Last week we celebrated our five-year journey together with MTV. In honor of this, we interviewed four VALA people about their everyday life on MTV. Let’s dive right into it, to hear, among other things: what VALA people do at MTV, how the team works and how they spend time outside of work as well.

Janne Juopperi – QA lead

Tell us about your daily work at MTV?

Janne: I am the lead of MTV’s virtual QA team. This means I take care of our testers and try to make sure that everyone has fun at work, gets the job done, and that cooperation goes well with everyone. For the customer, I am the person they can turn to when they need to coordinate testing expertise and resources. About every other month, I organize a steering group where we examine the past a bit, take a look into the crystal ball and exchange feelings about quality in a very open and transparent way. Depending on the situation, I spend the rest of my time either putting on the test automation hat or doing hands on concrete testing work in the video backend team.

How have you spent your time outside of working hours with your VALA and MTV colleagues?

Janne: We’ve arranged various recreational events several times a year with VALA people working at MTV. For example a trip to Tallinn, bowling, sailing, going out for pizza, etc. The customer also invites us to celebrate, e.g. For MTV’s 65th anniversary celebrations.

How does the team work?

Janne: Every VALA employee is a close part of the development team of a certain product area, and services are developed using the Kanban model. All code changes and new features go through the QA pipeline, and new releases are made when we are satisfied with the quality and have gained a sense of certainty that what was implemented before, will not break. Testing sessions involving almost the entire team have also been held when, for example, third-party changes have come up that require a little more testing.

What thing in the MTV project you wouldn’t change?

Janne: The work has been really flexible and the customer is very satisfied with VALA! The C More Total+ benefit has also been very nice, at least during the ice hockey World Championships ; ).

Do you remember any funny story/coincidence/event from over the years?

Janne: When I signed the contract with VALA, I didn’t yet know which client or project I would end up with. I looked at what kind of references VALA has and MTV is visibly featured there. I thought that it could be an interesting business and industry. Well, it wasn’t even a week when Teemu called to say that there was a QA Lead position here at MTV available :).

Veli Hänninen – QA engineer

Tell us about your daily work at MTV?

Veli: I act as the responsible tester of the C More service, mainly for the web (Windows/Mac), iOS (iPhone, iPad) and tvOS (Apple TV) platforms. The work also includes investigating customer faults, often complex ones too. Perhaps the most challenging testing area for me is the so-called purchase pipeline on the web platform, through which users of the C More service buy the subscription.

How have you spent your time outside of working hours with your VALA and MTV colleagues?

Veli: We have tried to hold a few recreational events a year with the VALA people working at the MTV. With coworkers, we also talk quite freely about family matters, competing services, leisure events, and many other things that are part of normal life, so the common spirit is very open.

How does the team work?

Veli: Every VALA employee, just like other consultants, has a very clear area of ​​responsibility at MTV, but if needed, help both in understanding the matter and in the work itself can easily be obtained from colleagues. Testing’s opinion on the required testing time is well taken into account, i.e. even in the middle of a rush, things are never taken to production untested.

From time to time, the work is very busy, for example when pushing brand changes or similar features to production that are released to all different user interfaces at the same time. On the other hand, there are times when production is calmed down from changes, e.g. during larger sports events shown on the service, and then there is more time for e.g. exploratory testing.

What thing in the MTV project wouldn’t you change?

Veli: Good relationships at work and easy and genuine communication. The genuinity of working with MTV people, VALA people and other consultants and the desire to help, without any secrets, competition or bad blood.

Soili Woods-Hill – QA consultant

Tell us about your daily work at MTV?

Soili:

In five years, I’ve had the opportunity to do many kinds of verification and process refinement work. In the early days, there was a need to reorganize the testing of the News team, then test automation was planned, there was a transition to AWS, a brand renewal and the launch of new sites (e.g. company pages, Suomi Areena, Makuja, World Rally Championship and Liiga). And this is only a small part that comes to mind at the moment.

I’ve also been able to test CoreMedia-Studio when major environmental changes were coming. The studio is the “big machine” with which editors create all the articles on the MTVUutiset.fi, I also often create articles there myself for testing purposes.

How have you spent your time outside of working hours with your VALA and MTV colleagues?

Soili:

Before Corona, we met every day at lunch. Nowadays, we have lunches every now and then with VALA people and CoreMedia team members.

We’ve spent team days with the VALApeople in spring and autumn. I myself have organized a trip to Tallinn, catamaran sailing, and now I was involved in organizing the MTV-VALA 5 years sailing. 

How does the team work?

Soili:

Our good-spirited CoreMedia team has remained the same for years, some have been with us for almost 10 years. After the removal of the Corona lockdown, we were so happy to see each other again in person! 😊

The team agreed that we will be at the office during this hybrid time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when there are more meetings. At other times we will pretty much work remotely.

 What thing in the MTV project wouldn’t you change?

 Soili:

Team 😊, and how well the team managers also take the QA side into account. They genuinely  listen and you encourage us to bring out our own opinions!

Mari Hänninen – QA Lead

Tell us about your daily work at MTV?

Mari: I am currently working as a QA Lead in a project related to the implementation of a new CRM system. In general, together with the business testers, I am responsible for ensuring that MTV’s needs and wishes are taken into account and fulfilled in cooperation at Telia and TV4 Nordic level. My job includes team management and cooperation with Telia and TV4’s various parties, as well as various stakeholders within MTV.

How have you spent your time outside of working hours with your VALA and MTV colleagues?

Mari: While at the office, we enjoy coffee together and talk about things other than work 😉. The atmosphere in the entire ICT team is very relaxed, open and humorous, and the mood of working together is good. There have also been joint events outside of working hours, and we  share a joint WhatsApp group where we share photos from free time etc. 😊.

How does the team work?

Mari: Working methods vary depending on the project. However, what each has in common is that MTV’s business has played a big role in the acceptance testing phase, and we have worked closely with different business units to ensure quality. There have also been development teams from several different areas in the projects, and as a QA Lead at the center of the events, I have been able to see very well, how, for example, the systems integrate with each other and the information flows “under the hood”.

What thing in the MTV project wouldn’t you change?

Mari: The best coworkers and colleagues! We have a top team, great personalities, with whom it is a pleasure to work together in a busy and sometimes stressful everyday life.

Do you remember any funny story/coincidence/event from over the years?

Mari: At some point in our weekly ICT team meeting, there was an “aerobic” part, where the whole team got up from the chairs and there was a joint gymnastics session. For some reason, however, this tradition has now disappeared, although it certainly wouldn’t hurt to take a break every now and then 😃.

That’s all for now. If you’d like to work at MTV or at some of our other great clients, send an application here!

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