Ilari Henrik Aegerter

My formal studies have brought me from General Linguistics and Sociology to Software Engineering and Software Testing. I so much liked the profession that I continued to work on my skills intensively. Being a context-driven tester is the natural outcome, and I believe that software testing is not a clerical job but a profession, which needs a high level of proficiency.

I have 10+ years of experience in the field, coming from the medical software domain at Phonak AG and progressing to e-commerce at eBay. I am now the Managing Director of House of Test GmbH, and I believe there is still a lot of work to be done for excellent software testing.

In 2015 I was elected into the board of the Association for Software Testing (AST), where I act as Chief of Chapters.

Since I like talking, I often present at international Software Testing conferences, and I am also frequently invited to speak at company events. From time to time I do workshops on Software Testing, which I enjoy tremendously.

Being in the field of Software Testing does not feel like work and it is a pleasure to do what I like every single day.

In my private time, I like to read a lot of books and comics, spend time with my family, test the possibilities of our world with my kids and test good food in restaurants with my wife. I believe that people are generally good and that there is plenty for everybody in this world. All that results in me smiling a lot.

Georg Lysen

In co-founding House of Test, I saw an opportunity for freedom; a freedom from dictated models and conformative thinking, a freedom to broaden my horizons and grow as a tester. Most of all, it’s a freedom to do a damn good job and it’s a freedom I take very seriously.

In my more than 15 years of working with IT, I have come across the good, the bad and the ugly within software development, all of which helped me build a broad base to stand on and approach any new situation with confidence and skill. It has also given me a great testing toolbox to choose and select from based on the unique context of any new project. Quality, as much as I love it, is not a one-man show and I aim to get everyone to feel engaged in the quality of the product by spreading my enthusiasm, sharing valuable information and having my bug reports be something even the developers look forward to receiving.

Oskar Halje Fernö

CFO & People and Culture Manager

Johan Magnusson

People and Business. In that order.

And I really like tech development.

I have been working with Quality services for 15 years in various roles.

I started as a software tester back in the days, but realized pretty quickly that it was more fun with business and leadership. And it is all about the people. This is where I get my energy. You find the magic in the relationships, helping each other get better, both customer and employee. That’s why I love the consulting industry.

I have been around House of Test since the beginning, when Henke Andersson was my mentor in the early years at a big corp…. He taught me how to be a consultant, a tester and how everything is connected. Then he left to build up the House. Therefore, it now feels absolutely fantastic to be reunited with him and joining the house together with the other rebels.

We want to create something that is better than what you see today. Being a rebel for us is about questioning the status quo for the better. If you give that extra energy and do a little bit different in each moment, you will go so much further. That’s how we try to roll.

That’s what I like about the House.

Andreas Cederholm

Testing is not just my livelihood, it is part of my identity. In order to constantly learn and improve to become a superhero tester I read and write test related blogs and books, presentations, discuss testing at test conferences or local test meet-ups and am an active part of the test community. I love to share my knowledge and passion for testing, and it shows in my work.

I have worked with world class test automation, creating automated checks and creating test framework, heavily based on requirements but have also worked with Session Based testing where information for test ideas were taken from multiple sources.

My experiences have taught me many important lessons and that above all, Context matters.

Simon Berner

I started my career in IT as a system engineer/administrator and then later as a developer. I finally stumbled over testing and it stuck with me. I love the burnt smell of deep thinking while testing and to forget the rest of the world while I’m absorbed with awesome testing. I’m very enthusiastic about software testing – especially for those things I don’t know yet. I’m experienced in story testing, performance testing and mobile testing. Besides that, I have also deep knowledge in requirements engineering and agile project- and application management, I’m good at talking to customers and I’m a very good listener and tacit observer. The restlessness drives me, I’m always open to learn something new and like a chameleon I’m able to fit me into every new challenge and situation.

For me House of Test is like being among rock stars. It is the ultimate place to grow, learn, congress, communicate and debate. It’s full of responsibility, freedom, passion and satisfaction, to evolve as human beings and testers. I give all the power I’ve got for moving us forward and getting a bit wiser each day.

Johanna Forsberg

I am an awesome tester that is burning for what I do and not even a firefighter can put that fire out!

