Before I get to the details of the M-Files QA life, I will quickly define QA activities on a general level since QA duties may be somewhat unfamiliar for many software engineering and computer science students.

Even though I roughly understood the details of the M-Files QA-position for which I was applying, the actual day-to-day work still ended up surprising me with its versatility.

So, what do the Quality Assurance (QA) experts do? For most people, QA initially brings software testing to mind. Software testing is an important part of the QA process. However, it’s only one tool in achieving QA’s true goals.

QA’s true goal is to make sure the overall quality of the software is good. For example, this can be achieved by verifying that the software works correctly and it’s easy to use. QA can also assess the quality of the software by verifying that the documentation of the software is appropriate and up to date. In addition, the QA may sometimes comment on the development practices of any given feature and make suggestions as to how to improve those practices. Based on the QA expert’s findings, quality of the software and or software processes can then be finally improved.

At the beginning of my M-Files career, I familiarized myself with M-Files as a product and as a company, together with my tutor and supervisor during the first couple of weeks. The first week was busy, but important. For a QA engineer, it’s especially crucial to gather as much knowledge as possible about the product and the processes in order to give constructive feedback for the developers and development teams.

At M-Files, my first testing task was related to a mobile user story. During the investigation. I verified that certain UI modifications worked properly. Even though the UI modifications were quite simple, there was still surprisingly much to test.

First, I checked simple things like what happens when you click here or there in the UI. After that I moved to more complex tests that included testing of the devices with different screen sizes, offline mode, and languages with right-to-left direction writing.

It required some creativity to come up with the interesting new test cases. However, as a QA-engineer, it is always delightful to discover new ways to break programs. After testing, I gave two improvement ideas related to the UI modifications, one of which got implemented and will be visible for the M-Files mobile users during the opening of the mobile application in the future.

Since then, I’ve done lots of testing related to numerous M-Files features, and I truly mean a lot. At M-Files, QA testers have lots of control over things they want to work on. That means, most of the time, you can select the QA case you want to investigate. Because, I personally wanted an extra challenge, I have been changing a test subject often and mostly just picked a case randomly that has been in the task queue for longest time period. For example, I have performed the following manual testing activities during my first months:

• Verified that the M-Files new email client works as intended and led feature acceptance testing related to the feature that signed off to production.
• Verified that improvements to M-Files’ external file connectors worked as advertised.
• Checked that new features in the M-Files’ Google Chrome plugin worked like a charm.
• Investigated how well a new API call worked and performed.
• Checked that a new default registry value could be applied safely for the customers and rolled back quickly if problems rose.

In addition to manual testing, I have been working on a test automation related to the M-Files web client. On the automation side, I have mainly converted manual test cases into automated ones based on user stories. However, I have also occasionally programmed infrastructural changes that have enabled new types of tests.

Even though the conversion of the test cases may sound simple, programming has been quite challenging and interesting due to multiple small quirks that need to be considered during the implementation of the automation test cases. Also, due to excellent review practices and code quality, programmers at M-Files must always stay sharp to get their own merge requests over the finish line.

Overall working at M-Files has been great. My colleagues are very talented and always helpful. When I ask help from a colleague, I’m often surprised by their excellent technical knowledge. It feels always great to be part of a talented team. Working has also been delightfully flexible. I began my M-Files career as a full-time trainee at the Tampere (Finland) office. However, in autumn I changed to part time due to my ongoing university studies at LUT-university. I also moved to M-Files’ Lappeenranta office during that time. Transition to new work mode was surprisingly graceful. In addition, things like M-Files’ sport days, restaurant trips, and other employee benefits have been great.

Even though there are many great sides to M-Files, my personal favorite is probably the ubiquitous and constant development of the company. Like every organization, M-Files has its own strengths and challenges. The unique thing in M-Files compared to most of the other organizations is that M-Files truly and magically converts challenges to strengths one by one. This is tangibly visible as a constant flow of emails that contain information about awesome new improvements that are currently happening. It is very intriguing to be part of the company that boldly scales new heights.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hi! My name is Roni and I have been working as QA trainee for M-Files since May 2021. I’m about to finalize my studies in LUT and will soon begin writing my thesis for M-Files related to test automation.

ABOUT THE IGNITE TRAINING PROGRAM:

Each year, M-Files opens positions within the Ignite training program to welcome students in various departments. As an intern, you’ll work within an M-Files department matched to your field of studies and will have the opportunity to learn from the very best—working with cutting edge tech, engineering, and business practices.

Throughout the internship you can expect to become involved in numerous tasks, carrying deliverables providing you the opportunity to shine. M-Files is growing at a rapid pace, and in joining us, you’d do the same.

We believe in the importance of networking and learning experiences so expect a range of different events from “lunch and learn sessions” to team hangouts. You will certainly have an eventful and fun time with us!

What is in it for you?

– Be part of a diverse and welcoming team

– Each trainee will get a named “buddy” from colleagues

– A professional work environment and modern tools

– Get mentorship from talented people

– Opportunities to network with an international team & other trainees across the company

– Have access to training materials such as LinkedIn learning platform with 10 000+ courses.

– Great start to your professional career!

– Have fun! 😊

To apply go to https://apply.workable.com/m-files/?lng=en