Work Term Update-January 2016

Development Environment Setup

My work term began with setting up my development environment. This work term I worked both on the passport web application and the commercial mobile deposit (CMD) mobile application. It was a nice challenge setting up my development environment for CMD. CMD consists of a server and a client. The server is written in Java and the client is written in angular JS.

Story Planning

During the month of January I also participated in Story Planning for the next release. It was very interesting starting a coop term at the begining of a release instead of coming in during the middle of the release. I really gained an appreciation for how much planning goes into the release. We created the stories and then sized them using story points.

Work Term Update-August 2015

Resolving Performance issues

For the first part of the month of August I worked closely with a developer to investigate and resolve a performance issue with one of our segments. Using MBean data we narrowed down the problem and the developer was able to fix it. I then ran additional tests to verify that the problem had been resolved.

Image analytics Performance issue

I spent the last fer weeks of my coop term trying to reproduce an issue that a few of our customers were having. I learned a lot about jetty and the different configurations. I also adapted our script to send in Canadian items instead of just American.

NCR asked me to return for my final two coop terms in the winter and spring of 2016 and I accepted! I'm looking forward to working at NCR again.

Work Term Update-July 2015

Running and Analyzing Performance Tests

Throughout the month of July I ran different performance tests on the various segments we have. I compared these results to the previous release and investigated the differences. I discovered some issues and began working with a developer to pinpoint the problem. This work will continue through August. I also began writing a report summarizing all the results of the tests.

Work Term Update - June 2015

June started off with some major excitement! I got married and took a honeymoon in Costa Rica! Then it was back to work where I had many different roles throughout the month.

Sales Server

I was put in charge of the sales server for a week. It was an interesting and very stressful experience. I have a lot of respect for the person who regularly keeps the sales server up and running. I learned how to debug issues quickly and also how a complex system is setup compared to our test environments.

Performance Testing Scripts

In the month of June I also worked on adjusting the performance testing scripts so that they would work in our environment. I learned a lot about how JMeter works and how to resolve issues with scripts faster.

Regression

I also executed a lot of test cases during our regular regression cycle. I really enjoy regression testing and I was happy to be able to help out when needed.

July's focus will mainly be on performance testing, and I am really looking forward to learning about debugging performance issues.

Work Term Update-May 2015

May was a month where I moved between teams a lot. I mainly switched between CxP testing and Performance testing. Here is what I did this month:

Performance Testing

I started running the performance tests for the different segments of the product. I learned a lot about the different features of JMeter. I also started increasing my knowledge of databases. I am getting more and more comfortable with them. I spent a short amount of time trying to fix one of the scripts that was no longer working but I didn't have much time to dedicate to it so I will have to continue working on it in June. 

CxP Testing

I was asked to help test the second factor authentication that had undergone some major changes this quarter. I really enjoy testing so I was happy to help out. I found CxP very interesting because it was a part of the product I have never really tested thoroughly before. I created test cases and documented them using HP Quality Center and I was asked to perform some demos as a review before we could sign off and say the feature was done. All in all it was a really good learning experience.

These two tasks took up all of my time in May. I'm looking forward to being a part of the regression test team in June and working more on the performance testing.

Work Term Update-April 2015

This summer I am working at NCR again. This time I am doing performance testing as well as some regular testing. I started my work term two weeks early so that I could meet with the coop student from the previous semester (who was just finishing up his work term) and learn how performance testing works from him. I was only working for two weeks in April, but here is what I accomplished.

Set Up Computer

I spent the first week of my work term setting up my computer. Unfortunately there was a delay with the disks for installing software on my work computer so it took a very long time to get going. 

Research for new Sales Server

The sales team has been having some issues with their current server and were looking for an upgrade. I was assigned the task of researching our options for a new sales server. I was not very familiar with setting up servers so I began researching some of our options as well as reading through our documentation to figure out what we needed as a minimum starting point.

Performance Testing Training

The previous coop student taught me how to restart the performance system, run the tests and gave me some basics of what to look for once the results of the test are in. It was a lot of information to absorb but I took lots of notes since I knew his term was coming to an end and I wouldn't be able to ask him questions. He taught me how to use JMeter and gave me a run down of how our scripts work.

Work Term Update-December 2014

I had one major task through the month of December (my last month of this coop term!) and that was regression testing. I was assigned over 300 test cases to execute which ranged in areas from Driver Verification testing to French testing to Administration testing. I really enjoy testing and it was nice to be challenged with so many test cases to execute in a limited amount of time. 

My final task before I left was to entertain my co-workers at the Christmas Party. All the coop students got together and we re-wrote the 12 days of Christmas as the 12 weeks of coop! We had a violin and a piano and everything! It was excellent if I do say so myself

That's it for this coop term. I was offered a position at NCR for my next coop term, which I accepted! I'm looking forward to returning and continuing to advance my skills.