Ankit Laddha, Developer in Berlin, Germany
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Ankit Laddha

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Ankit is a testing advocate with 10+ years of experience who has streamlined and set up testing and agile processes as well as test automation frameworks (web/mobile/api/performance). He is a great mentor and coach with experience helping team members align on quality definitions. Industry-wise, he has mostly worked in banking, insurance, and retail, but he brings a user-focused, end-to-end perspective to any project.

Portfolio

NDA [Banking Industry]
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kotlin, Cypress, Appium, Docker, Git, Datadog...
Toptal
JavaScript, Recruiting, Recruitment, Interviewing, Onboarding, Selenium...
PayerSciences LLC
JavaScript, Cypress, Quality Assurance (QA), QA Automation...

Experience

  • Analysis - 7 years
  • Test Automation - 7 years
  • Selenium WebDriver - 6 years
  • Appium - 6 years
  • Testing Strategy - 6 years
  • Agile Coaching - 6 years
  • API Testing - 6 years
  • Continuous Integration (CI) - 5 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Skype, Google, Git, Slack, Jira, IntelliJ IDEA, MacOS

The most amazing...

...thing I've done is coach various teams in shift-left testing, fill BA absence in the project, and develop test automation frameworks.

Work Experience

Lead Quality Engineer

2018 - PRESENT
NDA [Banking Industry]
  • Improved and delivered a quality banking product from functional and non-functional usability aspects. Introduced various improvements in the team's agile and quality processes, including story kick-off and dev-box testing.
  • Mentored and coached team members in various aspects of testing, including test strategy definition, exploratory testing, and test automation framework implementation.
  • Advised and helped teams implement a proper testing pyramid in the front and back ends.
  • Set up and improved the QA recruitment process and created and aligned different problem statements for interviews, home assignment reviews, and face-to-face interviews.
  • Created cross-platform (Android and iOS) automated test suites using Appium, running against various test environments and remotely on Sauce Labs.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kotlin, Cypress, Appium, Docker, Git, Datadog, ELK (Elastic Stack), Spring Boot, QA Automation, CI/CD Pipelines, Automation, Automated Testing, WebdriverIO, Test Automation Frameworks, Selenium, Automation Tools, TestRail, Agile, Complex Problem Solving, Analytical Thinking, E2E Testing

Screening Developer

2022 - 2022
Toptal
  • Was an integral part of Toptal's screening team for the QA role (manual and automation).
  • Had the highest interviewer rating given by the candidates joining the Toptal network.
  • Suggested and implemented various process improvements, questionnaires, and practices to the team for a better candidate interview experience.
  • Came up with various interview questions and improvements for the team to have a more productive and better screening process.
Technologies: JavaScript, Recruiting, Recruitment, Interviewing, Onboarding, Selenium, TestRail

Automation Expert

2020 - 2020
PayerSciences LLC
  • Worked with clients to set up Cypress UI automation for a React-based web application from scratch. Used Azure Cloud to run automated tests as part of CI.
  • Logged and tracked bugs in Jira. Did exploratory testing for the web app. Came up with a strategy on what and how to cover automation.
  • Oversaw daily test execution and removed test flakiness, if any.
Technologies: JavaScript, Cypress, Quality Assurance (QA), QA Automation, Test Automation Frameworks, Selenium, Automation Tools, TestRail, Analytical Thinking

Senior Quality Analyst

2016 - 2018
Thoughtworks India
  • Envisioned and put various relevant test agile/automation practices into place.
  • Implemented UI tests using gauge-java, API tests using REST Assured, and response time and performance tests using Gatling.
  • Conducted various exploratory testing and bug finding session in the team.
  • Planned, supervised, and coordinated various testing strategies/practices in the team, e.g., defect triage, client communication, QA effort estimation, and sprint showcases.
  • Led the team in analyzing the stories and writing acceptance criteria in the absence of a business analyst.
  • Drove various QA initiatives within the QA community of a company, e.g., Lunch and Learn every Thursday.
  • Served as a committee member of VodQA (QA-driven free conference).
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), GoLand, Java, REST APIs, Gauges, Selenium WebDriver, Git, Docker, GoCD, CI/CD Pipelines, Automation, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Automated Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Selenium, Cucumber, TestRail, Agile, Analytical Thinking, E2E Testing, WordPress

