A month in QA

During the evening of 24th March, I’ve decided to join Fedora Project’s QA Team.
At first impact, I was really unsure. Actually, I really love testing new pieces of software, but I’ve always been a lone-wolf while building my computing experience. Since my daily job in the field of accountancy tires me because there are lots of deadlines, I thought that this new task could have driven me crazy. But… After my first month… I’m really glad I applied for it! Might this interest you too? So, try to read the following paragraphs and join us!

Felling as a part of a community
What I really enjoy, is that every folk works as a part of a big project. Feeling that the next Fedora will contain at least a simple 0,00000001% of my efforts, is a pleasant satisfaction. I’ve also had the chance to chat with lots of experts on IRC, including adamw and satellit, for example. Although they are power users and experienced testers, they also are always nice, they helped me a lot and provided lots of information. Yes! Learning new things and contributing to Fedora at the same time, is an activity worth doing.

Use of English
While reading, chatting and mailing, I’ve now also the chance to exercise my use of English. Since it’s not perfect, I hardly have the chance to improve it here in Italy. Writing with people which share common interests with me, but live around the world, sounds like a great enhancement for my skills.

QA Activity
I’ve filled some bug reports on Bugzilla in order to get in touch with maintainers when things didn’t seem to work properly. I’ve learned a lot during this activity: honestly, it’s the first time I’ve got the chance to see how a big IT Project is organized. The goal is, however, always the same: testers, developers and engineers contribute together in order to improve Fedora’s quality. Getting involved in TestDays, following cases for the various composes and giving karmas for new updates are other tasks I’ve enjoyed and played with. Every bit offers the chance to perform some nice exploratory testing, uncovers details, highlights strange behaviors and, overall, makes me learn something new!

If you are thinking about joining the Project… Stop wondering and JUST DO IT! I promise it will be an interesting and attracting experience!