Interview with the Mainframe Quality Engineers team
EMC St. Petersburg Development Center is one of eight EMC Competence Centers around the world that develop information technology products and solutions. The Center has more than 300 employees, a tenth of whom are young specialists, students of St. Petersburg technical universities, working as interns.
Engineers at the St. Petersburg Center create components for a wide range of EMC products: from small business solutions to enterprise-level storage systems that cost millions of dollars. Also in the team of St. Petersburg developers there is a group of engineers responsible for integrating EMC products with mainfraime systems.
Despite regularly spreading rumors about the "death" of mainframes, in reality, these systems continue to be actively used, for example, in the banking industry and air travel. They are not only not going to give up, but they are also investing serious resources in their development, releasing new, more and more powerful models.
')
The fact that the technology appeared about 50 years ago does not mean that only well-experienced engineers work with it. At the EMC Development Center, students regularly undergo internships that can later enter the Mainframe department, immerse themselves in the world of z / OS and High Level Assembler (Mainframe Assembler). And today we want to talk about those who dared to start their careers in this direction - the young team of Mainframe Quality Engineers (MFQE): Ekaterina Morina (Voenmekh), Viktor Avdeev (PGUPS), Igor Pechko (LETI) and Alexey Lipae (PGUP).
Tell us briefly what your team does at the St. Petersburg EMC Development Center?
Ekaterina : We are testing the Mainframe Enablers product group, which allows the user to directly manage the replication of data stored on EMC VMAX storage systems directly from the mainframe.
Does the mainframe software testing process differ in any way from the classic idea of ​​software testing?
Alexey : There are common features, but the difference is primarily that testing for a mainframe requires deep knowledge of the system itself. This is not the environment in which we are all accustomed to working. There is no beautiful user interface, but there is some romance. After all, the work of the systems of such giants as Mastercard or US Bank depends on your work.
Igor : But testing for mainframes is not only testing as such, it’s not just a search for bugs and custom case studies. There is also the moment of setting up the system, iron. We use different storage connection topologies, types and sizes of physical and logical disks. We not only check whether the test passed or not, because in systems of this level, performance and data integrity are also extremely important.
Catherine : We also write scripts to automate testing, but a substantial part of the checks can not be covered by autotests and is done manually.
What are you more interested in doing - testing or developing?
Alexey : For me, testing is more fun than development. In any case, we have a team. During testing, we are constantly faced with new interesting problems. And they are not always directly related to testing. For example, you often have to administer Mainframe and VMAX.
And what is the usual task that you have to face?
A typical example of a problem is the study of a bug. It happens that when testing standard test cases or when running new scripts written, for example, to verify a fix, the application behaves incorrectly. In such cases, before opening a bug, it is important to study the problem in detail. If the message contains some meaningful information, then first of all we check if there are any corresponding problems with the environment. Perhaps, the devices used by mistake were found to be busy with some other sessions or involved in third-party configurations. Making sure that the problem is really not in the resources, but in the product code, we try to locate the bug: determine the conditions under which it manifests itself as accurately as possible, as well as check all current versions of the product for the presence of this error. And of course, before creating a bug report, we will definitely prepare all the necessary documentation for developers (logs with debugs, different types of traces, etc.).
How are your relationships with the development team?
Catherine : Of course, there is such a stereotype that developers do not like the testing team. Most of the time, we don’t have such problems; most developers, on the contrary, are happy when we find a new bug, because they are also interested in producing a high-quality product.
How did you get to the Development Center? Have you ever wanted to work in this area while studying?
Catherine : I got a difficult story. During the first courses I doubted if I had chosen the IT sphere for nothing. But closer to senior courses, I realized that engineering is interesting. At the university, I was engaged in a bit of website development, and immediately after graduating from the university, I learned about a vacancy in EMC, and in order to get to it, I even entered a magistracy ( for an internship, you must be a student ). When applying for a position, the most important skills were computer literacy, general adequacy, understanding of the OS organization and software testing process. I finished my internship and became an engineer.
Victor : I am still studying at the university for the fourth year and now I am an intern at EMC. When I entered PGUPS, I already worked as a system administrator at Russian Railways. At the university, I received an invitation to become a member of the EMC student project, where I began to acquire knowledge in the field of Mainframe. From there I got an internship.
