A self-critic by nature, Waits Avery – the leader of a delivery team at Qualitest, is native tar heel, born and raised in North Carolina, where he still resides. Past experiences and successes and failures in life motivates him. Waits is also a big family man who loves a good laugh, and is consistently striving to better himself and inspire those around him.

 For Waits, life has been a roller-coaster filled with momentous experiences like running for the Olympic torch relay for the Salt Lake City Olympics, serving in the US Marines, and backpacking through Europe for three months.

Waits has a master’s degree in Computational Physics, with a primary focus on studying celestial mechanics and computationally extracting information from satellite images of binary stars and modeling the formation of Saturn’s rings.

Areas of Expertise

With deep knowledge on diverse technologies like automated web browser, API web services testing, database utilization for test data generation & validations, test & defect management, resource & source code management, HTML, XML, JSON and a vast experience in UFT with VBS, Selenium, Maven, Waits holds a plethora of specializations in the areas of Test Automation, Team and Delivery Management.

 

Software Testing and the Qualitest Journey

Waits became a part of the Qualitest family following a company acquisition. “My career in Software Testing started out of necessity and a good fortune. We were welcoming our first child towards the end of my graduate school, and being an assistant was not going to pay the bills” says Waits. “That is when I got introduced to this domain and started my career as a Tester.

“The best part of working in this domain is that it introduces you to people from all walks of life. It exposes one to a variety of technologies and challenges which help avoid the monotony that some other professions present. The software industry is growing exponentially, and with it increases the need to test and deploy reliable software. That is where Quality Assurance plays a significant role,” he adds.

When asked about his Qualitest journey, Waits offers, “I have learned new things as I transitioned into various roles at Qualitest. As a QA Analyst, I learned to test an application to reduce the risk of failure in production. Now the curious Tester in me, has allowed me to be familiar with and analyze ill-designed applications in my personal life.
As a Team Leader, I developed and honed my leadership skills, which were inculcated in me during my Marine life.”

Waits loves his role of a Delivery Manager, where he works with clients, even in adverse conditions, and has grown to develop meaningful relationships with them.

“I have been fortunate to work with some of the best people at Qualitest,” he says, “and the problem-solving skills I gained here have helped me greatly as a husband and a father of my 5 and 7 year old.”

 

 

Advice to the Future Generation of Testers

To our upcoming line of Quality Inspectors, Waits suggests learning the fundamentals of QA.

“In-depth understanding of QA can be difficult at times and is not something we learn at any school,” advises Waits. “It helps if you are ready to unlearn every concept to better learn in your on-the-job training. Be open to changes and always strive to gain knowledge, experience, and confidence, because that is all it takes to succeed.”