Topic: Contracts to Converse: Transformation from manager to modern tester

About the topic: For years I’d enviously looked through the agile window. When I got the opportunity to climb through it I was excited by the challenge. In May 2018 I took a massive leap of faith, going from managing 8 figure contracts to working in a team as a modern tester and agile coach. Still on the roller coaster journey, I want to share with others my failures, challenges, successes and insights.

Role transformation is challenging, especially when the goals and examples aren’t always consistent and clear. With the broad goal being transforming to new ways of working, I’ve looked to industry thought leaders for guidance and inspiration. It has brought a mountain of skills to digest and learn alongside the day job of helping the team to deliver software. Early on I identified humility and patience being important behaviours, but hasn’t always been enough. The journey started well but a succession of challenges was around the corner; some obvious, but most complex. Frequent adaptation as well as resilience has helped me to navigate the storms. Despite ups and downs the journey has been hugely rewarding.

I am still on the journey and despite suffering from impostor syndrome, I am performing well and continue to improve. I now have time to help lead our Testing Practice, teach out skills, as well as develop various communities at John Lewis. I want to share my and my team’s story to help people in similar positions to learn from my experiences.

About the speaker: Andy is a Quality Engineer and agile coach at John Lewis. Andy currently helps deliver iOS mobile apps as a tester and aspiring dev. Andy also helps to lead the Testing Practice and coach others in new skills and ways of working.
Andy has worked in IT for 20 years in hands on and leadership roles, as well as managing 3rd parties. He is very happy being back as part of a delivery team as part of John Lewis’ move to an engineering culture. He has worked in both start up and corporate IT cultures across a range of contexts. He is also the co-founder of SQUID Meetup which runs quarterly in London
Andy is a father, Tai Chi student and continuous learner from London.