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SheCanCode's Spilling The T
SheCanCode's Spilling The T
Mastering Performance Engineering and DevOps
Join us in this insightful episode as we sit down with Anshu Anand, a Technical Test Manager at Planit with over 17 years of expertise spanning Performance Engineering, DevOps, Software Development, and Automation Testing. Anshu shares her wealth of experience, discussing her passion for delivering cutting-edge solutions and her commitment to staying ahead in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
From scripting and execution to strategic oversight, Anshu's journey offers invaluable insights into the complexities of software testing and performance optimization. Discover how she balances technical acumen with mentorship, guiding the next generation of professionals while maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and innovation.
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Hello everyone. Thank you for tuning in again. I am Kaylee Bateman, the Content Director at SheCanCode, and today we are discussing Mastering Performance Engineering and DevOps a deep dive with Anshu Anand, and I've got the amazing Anshu with me today. She's a technical test manager at Planet. She's here. She has over 17 years of expertise spanning performance engineering, devops, software development and automation testing. Welcome, anshu. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for coming on to discuss a little bit about your journey and your commitment to staying ahead in the ever-evolving tech landscape. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Kay, for having me. I feel very welcomed.
Speaker 1:first of all, Thank you for taking time out of your busy day. We'd love to start with a bit about you, if that's okay. Can you walk us through a little bit about your journey into the tech industry and how you got started and what led you to specialize in performance engineering in DevOps?
Speaker 2:Sure, definitely so. My journey started in the tech industry in 2007 when I completed my master's in computers of application in India. So I was fortunate to get recruited as an on-campus placement program, which which kickstarted my career in software testing. So I started initially as a manual tester, but slowly, as I have lots of interest in coding. So that led me to transition into automation testing and as I gained experience I became increasingly fascinated about the performance testing, capacity planning, system architecture and all those things. So this interest led me to the performance testing. So over time my focus involved in the performance and automation testing both, and then gradually I moved to the performance engineering as well, where I could apply my skills or the expertise in the designing architecture, designing capacity planning, optimizing the robust and the high performance system which I used on our day-to-day basis. So that's me amazing.
Speaker 1:Um, out of curiosity, who who inspired you to study tech and to go into tech? Did you have family in that area or was it someone at school?
Speaker 2:No, that was something. I think it was my mum mostly, but I don't have any background from the tech industry. My dad dad, he's a businessman and I'm from a very small town, I would say, but we don't have any background from the tech industry, and so I think that led me just. I just went for my graduation and the post-graduation and suddenly moved to the tech industry and did my master's yeah, and you haven't looked.
Speaker 2:No, I haven't looked back. So I started my career in India, but then I go. I had a couple of experience with the big IT industry in India, so from there I started career, moved to overseas I was in New Zealand as well and then moved to UK, and then I didn't look back. I think so.
Speaker 1:Well, good to hear that you came in and you kept moving forward and it's been a really successful career for you so far.
Speaker 2:Great. Yeah, it was an amazing career and still going on, so I'm happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you've had over 17 years of experience so far. So how have you seen the fields of performance, engineering and DevOps evolve in that time?
Speaker 2:So I think over the past 17 years, I would say it's a significant transformation in the performance engineering and the DevOps, because DevOps is like a very critical practice aiming to dramatically reduce the time between code changes and their deployment introduction.
Speaker 2:So the focus for DevOps is like continuous integration, which we heard like nowadays very frequently continuous integration, continuous delivery and the automation of workflows, all those things. So DevOps emphasizes mostly collaboration across all stakeholders, like developers, operations and the key ways as well, which we are the key ways leading to a more cohesive and efficient process. And performance engineering, I think, has evolved from traditional performance testing into a very holistic approach that addresses the performance of systems throughout the entire SDLC, which is a software development lifecycle. So as DevOps pushes for faster and more frequent releases, performance engineering has become essential because we need to make sure that we are not compromising on system reliability, scalability, performance of the system. So both are like integrate with DevOps to continuously assess, optimize and guarantee that applications can handle the load, expected load or the peak load for the seamless user experience. So, if I say in summary, both are deeply interconnected. Performance engineering supports like an agile or iterative nature of DevOps by embedding performance consideration into different phases of the development and the testing cycle.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you work in an incredibly, uh, fast-paced um industry and, uh, that's not quite exciting, though that um you. You work in an industry where everything changes incredibly fast and you have to keep up with that yes, definitely nowadays.
