Tester, project manager, trainer, and consultant – Tiina Nevalainen has many roles

Testimate’s Senior Consultant Tiina Nevalainen is an experienced software professional who has held many different roles during her career. Tiina is passionate about creating new things and training people.

Opening new trails of innovation

Tiina’s career in IT began in the late 1980s when, after completing her engineering thesis, she stayed on to work for a small company called Nokia, which was then just starting out. Nokia’s organization quickly grew to thousands of employees, providing plenty of work for everyone.

“I started as a coder, but early on my duties also included training and instructing others. Before long, I moved on to testing and then to supervisory duties in an organization that provides customer training,” Tiina recalls her early years.

During her nearly 15 years at Nokia, Tiina learned a great deal about developing mobile phone networks and building a rapidly growing global organization. Although there were challenges along the way, the lessons learned and experiences gained were invaluable.

“I have been fortunate because, during my career, I have experienced several moments when we have been the first in the world to solve new challenges. We couldn’t follow examples or repeat best practices—we had to research and create something new together with the team. This has definitely been the best part of my job.” Tiina points out.

The creation of something new did not end with Nokia. In her next job at Conformiq, Tiina was using and developing a completely new type of tool for testing software. Although Nokia had already taken its first steps in test automation in the 1990s, the new tool opened Tiina’s eyes.

“Early automation tools were hard-coded. The new tool was able to generate a large number of tests, and the tester was able to supplement the results to make them more comprehensive, which gave the expert a whole new level of freedom. If the tool was invented today, artificial intelligence would certainly be used to generate the tests.”

At Conformiq, Tiina advanced to the position of Consulting Director, managing all of the company’s consultants. In her subsequent positions, Tiina worked as a project manager for an information security company and was involved in developing the first digital video surveillance systems.

Testing, training, and project management

In 2021, Tiina was once again looking for a new phase in her career. After weighing up the job offers she had received, Tiina ended up as a testing consultant at Testimate. Hands-on testing still had its own appeal:

“I find it fascinating to see the early stages of a product’s development and its evolution, where ideally the raw idea will be turned into a solution that helps and benefits the end user,” Tiina says, describing the appeal of product development.

During her time at Testimate, Tiina has been involved in many aspects of testing. Her roles have varied from tester to test manager, project manager, and trainer. Her consultative approach has also been evident in projects where she has assessed the current testing situation at client companies and provided clear recommendations for improvement.

However, projects do not always end up as originally planned.

“In one project focused on acceptance testing, I assisted the customer in evaluating a third-party system. In the end, I recommended that the solution was not of sufficient quality to be released, and the customer ultimately decided to discontinue the project. When necessary, consultants must also have the courage to raise their hand and support the customer’s decision-making with documentation and their own well-founded opinion.”

Training has also remained close to Tiina’s heart.

“I have always loved training. At Testimate, I have been able to do just that. I enjoy explaining technical matters in layman’s terms and using examples from everyday life.”

Human talent will still be needed in the future

The spread of generative artificial intelligence has been the most talked-about revolution in the IT industry in recent years. However, Tiina does not believe that testing will become less important or that human work will decline.

“Automation has been used for decades, and people are still needed. I don’t believe that artificial intelligence can be trained to code flawlessly—there will always be a need for testing. In testing, artificial intelligence can be harnessed as an assistant, and the focus of an expert’s work may change.”

In fact, Tiina believes that the human perspective in product development should grow and diversify.

“In addition to the current male-dominated teams, more women are needed in development and in evaluating the functionality of digital solutions. Even today, products are still designed stereotypically for use by men, when in reality the situations in which they are used vary and the products have a wide range of different users.”

The human perspective also appealed to Tiina when she first joined Testimate. Accustomed to large organizations, the relatively small consulting firm seemed like a good choice.

“In a large organization, one individual’s voice may not be heard, and they become part of the machinery. However, I want to make an impact and bring my own ideas to the table. A lean organization and an agile team are able to respond to changes in the environment and share expertise, constantly learning from each other. At Testimate, the desire to help colleagues is really strong.”