Maria stands in front of a whiteboard with the heading 'QA Navigation Board'

ZEISS Stories | Maria

Quality assurance is not dull!

Digital Innovations

There are often a few errors lurking in software during the development phase. Until Maria tracks them down. Maria is a software quality assurance engineer at ZEISS Digital Innovation (ZDI). As a test analyst, she is in charge of quality assurance during the software development process. When a new piece of software is in the development phase, Maria systematically checks it. Her work plays an important role in ensuring that the finished digital product functions safely and without errors.

Maria chats to a female colleague in front of the QA Navigation Board

For the love of quality

Maria is an active member of the software development team from the beginning of the project. When business analysts are planning the new software, Maria is on hand to offer her feasibility and quality assurance assessments. While the developers then program the new software bit by bit, Maria works in a monitoring role. She examines every completed stage of the software and checks whether all the software's functions are working as the development team planned.

"Software quality is very important at ZEISS. Ultimately, the company is famous for its precision and quality in all departments. So our reputation is at stake," says Maria. From experience, she knows that test analysts are not always involved from the beginning. "The fact that at ZEISS we are consulted from the very start of the project shows how much our work is appreciated."

The fact that at ZEISS we are consulted from the very start of the project shows how much our work is appreciated.

Maria Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Maria sits at a workstation and looks warmly at the camera. The ZEISS IOLMaster 700 can be seen in the background.

Maria gives the green light

Maria is currently testing the user interface for a login dialog. It is designed to give engineers from the Manufacturing department access to a database which can be used to control a process in semiconductor manufacturing. Maria checks whether the login dialog meets the requirements it was programmed for: Are the buttons in the right place? Do the correct error messages appear? Is the login process smooth? "I test the software's user interface by pretending I'm a future user and testing every use case. Only then do I give the green light."

On a quality assurance quest

For Maria, error tracking is a bit like going on a treasure hunt. In the login dialog, she discovers that a special character cannot be used when choosing a password. "Test analysts enjoy finding errors," she reveals with a smile. "Because I know it makes the software safe and error-free. At the same time, I always have one eye on the overall quality: How good do I think the software is? Do the individual functions fulfill their aim? High-quality software is only produced once in-depth test analysis like mine is complete."

Maria stands in front of a digital whiteboard and writes notes on the presentation with a marker pen.

Quality-assurance presentations

Maria has a BA in Business Informatics and 13 years of experience as a test analyst. As a respected expert in the field, she therefore gives regular in-house presentations on quality assurance and agile models. "Test analysis gets overlooked at universities, even though it is extremely important in software development. It is often a case of learning by doing for test analysts," Maria explains.

"Here at ZEISS, I was able to build up valuable expertise and I am passionate about sharing this knowledge – so that future generations can build on this information. I am proud that I have managed to become one of the leading experts in my field at ZEISS. With my expertise, I help to enable complex digital processes in microchip manufacturing to run more safely and be protected from errors."

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Karolin works on a laptop in a bright office. She looks warmly at the camera. The ZEISS IOLMaster 700 can be seen in the background