Tony Bruce

I am a professional, experienced and constantly learning manual tester with an awareness of automation. I have a strong background in support and a demonstrable track record of delivering customer satisfaction for leading blue chip companies and a proven ability to work in large and small teams and have also lead small project teams.
I believe in a risk based adaptable approach with the user experience in mind and working together as a focused team to achieve the target. I spend a large amount of my personal time on increasing my skill set and keeping up to date with new tools and emerging testing trends.
My previous company Corebridge Ltd has stopped trading in the UK. I was fortunate that there was a contract available with Ernst & Young LLP who I have worked with previously and so was able to keep working.

I'm a Tester who's driven by curiosity, a thirst to learn and a need to investigate.

I use online-forums, blogs, and books to increase my testing knowledge and awareness.

I participate in testing experiments such as the flashmobtesting experiment running on www.softwaretestingclub.com.

I'm currently working on my knowledge of coding principles and working on my own scripting usage.

If you haven't come across AutoIt I suggest you have a look: www.autoitscript.com

I believe the team and it's people make a successful outcome not the method or best practices.

I believe in test cases/stories more then test scripts but it is dependant on the enviroment requirements.

I have come a long way have and have a long way to go.

I am still learning and developing so what I believe can and will change.

Currently sporadically blogging at: http://www.sqablogs.com/tonybruce/

Place booked for the Agile Specifications, BDD and Testing eXchange. Should be interesting.

Tony Bruce’s Specialties:

Software Testing techniques, analytical skills, knowledge of SDLCs, the ability to communicate effectively, a common sense approach and the ability to see the bigger picture.
Currently working with AutoIt to create tools to assist with tests and improve my scripting as well as always looking at increasing my proficiency with Exploratory Testing.

Tony Bruce’s Experience

Test Analyst

The Children's Society

(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

November 2009 — Present (1 month)
Test Analyst - Contract

Ernst & Young

(Partnership; Financial Services industry)

June 2009 — October 2009 (5 months)

•Requirements gathering by liaising with users, reviewing product manuals, quick reference guides, subject matter experts and meeting with stakeholders.
•Creation of UAT test cases highlighting any areas where performance issues would be apparent.
•Organisation of UAT UK and Ireland wide, liaising with dept. heads in other to organise resources and time. Discussing the situation with the users and what would be required from them.
•Quick fire risk analysis outlining risks to the infrastructure and the business, issues such as SQL queries over the GWAN, discussing possibly solutions such as WAN optimisation controllers.
•Analysing user experience of various systems and applications in order to provide information on the state pre and post migration. This involves speaking and working with users, talking to relevant departments such as DBAs, Networks, etc.
•Creating, configuring and maintaining VMWare images.
•Reporting back regularly to stakeholders on any relevant performance issues. Discussing any issues with Project Managers, Business Owners, users etc.
•Meeting with different departments to discuss the project and what would be required from them in order to complete the migration of data and applications successfully.
•Working directly with third party vendors, reviewing documentation to ensure they have everything required for successful installations, migrations. Liaised with them to discuss their testing coverage and approach.
Lead Test Engineer

Corebridge

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

December 2008 — June 2009 (7 months)

•Hired as the first tester at Corebridge Ltd to develop the Test Department and Test Team.
•Created a line of dialogue with other areas of the company such as Sales, Marketing and Support. This enabled me to gain a better understanding of the software as well as ensure I was able to gain knowledge of what features were highlighted in sales pitches and what sort of support issues were raised. This information could then be used for test case creation.
•Gathering of requirements from information sources such as product manuals, communication with colleagues, the company website and marketing material.
•Creation of automated scripts with AutoIT, one example are scripts written to make a set number of logged phone calls of random length through Microsoft Office Communicator. This was done to test the Corebridge OCS Gateway Server (COGS) which is Remote Call Control Gateway software.
•Exploratory testing was utilised in order to gain a better understanding of the software as well as locate any errors which would require further investigation.
Software Tester

Capita Education Services

(Partnership; Accounting industry)

October 2007 — November 2008 (1 year 2 months)

•My First Capita project was resourced for three testers, however, due to resource constraints I was left assigned as sole tester. Test completion was still on time and on budget, I was able to do this by establishing a close working relationship with Development, the Product Manager and stake holders and highlighting any major defects, improvements and barriers to test completion.
The Test Team Leader and Test Manager both felt confident in assigning me as sole tester and due to the strength of my performance my probation period was cut short. As it was my first project with this orginisation I asked for feedback from the project team and received positive feedback.
•Production of test scripts, test environments, test data preparation, and test case execution for various projects including an e-Invoicing/e-commerce project with the Financial Management System team.
•Operating under the V-Model SDLC.
2nd/3rd Line Support

Ernst & Young

(Partnership; 10,001 or more employees; EY; Accounting industry)

October 2002 — October 2007 (5 years 1 month)

