Automotive and Internal Projects Through The Eyes of a Tesener

Introduction

Small things make perfection, but perfection is not small. This is even more true in the field of electric car testing.

Ondřej Tylšar, who has been working at Tesena for 5 years, has a lot of experience in testing electric cars. In his 12-year testing career, he has worked his way through various roles from tester to test analyst to test manager.

We have interviewed Ondra and from our interview, we bring you a short article about the projects he has worked on, the tools he has used in his work and, last but not least the successes he has experienced on the projects.

What were the last projects you worked on?

I have had two major projects in the last while. One was for a client in the automotive industry where I had the opportunity to be part of a small team that was testing software for electric vehicles. I was in charge of managing the testing processes. The other project I was involved with was our internal Tesena New Talents or TNT program.

What was interesting about these projects?

Both projects were interesting in different ways. The first one was good because I was able to try working with an electric car. The second project was fun again because I had the opportunity to lead a smaller team of more junior people.

Let's look at the client project first. What tools did you use for testing?

Generally, it was a virtual system, but we tested using Robot Framework and Python.

What specifically was tested on the project?

Thermal management of a control unit in an electric car. In short, we tested everything that can and cannot overheat in the vehicle, be it the wiring, the cabin, and other affected components of the whole vehicle.

What did you enjoy about it?

For grandmothers and other lay people, the undeniable advantage was that I showed them the car and simply said, "This is what we're testing, Grandma." Exaggeration aside, it was a challenge overall, the project was one of the more technically complicated and demanding ones.

But this wasn't your first experience with an automotive project. You had worked on another project for three years before that. What successes did you experience there?

That's true, but those projects were far apart. On the previous automotive project, we tested the SAP CRM integration and surrounding pro-integrated systems such as the integration platform, car dealer system, marketing module, e-shop, and DWH. I guess the biggest achievement of my team can be considered the almost complete automation of the scope of the project, which was about 1200 test scenarios.

Why did you choose projects in the automotive field?

"Chaos is his comfort zone", that's what one of my colleagues said about me. I guess I can absorb the confusion and instability that generally exists in the automotive industry and try not to pass it on to the team.

Do you remember your first project at Tesena?

My first project was exceptionally in a bank, where I worked with my long-time colleagues Radek Šikola and Daniel Dražan. Together we had the opportunity to create a new front-end for loan management.

What tools did you work with on the projects?

Mostly with Mouth and JIRA. :)

You also ran the TNT Academy. Were there any challenges for you there?

Overall, I really enjoy being involved in our TNT (Tesena New Talents program). But this time we had an all-female representation and it was interesting to watch the ladies grow before our eyes. The most gratifying thing is that they are now all allocated to the project. As far as challenges go, there are plenty of them for me at TNT. It's a great responsibility but also a joy. Responsibility in that just as we, Tesena, go out on a limb with the people we choose, they go out on the same limb with us. From this then comes a lot of challenges on both sides and last but not least a lot of joy when everything succeeds.

If you could change one thing about your work, what would it be?

I probably wouldn't necessarily need to change anything.

Learning culture is important for Tesena. What are you learning now?

I am currently preparing for the Professional Scrum Master certification. I also plan to do the ISTQB automotive tester and then eventually teach that, which is tied to the training we have.

Last question: what is your favourite thing about Tesena?

The family atmosphere and the constant effort to improve.