In three years, I see myself as a senior QA engineer. Viitala list’s six managerial competencies that I should consider: technical competencies, business competencies, knowledge management competencies, leadership competencies, social competencies and intrapersonal competencies (Viitala 2005, 439). In order to achieve my goal, I need to achieve a certain level in all of the aforementioned fields. Technical competency is the number one for me, I need to understand how the development process in our organization is handled on a deep level to proceed in my career. My business competency must grow also as senior QA needs to understand the impact of testing to organizations growth. Knowledge management is important to my next step after achieving seniority as I am planning on becoming a QA manager where part of my job would to foresee the training of my peers and courage them to improve their skillsets so they feel fulfillment from their jobs and see the progress in their expertise. Leadership competency is also needed in the long run, as QA manager title requires some leadership skills to make correct decisions defining the testing process and supporting people. Social competency is also important, as QA work is mostly teamwork and communication is part of this. Interpersonal skills are required for me to reflect my progress and decisions so that I can keep moving forward in the path I have chosen.

My plan in the next three years is focus on different competency areas that I am currently focusing. My main focus till now has been on technical competency, and I have been learning the technical skills required to do my job, all the other sectors have been on the downside. In the upcoming years my aim is to improve my leadership, social and intrapersonal competencies more, and at the same time increase my knowledge on business and knowledge management. My focus is described in the picture below from Viitala. (Viitala 2005, 439).

My knowledge development methods will mostly include self-study, expanding work responsibilities, meetings, and development projects. Self-study is common in my line of work, and I constantly seek more information regarding testing through You Tube and professional sites. I also attend online learning courses regarding testing and coding. Expanding work responsibilities comes with increasing technical competency: I can take more assignments with harder background.  In meetings I have not paid as much attention regarding business and logistics as those were not the main focus with me, but in the future I need to focus more on those meetings so that I can get a better idea on our organization. We have development projects going on, and I am part of one where we try to find bets practices regarding automated testing.