Co-op Funeralcare is the leading funeral director in the UK, with over 1,000 funeral homes. However, as an unregulated industry, practices vary, and processes still rely heavily on paper based systems. Errors can easily be made, and time is wasted on repetitive data entry.I was part of an ever growing team to create a digital solution (Guardian), for the end-to-end service that Co-op Funeralcare provide. Our software was to allow more time for staff to help communities, decrease errors by introducing audits, and use resources more efficiently.Guardian freed up four hours a week for funeral directors, increased the average amount of funerals per day from two to three, and helped implement a plan to reduce fleet numbers by sharing vehicles.I led the QA team on Guardian, all whilst using agile methodologies and regular release cycles. I was able to run regular sessions such as Speed Iteration and Root, Cause, Analysis. I was the administrator for the Jira application for the whole of Co-op FuneralCare. I would regularly deputise for the Scrum Master.

At Vaultex I worked on a number of projects, such as a Web Ordering Project in which customers were able to place orders. I utilised SQL to modify and search for test data or to confirm test script outcomes. A web application that allowed customers to create custom MI reports, I had to test the application and the accuracy of the reports. While at Vaultex I also carried out IVR testing for a new replacement system that allowed customer to place orders and complete minor day-to-day activities via the automated platform.I had produce daily reports such as - end of day, end of cycle, end of project, test approach. We had a number of testers on the team and I would ensure the least experienced testers, such as graduates, were following correct procedure and would answer any questions. It was also my responsibility to review the bugs before raising on our bug tracking tool (TFS), taking the appropriate actions while doing so.I would have regular meetings with the Test Manager to give updates on the project, issues we were having or potential blockers in the future and giving my insight on how to resolve them.

At Transactis I became the Test Lead on a number of projects, I would be involved in creating the test approach, writing and executing test scripts, creating reports and regression packs. Some of the packs would be automated in Selenium or SOAP UI, while others were manual. I’d regularly discuss issues that had been discovered while testing and proceed to manage them in JIra. I was also a Jira admin while in this role.I would regularly give updates on the projects I was working on internally and externally speaking directly to suppliers.I received nomations for internal awards for the work I had produced and won.I'm a very keen tester and I've gained as much insight and experience as possible while taking the responsibility of creating knowledge transfer with other members in the business who looked after other products to reduce single point of failures.I presented my passion for testing by ensuring that other members of the business on projects took the correct test approach and were proceeding in a correct manner from a testing perspective.While working at Transactis I've mentored a graduate performing weekly 1-2-1's, having meetings to discuss development and any issues and taking the appropriate actions.In this role I took and passed a BCS/ISTQB Software Testing foundation course.

In this role I was part of a team that created documents using a development tool called “Dialogue”. This software uses design and coding aspects that allowed me to create pieces of work that would print output and e-mails for clients, with variables that were decided on by the data being inputted. This allowed me to improve my skill sets of testing and workflows while my development skills improved as Dialogue uses its own language while using reference files.Some languages the reference files were built with are Perl, Groovy, XML and Java. While working under pressure and strict deadlines I was able to produce key pieces of work to a high standard. Some of this work was new letter and email suites, while other pieces of work was maintaining and editing existing work. My roles in my job involved fixing defects and generating reports for the client and for internal use. My eye for detail was crucial while Dialogue used a version system it didn’t highlight any differences, but rather overwritten whatever had been put in previously.Testing was carried out by unit testing my own work and then System Testing the application, I would also look over other members of the team work to ensure it had covered the requirements. I would regularly speak to the client directly as we gathered their business requirements and turned them into technical documentation and estimations in order to pass to other members of the team.

This was a placement year during my university course.