•Received a EY Best of the Best award for work in a Workgroup to investigate tools and methods of supplying a self help tool for the E&Y user community, this tool is currently in use.
•Working to and keeping strict SLAs, improving the over all perception of support in the Luton office, which was my ‘home’ office.
•Supporting WinXP, MS Office 2003, various accounting bespoke applications, Lotus Notes.
•Remote support of other offices as well us users onsite at client sites.
•Installation, configuration, support of Blackberry devices, GPRS cards and PDAs, HP Printers and scanners, telephony equipment, Xerox printers/MFDs.
•Creation of printer queues on Win2000 servers via Terminal Services Client.
•Member of the Early System Adoption virtual team – Discussing any upcoming projects, software rollouts, hardware upgrades, etc and the possible impact on support.
Software Tester

Ernst & Young

(Partnership; Accounting industry)

May 2006 — July 2007 (1 year 3 months)

•Received a EY Best of the Best award for performance on a project to create a content management platform utilising Documentum to allow transfer of documents in various formats to India so work could be completed. Working closely with the third party vendor, stake holders and Network teams.
•Testing of Ernst & Young's Global Accounting & Auditing Information Tool (E&Y GAAIT), BlackBerry Desktop Manager Software, Symantec Anti-Virus Definitions, MS HotFixes, bespoke applications, new departmental images. Preparation of any required test data and test VM Images.
•Lead on testing of departmental images, including the Migration Tool and Driver builds. Splitting the tests between testers, prioritisation of workload and errors, escalating issues to relevant departments and stake holders, monitoring defects in TrackRecord.
Software Tester

Ernst & Young

(Partnership; 10,001 or more employees; EY; Accounting industry)

June 2004 — December 2004 (7 months)

•Testing of the new WinXP loadsets, which includes the Migration Tool, Driver builds and escalating any issues to Development and stakeholders.
•Acting as a point of contact for the Development Hand-Over.
•Often given the responsibility for leading the testing for loadsets.
•Testing of Marimba Castanet Channels.
•Testing of manual install applications.
•Creation and amendments of documentation such as install scripts and test scripts.
•Training and mentoring of new testers.
•Monitoring and escalation of any issues with in TrackRecord (Defect Logging System).
•Preperation of machines, desktop and laptops for testing.
•Scripts were developed by the QARun Technical Expert. I took on the responsibility to implement these scripts with suitable modifications where applicable. My role required knowledge of automated testing methodologies.
•Ensuring the test scripts and install scripts used by the Testing team were constantly updated.
•Operated under the Waterfall Model SDLC.
1st and 2nd Level Support (contract)

WCI

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

October 2001 — July 2002 (10 months)
1st and 2nd Level Support (contract)

HP

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; HPQ; Information Technology and Services industry)

November 2000 — August 2001 (10 months)
Service Desk

CSC Australia

(Public Company; Information Technology and Services industry)

1998 — 2000 (2 years )
2nd/3rd Line Service Desk.

CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation)

(Information Technology and Services industry)

1998 — 2000 (2 years )
HelpDesk

NZI Insurance

(Information Technology and Services industry)

1997 — 1999 (2 years )

Tony Bruce’s Education

ISEB

Certificate , ISEB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing Certification , 2008 — 2008
Skills Matter
TAFE

PC & Network Support.

Additional Information

Tony Bruce’s Websites:

SQA Forums

Tony Bruce’s Groups:

Software Testing - ISTQB/ISEB
Ubuntu Users ( 10.000+ members ) Official Group
Global Testing Professional (1000 Plus now)
European Test Consultants
Software Testing and Quality Assurance
Scrum Practitioners
Software Testing & Quality Assurance
Test strategy and test management
Contractors Direct
Senior Testing Professionals
Quality Assurance Discussion Group
SQAforums
Agile
QA & Testing Group
The Flag and Bell IT Networking Group
Software Testing in Financial Services
Software Test & Performance Group
Agile Enthusiast
Agile Testing
QAGuild Network
Software and Systems Test Analysts and Managers
Agile Testing - Next Generation Testing
Open Source Testing Tools
Agile & Scrum UK
Test Management Forum
Selenium User Group
Open Source .NET UK
AutoIt Users Group
INVESTMENT BANKING TECHNOLOGY - LONDON
UK Contract QA and Testing Forum
UK Permanent and Contract Test Managers and Test Leads
E-Recruitment Quality Assurance Jobs & Resumes
Software Quality Assurance Leadership Networking Group (Leads, Managers, Directors, etc.)
Netbook Experience Group
Manual & Peformance Testing Professional
Testing Revolution
Social-development.org - a call for ideas
linux on Acer Aspire One
ING employment services
Innovate Testing
IT Contract Jobs @ Steria
PeopleCo Professional Network - Software Testing
Web Application non functional testing
Exploratory Testing
TESTING & QA FREELANCERS - BENELUX
Cambridgeshire Testing Club
The Testing Group
Self-promotion
Misc courses
ET Related courses