Pavel Tolstoy, QA Team Lead

Ever wondered how love of computers can turn into a mission to make the world a better place? Find out from Pavel Tolstoy, QA Team Lead at Exactpro, as he shares the formula behind his successful contribution to the smooth operation of our clients' complex financial systems.

— I started working at Exactpro in Q1 2021 during Covid – a period of employment with the least human interaction in my life. Despite working various jobs as a student, as one does, I’m an IT person after all. I studied the fundamentals of information technologies for my major and have had a keen interest in computers ever since the age of 10.

Step by step, I went from a Junior QA Engineer – to the current position as a team lead. I have gained most of my professional expertise at Exactpro: from technical, programming and other software testing skills to my management and social skills.

My job is both simple and complex: as every other QA specialist, I try to make the world a better place by showing people that something they want to use in various ways has a risk of exhibiting unexpected behavior. I make them aware of this fact and its manifestations to enable them to mitigate the risks better. This touches on a key feature of QA activities – being thorough down to the tiniest detail, it is crucial for the smooth work of major financial institutions. 

Currently, I am working on banking products audit and management systems, ensuring their readiness for use in major banking infrastructures. My intent is always using automation in my work, as it saves countless hours of effort for many people. On all my projects, I’ve implemented various specialised tools to support full or partial automation at different testing stages – input data generation, data injection and data analysis, or end-to-end testing, in limited cases. 

Obviously, there are more advanced ways to verify the state of a given infrastructure – it is by checking its components, which I'm exploring more in-depth at the moment. I'm aiming at the apex of this pyramid – the possibility to apply machine learning to this process. In the case of correct implementation and configuration, the resulting model will provide the stakeholders with the most valuable insights.

Programming sure tops the list of my current interests. It is followed by reading – preferably paper books – and gaming (this hobby very likely inspired my interest). I plan to expand the list with more humanitarian or social activities, such as learning a new language or two, or going back to snowboarding.