From Junior Tester to Test Lead: A Journey of Automation, Performance, and Team Management

1. Preface – The author reflects on the guidance received from industry seniors and introduces his own experiences as a post‑90s tester who is about to leave his current company after nearly two years as a test lead in an innovation team.

2. Passion – Early interest in software testing began in university, leading to hands‑on practice with white‑box and black‑box testing, and later self‑learning of performance and automation basics.

3. Naïveté – Initial work involved manual iOS testing, exposing challenges such as device upgrades and lack of automation, which motivated the author to explore automation across mobile, web, desktop, and backend.

4. Clarity – Determined to pursue automation, the author self‑studied Selenium, Appium, and chose Python for scripting, mastering patterns like page‑object, keyword‑driven, and data‑driven testing. He also discovered RobotFramework (RF) as an easy‑to‑use keyword‑driven framework suitable for non‑programmers.

5. Advancement – After being entrusted with the product’s automation effort, the author built an RF + Jenkins pipeline, conducted the first internal framework training, and emphasized learning tools to solve concrete problems rather than for tool mastery alone.

6. Elevation – When the previous test lead left, the author stepped into the lead role, reorganized testing into end‑to‑end responsibilities per product component, introduced RF, Docker, AnyProxy, Locust, and improved test efficiency and product quality, reducing bug counts and test cycles.

7. Consolidation – He established three quality assurance pillars (product, delivery, operation), implemented structured processes such as requirement and test‑case reviews, version management, and defect management, standardizing bug reporting and prioritization to align testing focus with customer usage.

8. Reflections and Future – The author stresses the importance of continuous learning, sharing knowledge through regular trainings, and evolving from merely finding bugs to preventing them, culminating in his promotion to senior engineer after years of disciplined effort.