I started my career at The Incubator program by House of Test. In addition to working full time as a consultant I was additionally studying Test over ten hours each week for two years. I loved that challenge because I love to learn and grow increasingly better in my trade. During the two years in the Incubator program I have gone from a junior tester to a Test Lead with teams in multiple countries.

After the incredible time as an Incubator I joined the wonderful team at House of Test. Here I get inspired to become even better, to think more and to learn even more.

Martin Nilsson

I’m a kick ass tester with an incredibly wide spectrum of skills; from programming microprocessors to developing Continuous Integrations strategies for development organizations. My unusual combination of technical expertise and understanding of systems and organizations has made me a favourite to throw into highly complex situations on short notice.
Quote from my last customer for whom I in six months went from a System Tester to the Test Coordinator of a project with a hundred testers: “We didn’t believe your CV. We were wrong”. Not only do I perform my work excellently, I also spread my passion of Test to my colleagues, enabling their growth as well in their trade.

My drive comes from a curiosity of technology and people and I leverage this heavily in my passion for test. I’m able to outpace my competition by having my work as a hobby and therefore I’m constantly evolving my abilities in my craft.

Diana Flores

My motto is do it better. As testers we have the opportunity to find improvements. We have both the overview, by being involved in different phases, and also the behind the scenes look, by being involved in finding root causes.

My motivation in choosing a career in IT was to solve problems, learn about new ideas and share the better practices.

I started university in Budapest for Informatics-Mathematics, and did English-language IT-teacher training as well, which matched my desire to combine a human side to the rational subjects. I continued with a thesis and case study on socio-technical congruence, when I moved to Amsterdam for a Computer Science MSc.

My first work experience, software configuration manager, thought me how important communication is, being the connection point of developers, testers and project managers, which I kept in mind when I became a tester.

I enjoyed especially the agile projects, as it gives you the most room to change towards efficiency.

I joined HoT to be among the motivated people who feel that testing is not just a job, it is our profession, so I feel at home here.

Michal Zima

Testing is not only work for me, it is a profession and a passion. Testing for me is bringing clarity into uncertainty, bringing value for the project with the information I provide.

I jumped into testing right after my masters degree in management of computer systems. Working on various projects I started to develop passion and enthusiasm for this profession. I am constantly refining and adding to my skills through work itself, through self-study, from courses/seminars and on community events. While on projects I seek new ways to solve problems, minimize chaos, promote collaboration and build a knowledge base among people. I strive to achieve mutual trust in the form of:

“Michal tested this, there will be no surprises”

My strength lies in banking, followed by reinsurance and embedded devices.

My methods include scripts to support my testing and I am willing to use trial /error to an extent when most people give up. This helps me creating a model of the system which I then refine incrementally. At the end of the day, only the testing itself shows the best approach. You need to always be ready to change the way how you approach the problem.

When you don’t see me testing, I am probably traveling, doing sports (fitness, running, martial arts) or reading a good book.

Jan Wegner

I entered the professional IT world when studying computer science at the University of Paderborn and having a job as a systems administrator. After working quite a while as systems admin, I was hired as a professional Software Engineer. The first time it became “test-related” was after finishing university and entering into a big German web-portal. Our Team was inspired by Toyotas “Total Quality Management” (well) idea and lean-approach. Still programming I was working at the QA-department, to assure that no software hits the servers, which was not verified by our department. We saw early versions of frameworks like Selenium, Spring, CruiseControl and software from e.g. Apache Jakarta which are still in use today – at much later versions, though.

As a matter of fact we were building our own test tools because testing was not yet a discipline by itself. Some may not come to mind firsthand when talking comes to test tools. In the meantime the business has changed a lot and observing, thinking an communicating are the primary tools at hand instead being the human bug-finder. After working for a while on both sides of the ‘front line’ between software development and software testing, I found my first job as a testing (only) position. Having an innovative manager, I had the first encounter with the context driven school of testing.

Providing information about the ‘state of the product’ and contributing to identifying risks is now one of my primary goals. Besides that I enjoy working with a team not only following “The Prozess(tm)” but strive to learn, adapt and change. In that field I am really engaged about showing the agile benefits to those who work with me. Bering thoughtful and risk-aware I am also a hands-on guy, passionate with experimenting. Last but not least I keep my eyes and mind open for the new and noteworthy.