Igor : I learned about EMC student projects from people familiar with the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of St. Petersburg State University. I managed to get into one of these projects, where I began training. A month later I was invited to the office to meet the participants of the student project. It turned out that this meeting was a full-fledged interview. After a while they called me and invited me for an internship. Today I am an engineer.
And how did the work in the student project and internship?
Victor : When I was in a student project, we met once a week at the EMC office, told us about our results, we were given new material and tasks for the week ahead. In general, we studied the mainframes as part of an additional course to the academic program at the university. Now I come to the project participants and share the acquired knowledge. Such information is not included in the university program, and it can be obtained only in student projects and internships.
Catherine : I got an internship right away, there was no student project at my university. Of course, compared to the guys who have already worked on projects, I initially had less knowledge of mainframes. But it turned out that the company has established a training scheme for interns. There are all materials for training: books, online courses, laboratory. Of course, colleagues, also willing to help. After a few months of training, I was able to fully test the necessary part of the functionality.
Was it scary to dive into the world of "black screen and green letters"?
Igor : No, after five years of training in an IT specialty, such things do not scare. On the contrary, in such an environment you feel closer to the very essence of the system, you understand better how everything really works.
What advice would you like to give current students?
Catherine : If you are not yet sure what you want to do, then you do not have to wait until the decision comes by itself. Learn more about the areas of your specialty that are interesting for you, do not be afraid of lack of experience, try to get an internship. Even if during the search something doesn’t fit or doesn’t like it, the experience gained will definitely come in handy when you find the same “your” work.
Alexey : I think that you should not immediately chase after any employment. In the first courses it is better to get an idea about your profession. You do not need to be afraid to call and learn about internships in companies. If you have a “head on your shoulders,” you will definitely be noticed and taken. But it is better to do this if it is possible to combine both study and work. For example, in senior courses.
Igor : I agree, no need to strive to work from the first course, it is better to gain fundamental knowledge.
Alexey : But do not forget about rest, personal life and communication with people from different professions. It develops communication skills, which is an important point in our work.
Victor : My opinion is a little different: a person should evaluate himself whether he is ready or not. No need to try to ruin yourself by studying, or, conversely, rather start working. We must try to keep a balance between study and work, and if there are any options for internships or training in serious companies in junior courses, then they should not be missed. They allow you to get an idea about the scope of future activities, help and choose an interesting direction for themselves.
In general, I would like to wish everyone success!
Engineers at the St. Petersburg Center create components for a wide range of EMC products: from small business solutions to enterprise-level storage systems that cost millions of dollars. Also in the team of St. Petersburg developers there is a group of engineers responsible for integrating EMC products with mainfraime systems.
Despite regularly spreading rumors about the "death" of mainframes, in reality, these systems continue to be actively used, for example, in the banking industry and air travel. They are not only not going to give up, but they are also investing serious resources in their development, releasing new, more and more powerful models.
')
The fact that the technology appeared about 50 years ago does not mean that only well-experienced engineers work with it. At the EMC Development Center, students regularly undergo internships that can later enter the Mainframe department, immerse themselves in the world of z / OS and High Level Assembler (Mainframe Assembler). And today we want to talk about those who dared to start their careers in this direction - the young team of Mainframe Quality Engineers (MFQE): Ekaterina Morina (Voenmekh), Viktor Avdeev (PGUPS), Igor Pechko (LETI) and Alexey Lipae (PGUP).
Tell us briefly what your team does at the St. Petersburg EMC Development Center?
Ekaterina : We are testing the Mainframe Enablers product group, which allows the user to directly manage the replication of data stored on EMC VMAX storage systems directly from the mainframe.
Does the mainframe software testing process differ in any way from the classic idea of ​​software testing?
Alexey : There are common features, but the difference is primarily that testing for a mainframe requires deep knowledge of the system itself. This is not the environment in which we are all accustomed to working. There is no beautiful user interface, but there is some romance. After all, the work of the systems of such giants as Mastercard or US Bank depends on your work.
Igor : But testing for mainframes is not only testing as such, it’s not just a search for bugs and custom case studies. There is also the moment of setting up the system, iron. We use different storage connection topologies, types and sizes of physical and logical disks. We not only check whether the test passed or not, because in systems of this level, performance and data integrity are also extremely important.
Catherine : We also write scripts to automate testing, but a substantial part of the checks can not be covered by autotests and is done manually.
What are you more interested in doing - testing or developing?
