This summer, I was fortunate enough to have the incredible opportunity of working for BlueFletch as a QA/BA Engineering Intern, specifically on the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) team.
During my first week, I had one-on-ones with a Business Analyst, Developer, Project Manager, Quality Assurance Lead, and UX/UI Designer, and began to develop a true understanding of how each role contributes to the success of a team in the world of technology management and software development. Simultaneously, I was familiarizing myself with the services BlueFletch provides to its customers as well as all of the platforms it uses to document work, assign tasks, compile code, and test products. The guidance and personal attention I received from my team in just my first few days of work alone set me up to take on a more independent role as the summer went on and to be proactive with the work I completed.
After I had learned how to use Jira, Testrail, and multiple other software tools, I was given new features to test and user stories to write on nearly a daily basis. One of the most interesting parts of my role this summer was the duration for which I would see features being developed—I would write the initial stories and communicate with the developers about what needed to be created, and then test the final product and compare it to the expectations of the designers, allowing me to see the full process of developing and refining part of an application.
A large part of my work this summer was centered on documentation, whether it was recording bugs, outlining tasks for the developers, creating test cases, or writing user-friendly materials to explain the applications and their functions. The products we create and services we provide would essentially be useless if the users did not understand how the apps function, so I was tasked with creating user guides for the EMS portal and the Facial Recognition tool.
Through our stand-up meetings and sprint-planning sessions, I quickly learned about all of the functions of the EMS portal and the service it is meant to provide to users. Since I had been in the user’s position of being totally unfamiliar with the platform just a few weeks before being asked to create the guide, I could put myself into their position, consider every use of the portal, and how to most logically convey its purpose to the intended user. This meant providing brief written explanations on the value of each feature, how device data can be viewed individually and in a larger context, and how to filter the data the user is viewing. Creating user guides and documenting the creation process reminded me of the importance of viewing software development, or specifically the consulting work that BlueFletch provides, as a service to the customers that they must be able to use and understand, not just a technically refined product.
One of the elements I valued the most about my summer internship was the vast array of new technologies I was exposed to simply through testing devices and learning from the people around me. As an Industrial Engineering student, most of my classwork has been strongly mathematics and statistics based, with a few computer science and business classes thrown into the curriculum. I tested applications on ten different types of devices, watched incredibly talented developers write code and got a glimpse of into their problem-solving thought process, and learned about the work of other BlueFletch teams through weekly company-wide stand-ups and casual conversations.
I am so grateful for all of the learning opportunities I encountered this summer, the relationships I built with my coworkers, and the warm and welcoming environment I found myself to be a part of every time I stepped into the office. I will always look back to this summer as one of personal and professional growth, and owe a large part of that to everyone at BlueFletch that made my summer so enriching and rewarding.