Sebastian Thuné

I tend to use the word successful, and I want to start out by clarifying my definition of this word.

For me it’s not the meaning of having achieved fame, wealth, or social status. Successful for me will always be to accomplish a desired aim or result. It’s up to you to define your target, and I will do anything I can to help you out.

Communication and problem solving is my life. We are all in the people business, and that’s the very foundation of my philosophy. With a plan and the 80/20 rule I make every minute and every challenge as an excuse to push forward, develop and change. Through a history of sales, business development, leadership, marketing, partner management and successes as well as setbacks within the areas of retail, software development, consulting and IT services I will continue my journey towards new strong relationships. I take pride in my curiosity, to exceed your expectations and challenge my environment.

With a strong entrepreneurship and an open mind, I’m ready to help every one of you out there who is curious on how we as the number one context-driven testers can help you accomplish every desired quality you might wish for.

Victor Förare

I am a tester that is always looking for new challenges, that never gets bored with a task because I always find things to improve or things to test in ways they never have been tested before.
I like being around brilliant people since I am like a sponge that quickly absorbs knowledge from those around me and have the ability to quickly fill in anyone’s shoes if need be. That was what enticed me to join the HoT family.
My goal in every company is to become one of the people with the best overview of the system as a whole.
Since I started out in health care and later re-schooled into a software test engineer I have refined social and technical skills.
They came in handy when I developed test routines, trained new employees and handled customer support for several years with one of my previous employers.
I know that the developer has a profound knowledge about their own code, but I have the ability to take a step back and view the system as a whole. I am like the glue that fuses your systems together.
I will analyze your system integrations and if anything is amiss I will find it, I got the Bug repellent spray for you.

Carin Cedergren

I think that in many ways I could be the perfect tester. I have logical mindset, I am thorough but I also have a good insight on what is good enough, I have a good eye for foreseeing risks and I also seem to have a nack for breaking things.

I am a positive person who thrives on irritation. Positive anger is my drive and one thing that angers me is doing things a certain way only because of old habit. Understanding the cost and the benefit is essential for effective and good software testing. I have been on the dark side of test case maintenance and abiding by strict rules that doesn’t really make sense, but everyone’s so preoccupied with upholding these rules that they never stop to question them.

What happens when we dare to make that leap? How can that improve us as a company, a team and as individuals? That’s what I am here to find out!

I love what I do, and I love getting better at it. I almost never wear anything other than black since lighter colours seem to hurt my soul. I also love kittens.

David Dormvik

After graduating what might be described as one of the world’s first program in context driven testing I spent my first three years of my career in software testing as a member of a cross-functional R&D team.

I have worked closely with developers in maintaining and improving a large catalogue of API’s and developer tools. Challenged with being the lone tester I managed to come out on top by simply staying communicative and humble.
I truly believe I managed to changed both mindsets and processes for the better and left a team that will continue to deliver quality software.

The combination of a mindset trained in my education, and the technical aspects learned from the responsibilities working close to developers creates a creative, curious and knowledgeable tester.

Being the ‘go to’ guy for anything quality related in my previous assignment I honed my skills in ‘talking the language’ of testers, developers, support personnel, technical writers and managers alike.

According to me the key to delivering quality software is a spot on risk analysis (the hard part), followed by a strategy to cover these risks in the simplest and most maintainable way possible (the part that should be easy).

Lukas Mathiasson

All my test assignments have been unconventional. I’ve worked on a small team developing an upcoming app making up the testing as new features came along. I’ve worked on a global medical giant where the test plan and scope was so huge and established that it worked against testing quality. And I have worked in between on a company with their own methods and own self defined scope, where the goal is more important than the way there.
What I have found from these endeavors is that the rebels way is the best way. When testers bend the limits, use their own initiative and test their way, all this for better results. As demands and expectations change, so should testing, adapt and evolve constantly past limits, not around them.

So I burn for rebel testing. Finding the best way and executing it no matter the environment. The best solution is out there and I aim to find it.

When I am not bending rules on the workplace I spend my time fencing with medieval longswords, games and cooking.