Speaker 2:So technology is changing like a. It's a massive change in the technology, so we we have to keep up to date. So I usually do like online training and the country, even our planet. They provide lots of courses from LinkedIn and different platforms as well. So we usually do online courses and, I think, even trainings.
Speaker 1:Also, I do it join lots of webinars as well, just to keep me up to the market as well, because technology changes a lot yeah, that must be quite a challenge, but great that um planning offers you that time as well to be able to keep up to date. Um, instead of. You know, sometimes we get very trapped in our day jobs. Um, I don't always have time to time to find time for self-development, so that's great that they offer you that time and those courses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, definitely they offer, I think, whenever we are busy. Still, I think, if we have to learn, I think sometimes we have to take time, but I'm very lucky that our organisation provides such type of courses, which is very good.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. I know that you're also quite passionate about mentoring and you've mentioned previously to me that your commitment to mentoring peers and guiding junior team members is very important to you. So what's your approach to mentorship and how do you foster growth within your teams?
Speaker 2:So mentoring isn't, I would say it's just not about the one-to-one guidance which we do to our teammates. I usually do like a personalized guidance as well, because in my team I have different types of people, like it's like a fresher as well. Some are quite experienced, so I have to personalize us, but they're tailored with their individual needs, strength and aspirations as well. So I usually take time to understand each team member with their goals, challenges, and I usually regularly have their one-to-one meetings like informal check, informal check-ins also I usually do, and it's not about only the technical. Sometimes they need some personalized, some personal guidance as well, and I think it's good to have that as well when you work as a team, just for our well-being and everything I would say.
Speaker 2:So that's how I do, like a personal guidance, and it's like when I say mentorship, it's like an open communication I provide. So it's not I have to do always a mentorship, it's they can also. Sometimes I learn from them as well. It's not just I'm giving them some mentoring, but sometimes I learn from them as well. They have lots of knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. Yeah, you're right, you take something from your mentoring relationships both ways. You definitely learn from them as well, and it really helps you to grow in your own career when you have a mentee.
Speaker 2:Definitely, definitely yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:And, on that note, what were some of the biggest challenges that you faced in your career and how did you overcome them? Obviously, you help other people along the way now, but what are some of the challenges that you faced?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, yes, I think throughout my career I have faced several significant challenges. I would say. First is like transitioning from the manual testing to the automation. It was like learning new skills and I should have that different mindset as well to adopt that skills. So I invested a lot of time in learning, as I said, doing online courses. At that time also, I was doing that one and my managers helped me a lot when I had that aspiration. I'd share that with my managers and ask them to give me some projects so that I can enhance my skills. So they helped me as well on that. And slowly, this helps me in the expertise and confidence on from moving from manual testing to automation. That was one of my challenge and, as you said, like rapidly changing the technologies. That is one of the challenge which we are having, which everyone has, not me only.
Speaker 2:I think everybody has a challenge yeah yeah, and like, as I'm working in the performance testing and the engineering teams as well, or the projects, so managing lots of performance issues in the large skill systems. I'm talking not only as a project but an organization basis as well. So sometimes we have all those performance issues with different components and at that time my solution approach is like working with all the teams who can help me, like architecture, I would say developers, everyone who would be happy to be involved and ask lots of questions and try to resolve the bottlenecks.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so that I mean that can be quite challenging in itself having lots of people involved in one thing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So that is one of the as now I'm a technical test manager as well. So balancing my hands-on work with my leadership responsibility, that is also one challenge which I have. But I think initially I was not delegating lots of my responsibilities, I would say. But over the time I learned that skill as well, because as a leader you have to do that as well so that everybody grows.
Speaker 1:So I learned all those things delegating effectively, managing my time and create a balance around that yeah, that's such a skill when, when you step into leadership and to know that that's okay to delegate and that people want you to delegate because they want to do their job and you need to do yours, and you're like juggling that, um, the the technical work, that that you're doing on your own, that that hands-on work, um, and and being a leader as well, that takes some adjustment, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, yes, definitely yeah amazing, um, and you mentioned, obviously, one other thing, uh, that you're very passionate about is your mentoring.
