A Day in the Life of a Test Architect
Although Lee Hawkins stumbled into testing—in 1999 after migrating from the UK to Australia amid a tech boom time—he has since become a passionate member of the worldwide testing community and currently holds the title of principal test architect. So, what does that really mean? A test architect at Dell Software provides technical leadership and strategic direction for testing, and Lee describes what that means in his day-to-day work. His position involves advocacy for great new testing ideas gleaned from the wider testing community, mentoring new testers, and coaching testing teams in using context-appropriate approaches to their work. This leadership role extends beyond Dell, too, so a typical day might include sharing knowledge with a meetup group, blogging on a testing topic, or helping a new speaker with a conference proposal. Join Lee to discover that testing is far from being a dead-end career and learn how you can become an active participant in your testing community.
The principal test architect for Dell Software, based in Melbourne, Australia, Lee Hawkins is responsible for testing direction and strategy across the group. In the IT industry since 1996 in both development and testing roles, Lee’s testing career really started in 2007 after attending Rapid Software Testing with Michael Bolton. Lee is the cofounder of the TEAM meetup group in Melbourne, a co-organizer of the Australian Testing Days conference, and a frequent speaker at international testing conferences. He blogs on testing at Rockin’ And Testing All Over The World. When not testing, Lee is an avid follower of the UK rock band, Status Quo; hence his Twitter handle @therockertester.