Lars Sjödahl

Niklas Lagesson

After briefely testing the life as an air traffic controller in 1999, I realized that it’s more fun to test software. Therefore in 2000 I left the Swedish ATS Academy to start working as a software tester at a small company in Lund, called QlikTech. Little did I know that this small company, with 47 people globally at the time, was going to disrupt the whole world of analytics and business intelligence some years later, become noted at Nasdaq NY and grow to about 2700 people.

Throughout the 19 years that I stayed at QlikTech, I more or less worked with testing in one way or another the whole time. Everything from exploratory testing to test teamlead and test automation. I especially developed an interest for Test Automation and this is where I have continued my carreer in software testing up until today.

Test automation has changed and evolved radically over the years that I’ve worked with it, much thanks to CI/CD and the web. This has challenged me as a test automation developer to do the same. From record/playback based scripting to a more programming oriented approach.

Outside of work, I either spend time with my family or swim, bike and run in preparation for my next Ironman.

Göran Bakken

Reality is king.

Outcomes are largely dependent on decisions. And the quality of our decisions is largely depending on how well our understanding of stuff maps to reality.

I am passionate about leading and performing empirical investigations aka testing in order improve my and others understanding so that we can make better decisions and ultimately be happier.

If everyone knew exactly what they needed to know when they needed it then all aspects of development and operations would be a breeze. I provide strategies, make plans, execute plans and communicate information bits to come closer to such an information utopia.

And based on others’ perceptions, I seem to be very very good at it… you might want to test that…

Lars Hall

Andreas Ekman

I have a drive to make everything just a little more efficient, to make everything just a little more perfect.That alone makes me an outstanding tester.

Furthermore, being a consultant for Capgemini for the last 5 years working in a variety of projects, I have built up a great knowledge within all aspects of testing.

Now, as a rebel of House of Test, I’m confident of evolving my force even more.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
― Aristotle

Roger Zingmark

Andrew Orange

My degree is a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic and Information Engineering.  During my 4 year studies, we covered all aspects of engineering including,  software, electronics, high voltage systems, digital signal processing, analogue electronics and pure mathematics. During that period was 1 year in industry working on designing, building power supplies and writing error correction firmware for spectrum analysers.

Most of my career has been involved in testing one way or another. The first company I worked for was Micro Focus in the UK, where I was automating tests and exploring a COBOL Integrated Development Environment we’d developed for Windows 95. Later, as a developer for the product, we would do our own testing for bug fixes, automate the tests and drop them straight into the build process. The start of CI/CD building blocks perhaps!

In 1999, I moved to Switzerland where I continued as a developer mainly in financial institutions.  Here I would develop my own testing practices alongside my own development work up until many companies started to separate testing from development and commodify the practice. Throughout my time in industry, I’ve seen the most skillful testing work come from testers knowing their products very well, and having the ability to talk directly to the customers and the developers. This is why it’s such a pleasure to work for a company like House of Test who shares the same belief that testing is a skill and not a commodity.

When I finish work, I go home to Winterthur where I find my apartment in the city, my girlfriend and my 2 dogs which we take to the woods for walks.  I read a lot and my hobbies include value investing and bitcoin, mainly from a technical and economic standpoint. In my spare time, I’ve tested equity pricing apps and crypto-wallets. The learning never ends.

Simon Reichenbach

When I started working as a Software Tester in a so-called Testcenter more than ten years ago, it was pretty coincidentally. There were a lot of changes over the last decade in the area of Software development and testing.

At the very beginning of my career, we used to handle a vast amount of uninspiring step-by-step test cases designed by some business guys who didn’t really have a clue of what testing is. There were those never-ending projects which consumed so much time to manage the requirements and get a first draft version of the application to realize that it wasn’t implemented as desired by the Business Stakeholders side.

We had to complete our checklists and spreadsheets to submit them to the test Manager, manually, of course. Then we moved on to the agile framework. Everything became faster. We were faced with PI-plannings, biweekly sprints, continuous integration, daily deployments and fully automated test execution during nighttime. I began to appreciate all of those new liberties where we were able to plan, develop and schedule our tasks and user stories. It was a pleasure to see how our team improved every other week.

Since I am a pretty critical person, I think this fits very well to my job as a software tester. It lets you think differently about a specific situation and can help you approach things in another way than probably most of the people would think about. I’m pleased to work with the most recent technologies and to apply my knowledge in a useful way to help our customers increase their quality and to shorten the feedback cycle.

