DEV Community: QAlogy

10 Years in QA: The Journey I Never Expected to Have

QAlogy — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 09:40:14 +0000

This year I am celebrating 10 years since I started working as a QA.

Ten years… It sounds like a lot when I say it out loud. But in my head, I can still clearly remember my first days on the job. Sitting in front of the screen, learning the functionalities of my first project, trying to think about some scenarios that I can try, opening a ticket…

Back then, everything was new for me, and it was kind of confusing, scary, interesting, and exciting at the same time. Now, when I think of it, I have only positive and interesting memories.

Where It All Started
Back then, when I started in 2016, my job was simple.

I would open a ticket from the board, read the description, and try to follow it as closely as possible. If something didn’t work, I would report a bug. When the developer fixed it, I would test it again.

That cycle repeated every day. I had a couple of tickets ready for testing every day. I would go through that list, test them manually till the working day ends, and that was mostly it.

At that time, I thought: “This is QA. This is what testing looks like.”

Read the full post on my blog: https://qalogy.com/10-years-in-qa-the-journey-i-never-expected-to-have/

How I Passed ISTQB Foundation Level: What Worked, What Didn’t

QAlogy — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 21:20:48 +0000

After nearly 10 years of QA experience across different industries, I finally decided to take the ISTQB Foundation Level exam.

This wasn’t something completely new to me. I had been thinking about getting the certification for a while, but never really found the right moment. I wanted to take the exam, but sometimes there were other priorities, and sometimes I didn’t have enough time to prepare. As time has flown, 10 years have passed, and I still haven’t applied to take the exam.

So when an opportunity came up through my company, I saw it as the perfect time to finally do it.

Read the full post on my blog: https://qalogy.com/how-i-passed-istqb-foundation-level-what-worked-what-didnt/

Test Data Management: The Problem No One Talks About

QAlogy — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:07:37 +0000

When a test fails, as QA engineers, we instinctively start debugging the test itself by checking the locators, adjusting the waits, looking for timing issues, or maybe adding waits or retries just to stabilize things.

At first, it feels logical. After all, the test failed — so the test must be the problem.

But in many cases, that assumption is wrong.

The real issue is often something less visible, something we don’t immediately question. And that issue is often bad or inconsistent test data.

Read the full post on my blog: https://qalogy.com/test-data-management-the-problem-no-one-talks-about/

The Hidden Cost of Flaky Tests Nobody Puts in the Sprint Report

QAlogy — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:12:03 +0000

Every QA team has that moment.

Someone runs the automated tests, and suddenly some of them fail. They fail once, then pass on the next run. Or the third. Or after a small tweak. Someone reruns the pipeline, the build turns green, and the team moves on. No ticket is created. No task is added to the sprint. Nothing appears in the report.

And that is exactly why flaky tests are so dangerous.

They don’t stop delivery immediately. But the cost doesn’t disappear. It just moves underground. They slowly drain trust, focus, and energy — until one day the entire test suite is questioned.

Read the full post on my blog: https://qalogy.com/the-hidden-cost-of-flaky-tests-nobody-puts-in-the-sprint-report/

When a Test Passes but the Feature Is Broken: A QA Reality Check

QAlogy — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:33:30 +0000

The build is green, all automated tests have passed, and the pipeline finished without any warnings. At this point, the feature is marked as ready to move forward. From the outside, everything appeared exactly as modern software delivery is supposed to look.

Then the app was opened.

A tester logged in, navigated to the feature, and performed the exact action covered by the automated test. The confirmation message appeared, just like the test expected. Everything looked correct at first.

But when the tester left the screen and came back, the change was gone.

The action had never been saved. No error was shown. No warning appeared. From the user’s perspective, the app simply ignored what they had done. The automated test had passed because the UI responded correctly at the moment, but the system state never changed.

The feature worked just long enough to fool the test.

This is one of those moments that every QA engineer recognizes immediately. The uncomfortable realization that follows is always the same:

The tests passed, but the feature is broken.

