates ended up taking up key roles within the company, in DevOps & Product Management.- Explained to C-Level members the benefits of implementing automation testing, such as cost reduction, delivery time improvement and a more robust testing arsenal.- Implemented the beginning of automation testing frameworks within the company using selenium WebDriver and using both JUnit & more recently TestNG frameworks for better test suite management & reporting.- A key member of the 'Fire Team' which is assembled when a 'P1' issue is reported, so that a fast track bug fix, test & deploy action plan can be initiated to reduce the impact to the business.Other Duties - Liaising with other function heads to help deliver additional functionality through the business roadmap and new feature development.- Creating manual test plans for a multi user, dynamic online dashboard.- Responsible for post deployment regression testing for all systems.- Supporting the business through commercial and media channels.

Reading, United Kingdom

- Started as a junior tester, and quickly was promoted through to Senior Test Team lead through hard work, and my ability to manage products as well as people.- Learnt basic technical support knowledge, and was helping the operations team with OOH support, with the ability to perform remote server restarts and managing client risk with monitoring tools such as Nagios & Icinga.- I was often working with prototype devices, and on one such occasion we had a device that required a number of firmware upgrades, but with no stable tool available I worked closely with the device manufacturer and the client to produce a technical document on how to upgrade the firmware on the device, and this information was shared with the entire team, both internally, and externally with the client.Other Duties - Managing a physical device inventory and sending inventory updates to external clients.- Coordinating with developers and project managers to manage build flow importance.- Assigning testing schedules based on device priority and client requests.- Liaising with customers to deliver builds for UAT testing and managing feedback from UAT testing.- Creating detailed bug reports and chasing through fixes and validating fixed bugs.- Manually configuring device firmware & conducting firmware updates.