From wanting to be a commercial airline pilot to finding a love for Testing, Lauren reflects on her journey into tech, what she enjoys about her role and what it’s like to work as a Senior Analyst within the Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) profession at the Home Office.
I had just graduated from university having studied Avionic Systems with dreams of becoming a commercial airline pilot, but the Covid pandemic hit, and I had to reevaluate my career plans. My time at university was also my first introduction to the tech world, where I learnt some basics in programming (mainly C++) and was also exposed to lots of different types of technology, from flight simulators to Visual Studio. Needing a new career path, I decided to use what knowledge of tech I had to my advantage and completed a 10-week C# SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) course with a digital career change agency, learning the basics of C# programming language as well as the principles of Testing.
Having fallen in love with Testing, I started looking for a role with an organisation that would support my development. Fortunately for me a graduate role came up at the Home Office for a Test Analyst, g and I’ve not looked back since. From the day I started I was given plenty of training opportunities and hands on project experience to further my knowledge in QAT, which gave me the skills I needed to apply for a permanent position at the Home Office and land the role I have now as a Senior QAT Analyst.
Working on impactful projects that keep the public safe
As someone who’s quite logical, I really enjoy Testing as it’s often black and white, something either passes or fails. I find it very satisfying when I run a bunch of tests, and they all come back green (meaning they all pass!) as it means that everyone who worked on that specific piece of functionality did everything perfectly and it works. It’s also great to hear from users that the product you have worked has helped them to do their jobs successfully and played a small part in helping to keep the public safe.
I’ve been fortunate to work on some very impactful projects during my time at the Home Office, and I’m currently assigned to the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) programme in the Police and Public Protection Technology portfolio. CAID is a national database of Child Sexual Abuse Material that allows members of the UK police force to analyse material to help them identify and safeguard victims. My day-to-day input on this programme varies depending on where we currently are in a project’s lifecycle, but I essentially test the database system to ensure any new features or functions works as expected, as well as making sure that the existing functionality still works. Carrying out these tests allows me to ensure that the database is ready for use and can be deployed to all UK police forces. I also provide demos of upcoming new functionalities to stakeholders and users in the policing community to show them a preview of what’s to come, as well as gather any suggestions to further improve the database.
Another interesting project that I was recently involved in was a product called the Uniform Intelligence Hub, which provides Victim Identification Officers with a database of school uniforms. This was a really rewarding project to work on. The purpose of the product is to allow Victim Identification Officers to identify unknown victims via the uniform they’re wearing and enable them to access a database with the contact details for the school. I executed accessibility testing on the product as well as led User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with users, both in person and virtually.
My role in the UAT was incredibly interesting as I got to meet some of the Victim ID officers and see how they used the product in their workflow. They also raised some good suggestions on some of the functionality, which fed into changes being implemented in the next release. The product has been used successfully and there is ongoing work to make further improvements, including adding more schools to the database and developing a portal for schools to upload pictures of their school uniforms and logos to help ensure the database is as up to date as possible.
A welcoming environment with countless opportunities
My time so far at the Home Office has been really rewarding, and I’ve taken advantage of all the different training opportunities available to upskill myself. I recently completed the training for the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) Technical Test Analyst and have also successfully completed the ISTQB Advanced Test Analyst course. I also have access to online learning platforms such as O’Reilly as well as organised ‘Lunch & Learn’ sessions where I can join colleagues from across the QAT profession to discuss various tech topics.
I also love that the Home Office continually strives to be at the forefront of technology, always looking to use the latest in digital tools and AI. Currently, I use JIRA as our main test management tool and recently integrated that into the whole project lifecycle by training the business analysts and product managers to use JIRA for their requirements too, helping to improve the overall workflow and making collaboration easier and more effective.
One thing that I have also found really rewarding at the Home Office is the opportunity to shadow colleagues. You’ll be surprised how welcoming people are to give you an insight into their role, so don’t be afraid to ask around. I’ve found this to be beneficial in helping me to better understand the work my colleagues and how I could adapt my own ways of working in order to help each other work better.