Recently I’ve completed the post-graduate certification course CAS Software Testing at the University of Rapperswil which was conducted the very first time. That was also the moment when I first got in touch with House of Test. I immediately identified myself with their principles and the way they work. I enjoy working together with or at least be a part of this highly motivated team as well.

In my leisure time, you can find me shredding downhill trails in the mountains with my mountain bike or ski powder all around the world.

Fredrik Almén

I saw an advertisement on a tram for a software testing education and felt, why not. I have tried game programming and brewery technician, so why not try this as well, lets jump on the train! And that is a decision I haven’t regretted since. Amazing feeling.

To enable the teams, to make the team take responsibility for their work. Educate product owners, specialists, developers, testers and so on. What is quality and how do we make it a part of the process? Test is not only something that comes in the end, it’s a mindset in the team. To make them feel proud and ownership of their work. To enable this, is one passion I have.

Gari Malkoc

For the past decade I have been working as a software tester and through all my assignments, challenged old generic ideas of what test is and how its meant to be done. There are some tired ideas that “One solution fit all” or that “Testers do validation” I challenge these notions. I believe that testing is about knowledge gathering and education. Figuring out the most productive way to know the now so we have a clear image of what we are working with to reach a better tomorrow. Educate teams in how to improve their quality make better feedback loops and break old habits that are detrimental for the final product and work flow. Create better ways of internal and cross team communications to avoid misunderstandings and create an environment that promotes safe productive discussion so that we can all reach the same goal together. Each company is different each assignment is unique so test something new, test me.

Iván Riera Sánchez

Olga Dietiker

As a Software Test Engineer, I enjoy solving puzzles. Every project offers different testing problems; there is never a „one fits all“ solution. When I find the best test approach, strategy or tool, it gives me the most satisfaction.

My journey in Software Testing started right after university graduation. I was always into exact sciences; thus, I chose Applied Mathematics as my speciality. Once I got into Software Testing, there was no turning back for me. I like to dive into a new project, observe it from different angles, test it with different perspectives. I continuously evolve by broadening my knowledge, experience and skills. I am driven by curiosity and a desire to make things work better. Accomplishment comes when I am untangling some thorny problem threads, whether technology-based, knowledge-based or communication-based.

I believe that a sound Test Engineer has to understand the business to the fullest. I use logical thinking to visualize every possible scenario and consider every possible test data that the actual user might be using. My strengths are flexibility and the ability to adapt to the given context.

I love the world of agile, fast-paced projects in interdisciplinary teams, and I enjoy the art of software crafting from A to Z.

In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, taking pictures, reading and occasionally doing sports.

Natalia Szprega

I am from Poland, where I have finished my studies and also took my first steps in IT. All science subjects like math, physics and chemistry, were always my passion and led me to study the field of biomedical engineering. There, I had my first contact with programming. I found it very interesting and as a next step, I have started a second degree: computer science.

While studying I found my first job as a software tester. Since then, I have worked in a couple of different industries: microfinance, banking, aviation and logistics and in three different countries: Poland, Austria and Switzerland. For most of my career, I was working as a software tester, but also shortly as a Java developer. I am a big fan of Agile methodology, where in small iterations, I can gain a really deep knowledge of the product. This helps in better testing, which makes the product more reliable and competitive on the market.

Testing brings trust into the brand and allows me to experiment with the product, without the risk of failing. I simply cannot imagine myself doing anything else but testing. I really love the versatility and flexibility that the IT industry gives. It is never boring!

In my free time you can find me outside: skiing, running, climbing, swimming, biking, hiking… I could list probably every kind of activity, especially if camping is involved. I love mountains, so Switzerland sounds like the perfect places for me. I’m an outdoor person and for me, there is no bad weather (especially in winter). When I need to rest, I am reading popular science books or cooking.

Jagoda Brzozowicz

Ever since I was a child, I’ve enjoyed developing things from scratch and testing it. This passion, combined with my fascination for mathematics and technology, led me from construction sites over design offices to Test Engineering.