Speaker 2:So I'm assuming that also comes with some challenges as well Mentoring and managing the diverse teams which I have, because I don't have only team onshore, we have teams in the offshore as well. So there are different backgrounds as well. I have a diverse background and the skill sets which I have in my team and the skill sets which I have in my team. So I embrace diversity. I would say focused on the clear communication and I would prefer setting the transparent goals with each and every one of my teammates as well and, as I said, I usually tailor the mentorship on their individual needs and it's like a cohesive team culture which I follow.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yeah, Curiosity. When you have these type of mentoring relationships, are they done hybridly and do you work remotely? What kind of environments do you work with your teams in whilst you're trying to tackle these challenges?
Speaker 2:So it depends. So I work remotely as well. It's like a hybrid, I would say, because I usually, as I said, I have teams from offshore, onshore as well, and from diverse, and as a big organisation, we have teammates on different countries as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice to have the option, isn't it, to work hybridly and to meet with people in person, especially if you're mentoring someone, that is nice to have. But also now having the option to work remotely means that we have far-reaching relationships within the workplace as well, so it's good when companies allow hybrid working so you can have those connections. Yes, definitely. What about emerging technologies or trends? We've spoken a little bit about how fast the industry can move. So, on that note of emerging technologies and trends, what are you most excited about and how do you see them shaping the future of performance, engineering and DevOps?
Speaker 2:I'm very much excited about emerging technologies that are set to revolutionize, I would say, devops and performance engineering, because they enhance all the automation and software quality which right now, clients are expecting everybody to have, that right. So I would say the first one would be the ai, which is ai and the machine learning. It's like a goddess right now, yeah. So, yeah, it's a buzzword, everybody's talking about everybody's gpt, co-pilot, all the thing. So ai and machine learning is like increasingly integrated with performance engineering and the devops.
Speaker 2:So which enables, like predictive, predictive analytics, resourcing, optimization, as I said, the capacity planning, automation, all those things with the help of ai and machine learning. We can do all those things. With the help of AI and machine learning, we can do all those things. These technologies are very proactive in performance management and the automation, because DevOps is like pipelines creation and all those things. So AI and machine learning. First of all, I would say and I'm not sure whether you heard the terminology, which is like a buzzword again observability and AIOps. That's quite a new one. Yeah, that's like a buzzword nowadays going on.
Speaker 2:So it's nothing which it's like a comprehensive logging and the tracing metrics which we are doing, so it's another terminology for monitoring. I would say, but yeah, so that is also one of the technology like because AIOps enhances, with the help of AI, we can correlate all the data, identify the bottlenecks and enable faster issue resolution. I would say, right, okay, and I would say microservices and the serverless computing that is also again a latest technology which is going on overall with all the clients and everybody is doing that right now, so which introduce new performance management challenges because they are driving like more granular cicd, pipelines, pipelines, automated infrastructure management, which is again leading to faster to the market. It's good to and that's what. As I said, nowadays technology is changing, so you have to keep an eye on everything. I would say, and I think it's good to learn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and that's that's the mindset of you know it's good to keep learning, because a lot of these, these new things, I suppose people find them quite daunting. You know they sound quite uh, daunting thing. How do you keep up on those those things? And how do you think we, you know, a few months ago people would be saying they wouldn't have even dreamed of saying, be working on projects with AI, for instance. And then when you start hearing those buzzwords, you know it can be quite intimidating to think, oh gosh, how am I supposed to learn all about these new areas, even though they sound super exciting, it? They sound quite daunting, but it sounds so that you, because you have that time to learn, it just sounds like you're more, you sound more excited about being able to learn about all of these, these new exciting challenges that are coming your way.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, definitely yes, I'm very much excited to learn all those things I want to learn but it's just a time. I don't think I have that much time time, but, yes, I try to learn whatever I can on my business schedule as well and, as I said, our organization also helped us, so I think I'm doing good as of now, trying to learn more things.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I've spoken to other ladies on this podcast about that mindset and being that person that is always willing to learn new things and soak up new technologies in the areas that they work in. You definitely sound like one of those people. It's kind of life in tech, isn't it? Constantly evolving and constantly learning something new, which I don't know about you, but I wish more people knew that that is what working in the tech industry is actually like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, day-to-day life as well. I'm born in the 80s, so I think we have seen all the technology evolution from the landline to mobile p, all those things, yeah, and now everything. So it's like a technology evolving on our day-to-day life as well. Now we have alexa and everything, all the things going on. Techie, yeah, even you can switch on lights and everything. My daughter she's 18 months old, but she knows how to speak with a and Siri oh really yes, wow.
