Test Engineers at BearingPoint Caribbean help to improve the quality and functionality of our solutions that we develop for our government clients. Their job is crucial to leading the successful delivery of our IT projects. Gorgine Coleo is a Test Engineer for our Multi Data Exchange Solution (MDES). As a true tester, she enjoys being the first to scrutinize an application to see what works and what does not. In this series “Recruiter Talks”, our recruiter Shadee Braun talked to Gorgine to get some firsthand impressions of what it is like to work as a tester at BearingPoint Caribbean.
What does your work as a Test Engineer entail?
At BearingPoint I test the applications; as testers we are all responsible for testing the product. It’s not just about the execution, because testing involves more than just that. First I organize my work by requesting the functional descriptions of what the application should do and start looking at the changes. Secondly, I review these. In case I am missing any information, I go back to the Business Engineers or Software Architects to make adjustments. Then it is time to make a timetable and prepare the test scripts. If it is a new project, a test environment is created to run your tests. I do not create the test environments myself, but I switch with Deployment and the Business Engineers and ensure that the environment is arranged in such a way that I can do my tests. And finally, when all the tests are ok, we will deliver to the client.
What excites you most about your work?
A lot actually! I am always happy to visit clients to support them with their user application testing. As testers we look at the technicalities of the application, but the client looks at the process. When you see how the client tests, you immediately see how they use the application. It is important to think along from the client perspective and propose adjustments when back in the office.
So, understanding the process plays an important role in our work at BearingPoint Caribbean. And as a tester you have to know what the application should do. People think that anyone can be a tester because it is just clicking here and there. Sure, everyone can click, but if you do not understand the process you don’t know what you are doing. And if you click three times, and something doesn’t seem to work then maybe it should work like this. And of course, you have the test scripts that you have laid out from the functional descriptions, but you also have to be able to think logically and use common sense.
How does your work impact the client?
Our applications are used by governments to service their citizens and businesses. If we look at it from my perspective as a tester, I will say that if I do my job well, then I have ensured a high-quality product. From the clients’ point of view, if we do not test, the client will notice this immediately because the application will show errors. And you don’t want any fingers pointing in your direction. So if we do our job right, the client will be very satisfied. The impact of our work as a tester is therefore big, but our visibility is very small. As Test Engineers at BearingPoint Caribbean, our main role is behind the scenes. We continuously strive to deliver good work and make sure that our government clients can use technology and our solutions as efficiently as possible to offer adequate public services to their community.
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What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on so far?
Without any doubt our Multi Data Exchange Solution (MDES), which is our software for tax authorities and the international automatic exchange of information to help fight cross-border tax evasion. In September 2018 we had to bring four countries (Curaçao, Aruba, Greenland and Samoa) simultaneously live with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and we did it! It’s amazing that our team can service clients all over the world, even such distant countries as Samoa and Greenland. And in 2019 we brought our CRS portal live for the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, and Ghana. I was given the opportunity to travel to Ghana (loved that!) and within a short period of six weeks we managed to provide training for the Ghana Revenue Authority and over 200 key users of financial institutions and have the system ready so they could use it right away. Peru is also one of our clients in this project. It was very challenging having to build a whole new component for Country by Country (CbC) reporting in a short period of time, and in Spanish. But we succeeded here as well!
