Filip Tocko: Top FOI graduate with a knack for automation

Filip Tocko is a young man with many interests. A fan of post-acopalyptic PlayStation games and movies, he loves FC Barcelona (Yamal in particular), Boston Celtics and being in good shape. At home, he made his own gym so he could work out regularly. With two cats as pets, he seems to be great at balancing work and hobbies, which does take discipline and persistence.

Filip graduated with honours in Information and Software Engineering from FOI. He was offered a teaching assistant position, but chose to start out in business and join Emil Frey Digital. He already made an impact here, having automated near to 90 percent of manual tests on his BI team.

Systems that automatically test and deploy code

With the rise of agile development, DevOps and CI/CD practices, automation has become a key part of software development and is gaining importance in our organization. 

Automation engineers build and maintain systems that automatically test and deploy code.

- Automation engineer (AE) is working on the automation of manual tests. That’s exactly what I do. Creating automated tests means setting up instructions to check how the user moves through the app. For this you need some logical thinking and programming skills. However, there’s more to the AE role. If you spot repetitive processes that take a lot of manual work, you should find the right tools to automate those too. When you replace manual testing with automated one, testing becomes faster and much easier, he said in a recent conversation.

Learning databases: You need to be interested

As the BI team member, Filip also automates database consistency checks. To do that, you need some knowledge of SQL and databases.

- At the university, you learn on smaller data sets and you do simpler queries. It is different in practice. You work with a large set of data and more advanced queries, so you look at how to optimize the complex queries you write.

So how do you get the necessary knowledge to work with bases?

- First of all, you must be interested in them. A good technical background from the uni helped me to find my way around more easily and to onboard faster. In almost any technical position in IT, you will need to understand how to work with databases.

Opportunities for automation engineers

As an automation engineer, you get to work with different kinds of advanced technologies that the company uses in software development, testing and implementation.

- For example, we use Cypress to test user journeys. For data verification tests (BI part) we use Postman and Datafactory. Datafactory can connect to two databases, perform queries on both and check if the data is the same. On the other hand, Postman works on the API principle. Similar logic, only architecturally different.

Since the AE role emerged and became technically stronger compared to the former QA role, it also includes the DevOps work. This is mostly configuration and delivery of applications, in order to relieve developers. To be able to do that, automation engineers must know the technologies almost as well as developers.

- Today, our applications are located in Kubernetes clusters and Docker containers. We use all the classic features of Kubernetes, from low balancing, through scaling, etc. AE should always be up-to-date when it comes to technologies, he said. 

QA role transformation

Filip started automating tests a little over a year ago, while he was still a QA on the support BI team. It reduced the amount of manual and repetitive work and allowed QA to transform into a more advanced position with programming knowledge and skills.

- I continued to automate tests, until I automateded almost all of them. In the AE role I also started doing DevOps work. Through configuration, I learned new things about application delivery and other technologies like Kubernetes and Docker.

Automation brings a lot of advantages, he says. It helps you streamline processes and makes tedious tasks easier.

- Checking data in the database takes a lot of time if you do everything manually. Which is why some checks were not even done to that extent before. The same goes for software testing. Productivity increases because more can be done in less time. In addition to speeding up, automation facilitates any repetitive, manual work that we have to do every day, Filip explained.

What you do every day determines how much you will learn

Again, he stresses the value of this kind of work for learning.

- If you are in a place where new technical knowledge is constantly needed, and applied, you will be on top of trends and new technologies. That, I think, is very important for your professional and career development. Also, there is great satisfaction when you know that you have made work easier for yourself and others. For me, it is like I have created my own application that I just run. Not just me, but anyone else on the team.

What else can be done in terms of automation?

- I think we've only just reached a very high level of automation. But there's always something new coming. Every new application or release is tested, which is why AE needs to constantly maintain automated tests. We just recently developed a new application, but automation was similar. We used the existing knowledge and adapted it to the new needs.

Filip was interested in software from an early age; he says he had an IT mindset.

- I was always more interested in software than hardware. I spent a lot of time on my computer, playing games or doing software installations. After high school I wasn't 100% sure which university to choose. I chose FOI. Later on, I came to realize that this is the right career for me. I had chosen a good university, he said.

A fan of sports and staying in good shape

He likes to play games on his PlayStation5, and watch a new series or movie. Action thrillers and post-apocalyptic series are his favourites. 

- I spend most of my working hours sitting, so I like to work out at the gym. I made a mini home gym so I can do that at home whenever I want.

He prefers watching football to playing. A fan of FC Barcelona since he was a boy, he likes to be up-to-date when it comes to other sports: the five-a-side football league, NBA, skiing.

Filip says you can achieve anything if you manage your time well, and if you really want to.

- I come to the office every day because communication is easier and I am more up to date with what is happening. I only work remotely when I am really busy, which is rare. I think working from home (even a small part of the time) only makes sense after 2-3 years, when you are completely independent in your work and you know the company culture. At the beginning, you constantly need to ask questions because that is the time when you learn the most. That is much easier when you are in the office, he concluded.