Read the full post on my blog: https://qalogy.com/when-a-test-passes-but-the-feature-is-broken/

QA Spotlight: Taia Dimitrova — How a QA Engineer Built a Telegram Bot with AI and Engineering Thinking

QAlogy — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:32:04 +0000

In this QA Spotlight edition, I feature a refreshing and very modern perspective on what it means to be a QA engineer today.

This post tells the story of how a QA engineer turned a personal frustration — constantly missing good theatre tickets — into a fully functional Telegram bot that monitors theatre websites and sends notifications automatically. The twist? The bot wasn’t built in the traditional “write everything by hand” way.

Instead, ChatGPT was used for brainstorming and architecture, while Copilot was utilized for implementation. The QA engineer orchestrated everything, defining the flow, validating logic, handling edge cases, resolving deployment issues, and shaping the overall quality of the solution.

Read more about it in my blog post: https://qalogy.com/qa-spotlight-taia-dimitrova/

Top Automation Anti-Patterns to Avoid (With Real Examples)

QAlogy — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:35:59 +0000

Automation frameworks are becoming more powerful, scalable, and AI-assisted. But, even today, the same types of failures continue to appear across teams: flaky tests, slow pipelines, unstable locators, and brittle architecture.

These issues rarely come from the tools themselves. Usually, they come from using specific anti-patterns that repeat again and again across projects.

Because automation is not just about writing tests — it’s about writing good tests, designing test architecture, thinking about maintainability, and making long-term decisions. Unfortunately, some QAs still fall into dangerous habits that slowly destroy the reliability of their framework.

Let’s go through the most damaging automation anti-patterns, understand why they happen, what they cause, and how to fix them.

Read more about that on my blog: https://qalogy.com/top-automation-anti-patterns-to-avoid/

The First 5 Minutes of Bug Investigation: How to Do It Right

QAlogy — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:34:17 +0000

There is one moment that every QA knows well… you are testing, and something behaves differently than expected. Suddenly, you’re staring at a bug that wasn’t supposed to exist. That first moment — those first five minutes of investigation — can determine whether you uncover the root cause quickly or get lost and waste time.

Bug investigation isn’t about panicking, guessing, or immediately running to create a ticket. The first few minutes are about gathering clarity, removing the unnecessary details, determining the cause, and understanding the behavior before it slips away. If you use these moments well, the rest of the investigation becomes faster, much more accurate, and you will save a lot of time.

Read the full blog post on my blog: https://qalogy.com/the-first-5-minutes-of-bug-investigation-how-to-do-it-right/

The New QA Mindset: Testing AI and LLMs

QAlogy — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 21:22:10 +0000

For years, QA engineers have tested deterministic systems — applications that behave predictably when given specific inputs. But with the rise of AI-driven apps and large language models (LLMs), the rules have changed. The systems we’re testing today are not predictable. They’re probabilistic, data-driven, and can behave differently even when nothing in the code has changed.

That’s why we, as QA professionals, need a new mindset.

Read the full article on my blog, QAlogy.com: https://qalogy.com/the-new-qa-mindset-testing-ai-and-llms/

I Was a Guest on the Tech Savvy Talks Podcast!

QAlogy — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 21:20:58 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on the Tech Savvy Talks podcast, hosted by my Technology Team Lead, Kiro Kosturanov, where we had an amazing conversation about how Quality Assurance (QA) goes far beyond “just testing.”

We discussed how QA plays a crucial role in building successful products — from early involvement in development to enhancing usability and ensuring a seamless user experience.

Some of the topics we covered:
🔹 The four pillars of QA: role, skills, boosters, and personal growth
🔹 Why QA should be part of the process from day one
🔹 The right balance between manual testing, automation, and exploratory testing
🔹 How QA contributes to usability and product quality, not just bug detection
🔹 Why QA is a career path in its own right

This episode is perfect for anyone interested in how great products are built — whether you’re a developer, QA, product manager, or just curious about the process.

