Trenton Minch
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Louisville, KY, United States
Toptal member since October 27, 2021
Trent is an experienced software engineer in test with a long track record of creating custom test automation solutions for software teams. With experience as both a test automation architect and a QA lead, he knows how to choose the best setup for the team and integrate it with their process. An expert tester, programmer, and teacher, Trent thrives in development teams seeking to create a new test ecosystem, utilize an existing one, or even upskill their current QA staff.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Windows, Visual Studio, C#, Azure DevOps, .NET Core, .NET 5, Selenium, PyCharm, Python
The most amazing...
...project I've ever completed was the architecture, development, and implementation of a test automation platform for a large QA team.
Work Experience
QA Lead
eBlu Solutions
- Implemented new QA processes into a software development team that had little to no existing QA strategy. Created solutions for both manual and automated testing. New QA processes resulted in an 80% reduction in production defects.
- Led a small team of QA engineers with varying levels of experience and knowledge of automation. Honed their skills to grow them both as individuals and as contributors to their project teams.
- Brought automated test coverage from zero to 70% application coverage in the first six months.
Specialist Application Engineer | Test Automation Architect
Waystar
- Architected, developed, and implemented a new test automation platform to replace a dated and under-utilized legacy framework.
- Participated in the transition to a new framework by refactoring existing tests, working with individual teams to ensure the new solution met their needs and training teams who had no existing automation on the new pattern.
- Trained several QA team members, including some who were completely new to test automation, into capable test automation engineers.
QA Engineer
Farm Credit Mid-America
- Facilitated a transition from a test automation framework in Python to one in C# to better leverage team resources and existing infrastructure. Architected, developed, and implemented a new solution, and trained staff on its usage.
- Participated in a cross-functional Kanban agile team as a hybrid manual and automated test engineer.
- Integrated test automation with other tools used in the team's process, including TestRail, Azure DevOps, and Octopus Deploy.
QA Engineer
Dormakaba
- Created a test automation framework from scratch using Python to automate the testing of Windows desktop applications.
- Automated firmware testing of physical devices by creating automated tests on Linux-based microcontrollers connected to robotic testing interfaces.
- Authored and executed manual test cases using TestRail and Jira. Tracked defects encountered during test execution using Bugzilla.
Experience
C# Test Automation Framework
Using the advice of several QA engineers and developers, I analyzed the existing automation framework to determine what functionality should be salvaged and where complexity could be reduced. After architecting and presenting a proposed solution to the QA team, I developed and implemented the framework and several hundred individual tests. The framework leveraged C# .NET Core, xUnit, Selenium, and Fluentassertions, among other technologies. After implementation, the flaky test percentage fell by 40%, and test execution time was reduced by 25%. The new framework also provided an excellent opportunity to train and upskill the QA engineers on staff, many of whom had not previously participated in automation due to the old framework's complexity.
Under my training, these QAs developed into capable test automation engineers, and the project remained successful even after my departure.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University of Kentucky - Lexington, KY
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Selenium Grid
Tools
Visual Studio, TestRail, xUnit, PyCharm, Wingware IDE, Slack, Git, Jira, Bugzilla
Frameworks
Selenium, .NET Core, .NET 5, Swagger
Paradigms
Azure DevOps, Test Automation, Automated Testing
Platforms
Windows
Languages
Python, C#, C++
Other
QA Testing, Quality Assurance (QA), Manual QA, QA Automation, Octopus Deploy, API Testing, Algorithms
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