Lessons Learned
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The first month of working at John Deere came with a lot of learning which
meant I was a little slower at doing things than other people who'd already been working there. A big one was writing
test plans for AI enabled movement on heavy machinery. This was done in MS Excel and
if you've ever worked in Excel, you'd know that it boasts some amazing quality of life features and customization, but there
was one thing that really interupted my workflow: having to take my hand off the keyboard to use the mouse to change my position
in the text because the arrow keys in Excel just move your cell. I continued to work despite the terrible (very minor) inconviences
attributed to this. That is until I realized we were allowed to create tools for our jobs.
The goal was to create an application with the process of testing in mind. I took inspiration from the good parts of Excel,
Trello, and my limited experience testing.
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The application boasted the following features:
- Import existing test plans made in Excel
- Export to the Excel format
- Read, parse, and sort requirement documents
- Track test results and defects
- Full functionality without moving the mouse
After a few iterations I used this as my primary way of writing and executing test plans. A challenge I encountered was learning how to create a GUI for the application as I'd never done something like that before. Fortunately, I had professionals in UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) surrounding my cubicle, along with a very supportive team lead to test and give feedback on development.
Having primarily worked on school and personal projects, I developed a deep attachment to the quality and outcomes of my work. No one told me, however, that when it comes to workplace projects, the level of personal investment needs to be managed differently. I took great pride in this project and truly enjoyed the development process. However, since it belonged to the company, they ultimately decided to set it aside in favor of a commercial solution.
Although this project ended up being replaced, the experience was invaluable. I learned a lot about UI/UX design and the testing process. My work also caught the eye of management, which led to being assigned other projects such as MQTT Script Generation and Automated Test Result Reporting.