What makes Elluminate products so great?  Gain insight from an interview with Elluminate’s Director of Quality Assurance (QA), Tamara Drake. 

Q:  How long have you been with Elluminate?

• A:  I have been with Elluminate for 7 ½  years.

Q:  What do you see is the main goal of your job?  How do you know you’ve succeeded?

• A:  I couldn’t possibly just have one, but I have managed to narrow it to three — ensuring that the QA department operates at the highest standards, that we satisfy the quality requirements that we have set for our department, and that my team is motivated and happy. As long as I have met the last one – the other two come naturally.  We know we have succeeded when our customers are happy with the release.

Q:  Customers often tell us that Elluminate is a good, solid, reliable product.  To what do you attribute this?

• A:  I think we have a very like-minded group of individuals here at Elluminate. We realize that quality is a company goal, not just that of one department.  From Product Management to Development to QA, we have very high standards for what we want our customers to receive with each product release. These high standards have a direct impact on all our products.

Q:  What are some of the core principles that drive your QA team’s actions each day?

• A:  We are very user focused, we adhere to our processes, we stress communication in every aspect of the department, and we never stop trying to improve.

Q:  Elluminate Live! is a software product, so there’s bound to be a large queue of outstanding bugs.  How do you and the development team decide what to fix?

• A:  It’s a combined effort between Product Management (driven by customer input), Development, and QA. During a release cycle, we have at least one bug review per week per product and look at each bug that has been entered in detail. Then we consider the severity of the bug, the functional impact, and the likelihood that customers will run into it. All in all, we are a very picky group!

Q:  With such a focus on negative things such as problems, issues, and bugs, what keeps you coming to work each day?

• A:  If I had to choose one thing – the people.  As an organization, we are truly fortunate to have great people in each and every department that understand that we are all one team. As well, I have one of the most fantastic teams to work with. Despite the bugs, timelines, and pressures associated with each release, they keep coming up with new and innovative ways to test our products and always manage to have a great attitude!

Q:  I’d imagine that for any product release, there comes a point where you must weigh quality against the need to declare availability for time-to-market and revenue reasons.   Can you sleep at night with  the decisions you’ve influenced?

• A: Sleep is always scarce around a product release, as you tend to worry that everything was covered!  But in all the years I have been here at Elluminate, the quality of our products has always taken the highest priority. I can honestly say that I don’t believe we have ever released a product that wasn’t ready for market.

Q:  The best thing about leading QA for Elluminate is….

• A:  Each day is full of new experiences and challenges.

Thank you Tamara!