Procrastinate > Liberate?

[MiniBlueDragon]

Well thanks in part to you guys on this forum I have a couple of small muses and looking into one big muse at the moment.

As I'm one to pre-plan everything I do I have my "D" and am working on my "E" at the moment. "L" is my current issue and my "A" will happen once my muse/s are running manually.

In my current role I'm in a bit of a position... I work as a Software Tester for a Futures Trading firm in London. I love the company and love the people I work with. I like my wage and I love my 2x per year bonuses, incentives and shares.
BUT I hate the work I have to do... It's boring monotonous and lacking vision.

Under normal circumstance it's easy enough to see myself moving away from the office environment as I'm "the" QA guy here and the work I do they are more than impressed with. The problem is that they require me to be hands-on and within talking distance of the Dev team. They also require me to be testing our software using the same hardware set-ups that our traders have. I also need to be testing in the same environment which means a direct CAT6 onto our network... That means I need to be in the office.

This is a hard situation as I've ditched "the perfect" job once before and I spent years and years in pure regret and had to start my career from scratch.

What are your views please guys?

Thanks in advance!

[searstower]

The problem is that they require me to be hands-on and within talking distance of the Dev team.

Would Nextel Push to Talk walkie-talkie phones count as within talking distance?

I've used MSN Instant Messenging Remote Assistance to take control of people's computers across the country and be 'hand on' all the time. It's also got a whiteboard sharing feature so you and anyone else with a client can both draw and see each others' drawings.

They also require me to be testing our software using the same hardware set-ups that our traders have.

So you have a computer/s at the office that has the hardware setup they want you to use? Use GoToMyPC or Microsoft Remote Desktop (it's built into Windows XP/2000) to connect to that machine. That machine will be doing the processing so you will be testing exactly the hardware that they want you to test.

I also need to be testing in the same environment which means a direct CAT6 onto our network... That means I need to be in the office.

Ok, this is a bit trickier but you should still be able to work around it with a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, and your IT department's help.

Basically the IT department sets up a VPN appliance in their server room and uses a single tunnel rather than a split tunnel. Then anyone who connects to the VPN from a client from outside their network gets a local IP address and uses the same CAT6 network connection as everyone else for the testing.

From a technical standpoint, I don't see any of these as huge barriers. They may require some changes and some convincing, but you've got a good hand if they love your work already.

Hey, maybe you can sell it to them as their best tester going above and beyond into and even more complicated environment to test even more scenarios and find even more bugs before the clients find them!

Good luck!
Rebecca

[MiniBlueDragon]

Originally Posted by searstower

Would Nextel Push to Talk walkie-talkie phones count as within talking distance?

I think the issue is that as it's a trading firm there's the potential to lose a LOT of money in a short amount of time. There are occasions when a bug comes-up in our live environment and it's big enough to warrant an immediate fix. This goes straight to Dev and within 5 mins I have a new build to test and clear for use in the field.

In that scenario a phone conversation won't be good enough as I need to go to their screen and physically watch what they're doing both on the machine and at their desk (I had a scenario where one of the traders had the software minimising every time he moved the mouse forward and I couldn't reproduce it until I watched him at his desk... His left-mouse button was touching his security card reader just as it reached the "minimise" button - Something that may have taken days/weeks to diagnose and sort had I not been there.

Originally Posted by searstower

So you have a computer/s at the office that has the hardware setup they want you to use? Use GoToMyPC or Microsoft Remote Desktop (it's built into Windows XP/2000) to connect to that machine. That machine will be doing the processing so you will be testing exactly the hardware that they want you to test.

Yeah I use LogMeIn quite often but I don't know the logistics of using remote software to log onto a specific machine in a network. *shrug*

Originally Posted by searstower

Ok, this is a bit trickier but you should still be able to work around it with a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, and your IT department's help.

Basically the IT department sets up a VPN appliance in their server room and uses a single tunnel rather than a split tunnel. Then anyone who connects to the VPN from a client from outside their network gets a local IP address and uses the same CAT6 network connection as everyone else for the testing.[/QUOTE]

VPN Testing is already on my "To Do" list as we have external traders who will eventually be using the software so this is a good arguement indeed, thanks!

Originally Posted by searstower

From a technical standpoint, I don't see any of these as huge barriers. They may require some changes and some convincing, but you've got a good hand if they love your work already.

I think my best bet is to play it cool and keep working on my muse until a month or two's time when it comes to review/bonus time and I see how much I'm really valued.

Originally Posted by searstower

Hey, maybe you can sell it to them as their best tester going above and beyond into and even more complicated environment to test even more scenarios and find even more bugs before the clients find them!

Good luck!
Rebecca

This is another great arguement... Potentially I could sell the fact that not only am I covering all testing I do normally in the office I'm also able to test the VPN connection, security functions and access, different hardware setups and general web traffic. I also have a 24Mb (actual!) line at home so bandwidth won't be a problem.

*starts scheming*

Thanks Rebecca, very much appreciated indeed!

[Drewkerr]

rebecca did such a good job answering all your questions.

One thing about phsyically seeing someone computer (like you stated with the buy moving his mouse)

Setup remote access for all the machines. This is done in lots of large companies. My buddy works at IBM and they do all software and troubleshooting remotley, they only phsyically go to a machine if it is a hardware issue like broker printer, keys falling off the keyboard.

If you can remote access every maching that will give you the freedom of place and then you just need to block off time the business is operating.