🎧 You can watch the full episode on YouTube:

A huge thank you to my company, Scalefocus, for organizing this podcast and giving me the opportunity to share my experience and perspective on the QA role. 🙌

Visit my blog QAlogy.com for more interesting topics related to Quality Assurance: https://qalogy.com/

What QA Can Learn from Doctors, Athletes, and Pilots

QAlogy — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 21:18:34 +0000

The work of Quality Assurance is not about clicking through the app, running scripts, or ticking checkboxes. As QA, you are the first real user of the product, who is giving feedback not just on defects but on product value, usability, intuitiveness, and user flows. The best testers think differently — they borrow skills and mindsets, and take inspiration from fields outside tech. In fact, QA has a lot in common with doctors, athletes, and pilots. Even though their work is completely different, there are a lot of similarities in their mindset and way of thinking.

Read more about it on my blog QALOGY.COM: https://qalogy.com/what-qa-can-learn-from-doctors-athletes-and-pilots/

Celebrating 1 Year of QAlogy: From Idea to Reality

QAlogy — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 08:47:29 +0000

Exactly one year ago, something that had lived in my head for years became reality. QAlogy.com was created.

It wasn’t just the launch of a website.
It was the beginning of something I’ve always dreamed about — having my own space on the internet.

Why I Started QAlogy?
For a long time, I wanted to have my own corner online.
A place where I could write.
Where I could share what I know.
Where I could help others, communicate with people in the QA world, and express myself creatively.

So, one year ago, QAlogy wasn’t a brand. It wasn’t a community.
It wasn’t even a real website. It was just… a blank screen.

And from that blank screen, I created everything — piece by piece:

I chose the colors
Designed the logo
Built the website
Picked the fonts
Wrote the content
Hit “Publish” for the first time
And just like that — QAlogy was live.

What Happened in This First Year?
A lot.

From that first post to today, I’ve:

Published a lot of blog posts (some planned, some spontaneous, all from the heart)
Redesigned the blog once to keep things fresh and better organized.
Got my posts shared by other QA professionals from Serbia, Germany, and beyond.
Was featured by LambdaTest and SoftwareTestingWeekly — who included my content in their newsletter (huge thank you to them!)
I was invited to be a guest on the Tech-Savvy podcast in Bulgaria by Scalefocus, where I shared my story and talked about QAlogy and other QA related topics (the episode will be published around the end of September). Huge thanks to Scalefocus and my Team Lead, Kiro Kosturanov, for the support.
Met some truly amazing people from the QA community — people I wouldn’t have connected with if this blog didn’t exist.
Grew my LinkedIn following by nearly 300% thanks to the blog and the support from the community.
What I’ve Learned
Starting something from scratch is hard — but incredibly rewarding.
It’s okay not to have everything figured out. Just start.
Writing consistently helps you grow — not just as a QA, but as a thinker and communicator.
There’s a whole world of amazing QA people out there — willing to support, engage, and share.
What’s Coming Next?
As QAlogy enters its second year, I’m excited to keep building and improving.

I have a few ideas I’d love to explore in the near future, such as:

Creating a QA course.
Writing more in-depth articles on some advanced testing topics.
Featuring stories and interviews from other QA professionals.
Possibly starting a newsletter for those who want to stay updated and inspired.
These are just ideas for now, but I’m really looking forward to seeing where QAlogy goes next — and I’m always open to feedback, suggestions, and collaborations along the way.

Thank You
To every single person who:

Visited QAlogy.com
Read even one post
Shared an article
Reached out with a message
Supported me online or offline
Thank you !!!
You helped turn a blank website into something real.

Let’s keep going. Let’s keep testing, learning, and sharing.
Here’s to Year 2 of QAlogy.com!

Visit QAlogy here: https://qalogy.com/

– Vladimir Josifoski
Founder of QAlogy.com