Davide Messia
ABOUT ME:
Hello, my name is Davide Messia.
I discovered testing in 2007 and it has been love at first sight ever since.
In fact, not only do I study it constantly, but I also promote it both at the company where I work, sharing interesting books and articles with my team, and outside of work, organising meetings on various aspects of testing and inviting experts from every sector, from automation to security.
In my professional career, I have held various roles as a tester, test analyst and test manager, up to my current role as test team leader, where I help my colleagues with coaching and mentoring.
I am applying to join the AST board to try to help the community face the new challenges we face every day, both with my experience and my enthusiasm
WHY QUALITY? In 2 paragraphs give us an overview of your philosophy on Quality and how you approach testing in support of achieving quality outcomes… Please provide (non-confidential) real world examples:
My philosophy on quality is:
‘our competitors are just a click away’ and we can only offer a quality product if we continuously evolve.
I apply the concept of continuous improvement
both to myself, by studying and attending many tech-related meetups,
and to my colleagues, by sharing the new things I have learned and encouraging them to apply them.
Furthermore, where possible, I try to assign projects with different approaches to colleagues. I assign agile projects to colleagues who are used to working in waterfall and vice versa.
With this approach, I have managed to transform critical colleagues who were unmotivated into top colleagues that the company can rely on.
This board role will require 10 - 20 hours per month of often self driven activities and the ideal candidate is someone who is willing to own an initiative and drive it through to completion... Is this something you are willing to commit to, and in your most honest moment, what will keep you motivated when the work gets hard and progress feels slow?
Yes.
Working extra hours is something I'm used to. Helping people has always been in my DNA. Collaborating and actively contributing to spreading quality assurance and testing with the best community of testers will keep me motivated.
What's one thing AST is doing right now that we should stop doing immediately, even if it's popular? And what's one bold experiment we should try, even if it might fail spectacularly?
As a bold experiment, offer the opportunity to participate in the cast even if only online, and for those who pay, also provide the YouTube link where they can follow it even after the fact.
What is your history with AST? Describe why you are interested in serving on the AST Board and what personal / professional strengths make you an ideal board member for the organization?
Follow Up: Are there any particular initiatives or areas you are especially interested in driving / leading?
I would like it to be written that I contributed to spreading the culture of testing and quality.
I am not sure what impact I will be able to make. Despite my many years of experience, I know little about AST, but I am certainly committed to putting all my enthusiasm and energy into it.
You're on a board committee with members from Japan, Brazil, Nigeria, Germany, and the US. The group is stuck on a decision because cultural communication styles are clashing and creating misunderstandings. What is your strategy for facilitating breakthrough and building genuine consensus?
Follow-up: Provide an example of how you've successfully worked across significant cultural or professional differences.
1- Create a path that allows us to gain in-depth knowledge of AI and brings out the human aspect in its use.
2- AI is just a speculative bubble. We need to understand the new direction academic communities are taking and intercept the new possible trend now.
3- Currently, in many companies, the budget for software testing is only 30% of the budget allocated to the development team. We need to create a path to bring testing on par with development.