Inside the Engine: Ben Bates, Director of Quality Assurance
July 31, 2019
TrueMotion’s QA team makes sure all of our products are polished before they’re shared with the world. It knows the ins and outs of our products and features and tests all product changes. This team finds bugs, documents them, and fixes them. So what’s it like to work on this quality team?
To find out, we sat down with Ben Bates, our Director of QA.
Join our QA team. Check out open positions here.
What does your team do?
The QA team owns the testing and release for all of TrueMotion’s products across mobile and back-end. We’re responsible for making sure that TrueMotion produces and delivers the best products possible to our customers and their drivers. We’re always collaborating across teams to understand what we’re testing and what needs to be delivered — and to make sure nothing breaks during the process.
What technologies does your team use?
There are a lot! We work on the mobile side, so we use iOS and Android. On the back-end, we work with Python to build automation and tooling. For mobile testing, we use Kotlin and Espresso on Android, and Swift and XCUITest on iOS for UI automation. We also use Postman, Jira, Git, Jenkins, and Docker. We have 80 to 90 test phones that we use to test out various features.
What’s the QA process like at TrueMotion?
It’s important for QA to be involved in every step of the software development lifecycle. We need to make sure we have enough information about what we’re trying to build so that we can properly test the product. We also need to think about how our product and processes might be affected by any changes. This is why we work closely with almost every team at TrueMotion and with our insurance partners.
What teams do you work with at TrueMotion?
QA is embedded into each engineering team at TrueMotion. We work with developers to understand what product changes have been made and what features are in the pipeline. We also work with the product team, the data science team, and the UX team.
What’s the most exciting project you’ve done at TrueMotion?
I was very involved with Progressive’s Snapshot program. It was really exciting to see TrueMotion’s first product get out the door and into a customer’s hands. I worked really closely with Progressive and flew to their office for the Snapshot mobile launch. It’s very cool to see how much the program has grown since I’ve been at TrueMotion!
What’s your team’s culture?
We’re very collaborative. We’re always working with other teams to make sure we know what needs to be done. We’re friendly and open, and help each other when help’s needed.
Does your team ever work on projects beyond their daily projects?
QA hosts its own hackathon. QA also participates in all of the engineering teams’ hackathons because it provides a different perspective. We also do fun team building events. Our last event was Boda Borg and dinner.
What do you like most about working on TrueMotion’s QA team?
It’s rewarding to release a product that you’re proud of that also makes your company look awesome. I like that we play a major role in producing the best products for customers and our end-users.
What’s the interview process like for QA candidates?
Great question! You’ll have a phone screen with one of our team leads. If it goes well, we’ll ask you to come into the office to do a semi-technical challenge. You’ll also meet with the whole QA team and with people from the product, engineering, front-end, and mobile teams.
30 seconds in the fast lane…
What’s your favorite TrueMotion tradition?
The team outings!
You’re going for a test drive. What car do you take for a spin?
Tesla’s Roadster. It goes 0 to 60 in 1.9 seconds!
Demos or donuts?
I want to say demos, but probably donuts.
You can shadow one innovator for a day. Who do you pick?
Ah, I don’t know. There are too many good options!
Want to join TrueMotion? Check out open positions here.
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