Test Automation Lead

2014 - 2016
Paul Mason Consulting
  • Led a team of four to five testers to successfully deliver the quality product/application.
  • Evaluated, tracked, reported, and improved testing-related artifacts.
  • Communicated and coordinated effectively for various testing activities while at the client's location (Swindon, UK) for six months.
  • Developed multiple automation frameworks from scratch, per project needs.
  • Created various templates/pamphlets showcasing the features of the automation framework.
  • Created various sales decks showcasing the ROI and introducing automation to the project.
Technologies: REST APIs, Selenium WebDriver, Testing, Mobile, Automation, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Automated Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Selenium, Cucumber, Analytical Thinking, E2E Testing

Senior Engineer

2012 - 2014
IGate
  • Demonstrated excellent skills in various phases/activities of testing, e.g., FRD review, test scenario and test case creation, smoke testing, and functional testing.
  • Made informed decisions for various testing activities and gave various signoffs during the testing and release phases.
  • Worked closely with all stakeholders and raised potential problems at an early stage by analyzing and validating requirements early in SDLC.
  • Learned and drove the complete defect lifecycle management.
  • Implemented and showcased POC for test automation of the web application using QTP/UFT. Evaluated manual vs. automation effort estimation, which led to acquiring a small-scale project from the client.
Technologies: Waterfall Development, Selenium WebDriver, UFT, Web, Analytical Thinking, WordPress

Experience

Sample Test Automation Frameworks | E2E, API Automation

I created a starter test automation framework for UI and API testing. UI automation is done using Selenium WebDriver and various dependency libraries to make writing tests easy and maintainable. API automation is done using REST Assured.

Banking Mobile App | Mobile UI, API Automation

I served as a QA coach with multiple teams at the same time to define, refine, and onboard engineers in various testing activities/strategies. I also developed and improved the mobile UI automation framework built upon Appium running on cloud farms. The framework can now run against multiple environments and is highly extensible using various runtime configurations. Tests are also using static and dynamic data/setup with the help of REST API calls, shortening the user journey.

Retail Website | Web UI Automation

I set up and guided a team of automation testers to help the client automate the backlog of automation for their retail website. I also developed a complete web UI automation framework from scratch, supporting various utilities. The framework logs important events, runs against various environments, generates HTML reports, and supports execution in multiple browsers. With the automation framework in place, my team was able to help the client run the whole regression suite multiple times before a Thanksgiving and Christmas release.

Internal Client Web Application | Web UI Automation, API

I envisioned various testing strategies for this project to reduce the regression suite execution time from 3 hours to 15 minutes. This involved running tests in parallel, categorizing the tests, using tests dependency, and creating various user states using APIs.

Education

2008 - 2012

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Charotar Institute of Technology - India

Certifications

AUGUST 2020 - PRESENT

Applitools Cross Browser Hackathon - Silver Winner

Applitools Hackathon

DECEMBER 2019 - PRESENT

Visual Testing Hackathon - Silver Winner

Applitools Hackathon

Skills

Libraries/APIs

REST APIs, Selenium WebDriver

Tools

Jira, Git, TestRail, Figma, WebdriverIO, Cucumber, IntelliJ IDEA, Slack, Skype, ELK (Elastic Stack), GoLand, Android Studio, Xcode, HP QuickTest Professional (QTP)

Languages

JavaScript, Java, Kotlin, C#

Frameworks

Appium, Selenium, Spring Boot, Cypress, Ranorex, Spring 5

Paradigms

Manual Testing, Scrum, Test Automation, Agile Software Development, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Automation, Automated Testing, Agile, E2E Testing, Page Object Model (POM), Testing, Waterfall Development

Storage

PostgreSQL, Datadog, MySQL

Platforms

Docker, Mobile, Web, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Android, iOS, WordPress, MacOS

Other

Quality Assurance (QA), Manual QA, QA Testing, Interviewing, Interviews, Recruiting, API Testing, Agile Coaching, Analysis, Recruitment, Testing Strategy, QA Test Plan Management, Software QA, Test Reporting, Defect Management, QA Automation, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Test Automation Frameworks, Automation Tools, Complex Problem Solving, Analytical Thinking, SDET, Code Review, Performance Testing, Exploratory Testing, CI/CD Pipelines, Mobile Device QA Automation, Google, GoCD, Gauges, UFT, Cross-browser Testing, Visual Regression Testing, UI Testing, Lambda Functions, Project Lombok, Onboarding

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