T.E.S.T interview | 9
“It is still a very young
industry compared to
software development.
We have really only been
visible for the last 15 years
and it’s only in the last 10
years that the powers-
that-be have really sat
up and taken notice and
testing has gone from
something which is nice to
have to being recognised
as a critical part of the
business. With the current
economic meltdown, it is
more than ever all about
beating the competitor
and getting your product
to market quicker and
with higher quality. It’s
all about survival.”
application lead to her becoming a formulations on proteins and DNA
‘champion user’ and from there it was – she redefined the software release
a logical step to become a fully fledged structure where the company had four
software tester and seven years releases a year and introduced testing
ago she became a user acceptance phases all the way through in place of
(UA) tester at what had by this time the existing structure which saw just
become a contractor to the airline. one test process at the very end of
“Generally I used to be one of the the schedule.
first users of the software,” explains
McCowan-Wright. “What I was doing The motor trade
was basically real-world testing of the Two and a half years ago Sally
early releases of the application in McCowan-Wright joined BCA as a
my everyday job. It was mainly desk- systems tester. “BCA has a significant
top applications, some on IBM green amount of systems,” she says. “We act
screen-type systems, typically running as the middleman between vendors
database and ticketing applications.” and buyers, but we look after all the
financial and inventory details and
Drugability testing with thousands of vehicles all around
Fully user accepted Sally left the airline contractor having the country and in Europe there is a
Sally McCowan-Wright is a system built up a large amount of testing lot of data to manage. And all has to
tester in the company’s IT Services experience in this specialised area. take into account a range of languages
Core Systems team in Farnham, Surrey. She moved on to a pharmaceuticals and legislation in all the countries
She started out working in IT for a software solutions provider as a involved.”
major national bank. As an end user quality assurance analyst, replacing a McCowan-Wright works very closely
she was often less than satisfied with software tester in their team. with the software development team
the performance of the applications In this highly technical biochemical on the projects they are running. “I
she had at her disposal. When she field – the company produced data- work on two to three projects at a
moved on to work for a national processing applications to assess time, estimating, planning, physically
airline, her expertise in a particular the effectiveness of various drug running the tests, managing and
T.E.S.T | March 09 March 09 | T.E.S.T
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