After my Civil Engineering studies in Poland which I completed with a master’s degree, I did my first steps in programming and testing. Civil Engineering and IT testing require extensive analytical skills and the ability to work with complex systems and processes. My technical studies enabled me to evaluate details in systems with many dependencies, helped me to understand applications context and identify potential sources of error in systems before they are released. The last years before joining House of Test team, I’ve worked in a bank in Frankfurt as a QA Engineer, taking care of the stability of a multichannel service platform.

For me, my job is more than a profession. As a tester, I enjoy calling everything in question; I can do this every day. I love tricky tasks in complex environments. Not only running simple comparisons between „how something works” and „how it should work”, but seeing and testing everything from the user point of view and evaluating it within the big picture – not within a single process. For me, testing is what it needs to transform our users from customers into fans.

When I’m not diving through web applications, you can find me on a squash court, travelling across Europe with a backpack or relaxing during baking.

Noreen Akhtar

My background is a bit unusual in that I was in the field of molecular biology (I have a PhD in microbiology) before I made a radical turn and jumped on an education to become a software tester. Not that I didn’t love science, however the unreliable job market made me consider making a change to something else, hopefully with better job prospects. Although it was a bit random choice on my part, I came to find software testing interesting and fun- specifically thanks to great teachers. And I haven’t really looked back since. However, from time to time I do feel a bit nostalgic and I do dream of finding the perfect job- somehow combining my current field with my previous field in biology. Who knows, it might happen one day!

I have now worked a few years as a tester, both in frontend and backend development teams. I like working in close collaboration with developers so that I can give rapid feedback and get insights into how they work. Being a trained scientist, I am analytical and curious, I love learning new things and continuously improving my testing skills. I like getting the big picture before diving into details as it helps to determine what’s most important.

Erika Johannesson

I do not work as a tester

I communicate

I am curious

I analyze

I learn

I care

I map

I evolve

I discuss

I have grit

I collaborate

I do not work as a tester; I am a tester.

Magnus Henriksson

Dennis Johansson

You know that chafing feeling, the feeling that something is wrong. You cant really put your finger on it yet but its itching in you to find out.
For me that’s an invitation to dig, to troubleshoot whether its through the tangled forest of  backend java code or the dungeon of Databases or might it be somewhere high up in the clouds.
Usually it’s a people problem.
My strength as a tester lies in the ability to adapt. To move in both the technical parts and the soft skill parts. Analyzing what tools in the quality toolbox that is suitable for you. Is it automation, performance, coaching or a mix of everything and then executing, that is my strength, I deliver value In all steps.

Max Lekare

Since my childhood I had a dream. A professional dream. A great dream. When I looked out the window at my mother’s workplace I saw: They were dirty and disgusting. But then I beheld: a hero without a cape had arrived, a champion of our polluted times. His hair flowing in the wind. His face with Nature’s own hand painted. His raiment stained with traces of previous battles. He illuminated all wicked deeds, righted every wrong, straightened all that had been crooked, and blessed us all with his glistening gaze. His title: Washier of the Windowes. And thus, for a young lad, a dream was born. But to cut a long story short, I was not able to qualify for the Window Washer’s Guild, and so I became a software engineer instead, which is also quite fun.

Edward Fatemi

I love testing, I’m very curious to learn how other things work, I started my career as a Software developer, and after a while, I became interested in Software testing, and I think as a developer you are God and you can create everything you want and as a software tester, you are father of God who corrects his son’s creations! Programming means how you should live and Test means how you can live with good quality and I learned these two principles and implemented them in my daily life! Free time for me are just looking into the night sky or skydiving!

Shela Hägglund

Test for me is questioning, reasoning, and improving.
Test for me is feeling safe, confident and in control.
Test for me is being proactive, efficient and holistic.

Test is context- driven. Test is quality. Test is everywhere.

Rickard Larsson

Jacob Swenson

Manuel Gonzalez

Forget generalists.  Come with me to the world of Hypergeneralism! I’ve lived in several different countries and speak five languages; I’ve held a wide variety of positions in a wide variety of industries, and this has given me unique experiences, tools, and points of view that allow me to see an issue from multiple perspectives at once. I can therefore gauge the impact to development, business, users, etc.  I can see the forest AND the trees.What attracted me to House of Test is the philosophy of not rigidly sticking to a specific philosophy.  Of using the right tool for the job.

Sese Castlind

Josefine Andréasson