PIN-UP.TECH is the main direction of PIN-UP Global and develops software for the iGaming industry. Automated quality control here started being implemented three years ago. This allowed them to work more efficiently and quickly.
When assembling the teams for this mission, the management analysed the current business needs, looked into the plans, calculated the number of specialists required for this, and started looking for them. Today, PIN-UP.TECH has three QA Automation teams, and they are still recruiting people.
Technical specialists in large businesses are often so focused on their current tasks that they sincerely believe they have nothing to say about their work. In fact, the daily look at the monitor reveals constant challenges, the search for co-workers, and the desire to not only do their job but also to bring something new and useful to it.
Yaroslav Hamretskyi, the Head of QA in PIN-UP.TECH, told us about the internal workings of such tech teams, what skills and qualities are valued among specialists, and how it helps QA Automation teams in complicated cases.
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PIN-UP.TECH started the process of automating quality control in 2021, when they decided to form a functional automation team. That is, each new automation task was performed by a specialist who was free at the time. But later they developed a new, more efficient system: a specialist is assigned to a specific project and performs automation tasks within that project. Currently, the QA Automation teams are engaged not only in automation but also in load testing and testing support services.
Right now, the three QA Automation teams have about 20 specialists who are exclusively assigned to automation (automation engineer). And there are about 15 more specialists who work with automation and manual testing (general).
The QA general position can be occupied by a specialist with a junior level in automation and at least a middle level in manual testing. And automation engineer positions are already recruiting specialists from middle-level to tech lead. That is, the level of their competence depends on the position. In addition, some manual testers have moved to automation as part of PIN-UP.
PIN-UP.TECH told about an interesting case of building an infrastructure for load testing.
«We created a universal and scalable tool that is now used by everyone at PIN-UP Global. We also developed a clearly defined load testing policy, — explains Yaroslav Hamretskyi, Head of QA. — The most interesting thing is that this case has formed a professional guild around this process: there is a group of people who are experts in load testing”.
He adds that this is exactly the second type of task that the automation team solves functionally. The specialist disconnects from the usual automation and switches to load testing. Employees are interested in such a scheme of work because they change the context of work, switch from one task to another, and it helps them to remain in good shape. This approach also saves costs for the business, as there is no need to hire special experts for load testing.
Another interesting working case is the creation of a tool for manual testing. It is called Sandbox and works in the field of testing based on the Swiss knife principle. The need for it was driven by architectural features and the need for one team to use the functionality of another team’s service. To develop it, the experts analysed the routine actions (pre-conditions) during manual testing and found those that are most often repeated. Automated scripts were written for all these repetitive actions. The tool significantly relieved the team and reduced the percentage of routine tasks.
PIN-UP.TECH uses Sandbox for functional testing of new features. If necessary, the team of specialists can describe any scenario, and it will appear in the Sandbox. To put it simply, if there is already one described pre-condition, it becomes available to all others.
«If we talk about the portrait of a tester, — says Yaroslav Hamretskyi, — first of all, it is a specialist who is interested in the process and understands what he is doing. That is, when testing, they know why this functionality was developed, and do not mindlessly click on buttons. Second, our ideal candidate has well-developed communication skills and can quickly change the context. They concentrate on the tasks they are performing and are not distracted while working».
For a match with the team, candidates — both automators and manual testers — are selected based on the following criteria:
«Each interview is unique, — says Yaroslav Hamretskyi. — Each candidate requires a different approach. We need to understand how a person thinks, how they look for ways to solve problems. This allows us to determine whether the specialist will be able to quickly understand the processes and perform tasks at the right level. Then, once this is clarified, the real interview begins».
According to him, the development stacks within a particular area overlap by about 70–80%. Therefore, it is quite easy to review the hard skills and understand how quickly a person adapts. There are two automation stacks — Python and TypeScript. But the general approach at PIN-UP.TECH remains the same for the entire automation scopes
Among the undesirable traits of candidates are passivity and toxicity. Such people destroy the team spirit and negatively affect the productivity of colleagues, in other words, they consume a lot of energy and effort. «It’s very difficult to move forward with such people, especially when your team is facing difficult challenges», — explains the Head of QA.
More about vacancies at PIN-UP.TECH.
One of the most difficult and force majeure cases for PIN-UP.TECH occurred during the billing migration. Usually, developers know all the points that need to be tested before handing over the task to the QA department. But this time it happened differently, because it is sometimes impossible to take into account all the nuances due to the different conditions in which testing takes place.
«Our specialist managed to check the bug-fix in the service at the stage when everything was on fire and “it was needed by yesterday”. Her Go programming skills and the ingenuity that characterizes our team helped her do this, — says Yaroslav. — My colleague quickly found her way around and wrote her own scripts to test the service in this language».
If the errors hadn’t been fixed and tested in time, events would have developed according to one of two scenarios. And each of them is negative for business:
«This particular case was indicative of the fact that we once again realized that the most valuable people for us are those who are not afraid to learn new things, are flexible and thirsty for knowledge», — Yaroslav concludes.
For the development of specialists, PIN-UP provides for the assessment of the level of expertise and specialized training. There is also a mentoring system that allows to quickly find answers to questions.
«We have two types of mentoring. The first is adaptation: when a person just joins the team, they are assigned a mentor who brings them up to speed, tells them about the project, domain, and processes, adds Head of QA Yaroslav Hamretskyi. — The second is when a specialist needs to improve some skills or move from one position to another, for example, from manual to general».
The development of a QA Automation specialist at PIN-UP.TECH is based on a performance review (PR). Together with the person, we identify areas of interest: what new tasks would be interesting to take on and what the business needs are. Then, based on the results of the PR, goals are set: they determine what expertise needs to be «polished» for this purpose, as well as the expected result.
Also, if a specialist feels that they have a knowledge gap, they can contact the Learning & Development department to get the necessary course. The expenses for training and attending specialized conferences are reimbursed.
PIN-UP.TECH is mostly interested in specialists with actual experience. In some cases, people who have just completed training courses are considered. At the same time, the need for specialists is often covered by internal transitions — the team has employees who started as manual testers and grew to become QA managers or tech leads.
To make it convenient for specialists, PIN-UP.TECH provides them with a variety of tools for comfort and efficient work: from Notion to more complex applications.
«You just need to come with a request and explain why you need this particular tool», — says Yaroslav Hamretskyi.
For example, the Sentry service is used for customer performance. It is used to monitor the client performance of the PIN-UP website around the world.
Most specialists prefer JetBrains products in their daily code-writing tasks. Among the tools for developing autotests, they choose PyCharm IDE, and when it comes to artificial intelligence, they use MS Copilot. GitLab Repository and CI/CD are used to store and maintain code, as well as to run tests. For load testing, they use Locust along with AWS, Sandbox, and Terraform.
In addition to computers and peripherals in the form of a second monitor, they also provide employees’ workplaces with everything they need to work comfortably, even if they work remotely. During the blackouts, all specialists who needed it received EcoFlow, and this had a good impact on the teams’ productivity, as there were almost no gaps in workflows.
Effective automated quality control at PIN-UP Global is the result of high-quality recruitment, training, and development. Thanks to this approach, it is possible to quickly and efficiently solve problems and increase the expertise of both each employee individually and all QA Automation teams.
PIN-UP.TECH always has vacancies that may be of interest to professionals. To join the team, choose a position of interest among the vacancies on the website and send your CV.