Alexey : For me, testing is more fun than development. In any case, we have a team. During testing, we are constantly faced with new interesting problems. And they are not always directly related to testing. For example, you often have to administer Mainframe and VMAX.
And what is the usual task that you have to face?
A typical example of a problem is the study of a bug. It happens that when testing standard test cases or when running new scripts written, for example, to verify a fix, the application behaves incorrectly. In such cases, before opening a bug, it is important to study the problem in detail. If the message contains some meaningful information, then first of all we check if there are any corresponding problems with the environment. Perhaps, the devices used by mistake were found to be busy with some other sessions or involved in third-party configurations. Making sure that the problem is really not in the resources, but in the product code, we try to locate the bug: determine the conditions under which it manifests itself as accurately as possible, as well as check all current versions of the product for the presence of this error. And of course, before creating a bug report, we will definitely prepare all the necessary documentation for developers (logs with debugs, different types of traces, etc.).
How are your relationships with the development team?
Catherine : Of course, there is such a stereotype that developers do not like the testing team. Most of the time, we don’t have such problems; most developers, on the contrary, are happy when we find a new bug, because they are also interested in producing a high-quality product.
How did you get to the Development Center? Have you ever wanted to work in this area while studying?
Catherine : I got a difficult story. During the first courses I doubted if I had chosen the IT sphere for nothing. But closer to senior courses, I realized that engineering is interesting. At the university, I was engaged in a bit of website development, and immediately after graduating from the university, I learned about a vacancy in EMC, and in order to get to it, I even entered a magistracy ( for an internship, you must be a student ). When applying for a position, the most important skills were computer literacy, general adequacy, understanding of the OS organization and software testing process. I finished my internship and became an engineer.
Victor : I am still studying at the university for the fourth year and now I am an intern at EMC. When I entered PGUPS, I already worked as a system administrator at Russian Railways. At the university, I received an invitation to become a member of the EMC student project, where I began to acquire knowledge in the field of Mainframe. From there I got an internship.
Igor : I learned about EMC student projects from people familiar with the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of St. Petersburg State University. I managed to get into one of these projects, where I began training. A month later I was invited to the office to meet the participants of the student project. It turned out that this meeting was a full-fledged interview. After a while they called me and invited me for an internship. Today I am an engineer.
And how did the work in the student project and internship?
Victor : When I was in a student project, we met once a week at the EMC office, told us about our results, we were given new material and tasks for the week ahead. In general, we studied the mainframes as part of an additional course to the academic program at the university. Now I come to the project participants and share the acquired knowledge. Such information is not included in the university program, and it can be obtained only in student projects and internships.
Catherine : I got an internship right away, there was no student project at my university. Of course, compared to the guys who have already worked on projects, I initially had less knowledge of mainframes. But it turned out that the company has established a training scheme for interns. There are all materials for training: books, online courses, laboratory. Of course, colleagues, also willing to help. After a few months of training, I was able to fully test the necessary part of the functionality.
Was it scary to dive into the world of "black screen and green letters"?
Igor : No, after five years of training in an IT specialty, such things do not scare. On the contrary, in such an environment you feel closer to the very essence of the system, you understand better how everything really works.
What advice would you like to give current students?
Catherine : If you are not yet sure what you want to do, then you do not have to wait until the decision comes by itself. Learn more about the areas of your specialty that are interesting for you, do not be afraid of lack of experience, try to get an internship. Even if during the search something doesn’t fit or doesn’t like it, the experience gained will definitely come in handy when you find the same “your” work.
Alexey : I think that you should not immediately chase after any employment. In the first courses it is better to get an idea about your profession. You do not need to be afraid to call and learn about internships in companies. If you have a “head on your shoulders,” you will definitely be noticed and taken. But it is better to do this if it is possible to combine both study and work. For example, in senior courses.
Igor : I agree, no need to strive to work from the first course, it is better to gain fundamental knowledge.
Alexey : But do not forget about rest, personal life and communication with people from different professions. It develops communication skills, which is an important point in our work.
Victor : My opinion is a little different: a person should evaluate himself whether he is ready or not. No need to try to ruin yourself by studying, or, conversely, rather start working. We must try to keep a balance between study and work, and if there are any options for internships or training in serious companies in junior courses, then they should not be missed. They allow you to get an idea about the scope of future activities, help and choose an interesting direction for themselves.
In general, I would like to wish everyone success!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246773/
All Articles