Speaker 1:Are you hoping that she goes to work into tech? You're hoping that she'll be inspired by what you do? That would be great.
Speaker 2:I hope so, but I'm not sure. Let's see she's quite small right now you never.
Speaker 1:You never know, um. So what about people starting out then? You know people that are thinking about coming into the tech industry, and in some of the areas that you work in as well. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in performance engineering or DevOps, and what skills or mindsets are essential for success in these fields?
Speaker 2:okay, I would say, as I said, I started my career as um from my on-site campus, sort of right. So I think, focusing on the fundamentals, building your strong foundation in the computer science basics, because that's the main thing you should understand all the I would say I want to all the languages, because you have lots of languages, but at least like basics, like Python is a key and a good one to start with. Learn the scripting, programming languages, java, c++ and all the basic computer science basic. At least we should have a strong foundation around that one. That would be the first thing. I would say focus on your fundamentals. And the second one, as you said, like as a key way, we should have a problem solving mindset rather than just always come up with a problem. Have a problem solving mindset, approach problems problem with the, systematically identify the root cause and the effective solutions around that. That would the second one, I would say. And the third one, um tools, technologies, like we have right now masters on that one um and as he is talking about the performance testing, so in performance testing we have lots of tools, but the basic, which is open source as well JMeter. Jmeter is an open source tool, so you can start with JMeter. And there are lots of monitoring tools as well. Grafana is one of them which is used by most of the organizations as well for monitoring the systems. So start with those tools and in devops you can learn how to do with the cicd. Learns the tools around that one jenkins, gitlab, docker, kubernetes get those are basic open source tools as well. We have some open source tools, but nowadays you can get lots of things online as well. On youtube, linkedin courses are available. So just crack on with that one, I would say.
Speaker 2:And automation, embrace automation. I would say, focus on automating the task rather than doing manually like a basic, basic thing. I would say, like when, as a qa, I started as a manual tester, when I was writing the scripts, I was thinking why it can't be automated and then gradually I moved, transition myself into automation skills, said just learn technologies, doing the, learn the tools. That's another thing. And also some nowadays because, as I told you, the link and all those things. So networking, mentorship, all those things, because we are going, lots of web events are going on, community events comes on LinkedIn, so try to engage with all those community attend events, all those things I would say I think by focusing on this areas, I would say it would be beneficial for the one who wants to start a career on performance testing or the devops yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:And, as some of our community, um, a lot of our community all ask that question what advice and and where do I get started? Because, like you said, there are a lot of uh online resources available and that can almost be sometimes overwhelming that there are so many great things that are out there. But where do I actually get started and where do I um put uh, put my efforts? Um, so I know that I'm actually learning something that's worthwhile? Um, we have a lot of ladies in our communities. Well, they they are transitioning in their careers um into tech for the first time, and they always ask us where to get started and is it too late, which we we we always like to share.
Speaker 1:It is never too late to get started in tech. You just need to get started is the first thing, um, but they have all those lovely transferable skills as well that they bring from previous job into the tech industry, and you know it's the tech industry has great transferable skills, doesn't it? And coming in and learning something and some of the advice you gave there where to get started and knowing things like to embrace automation um, there are things that you can you can do at any stage of your career, can't you? Whether you've been in work 10-15 years already, um, but just to embrace the tech industry, um, and and retrain and try something new, I suppose yes, you are right, I would.
Speaker 2:I would completely agree with you. I don't think it's. It's never late. You can, as nowadays we have lots of the trainings material, as I said, online you have everything, so it's never late. Just have that mindset that you have to learn the things. Just adopt learning, I would say, and you would crack on on all those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've met some of your other ladies that work at Planet as well and you're all incredible with incredible backgrounds. And do you, do you work with a lot of people with very diverse backgrounds, or is everybody very they knew they wanted to go into computer science or have you worked with people that you know have transitioned from, from different careers, for instance?
Speaker 2:yes, I have worked with Planet as well and with my previous organizations. I have worked with a couple of people who were from the different background. One of my friend, close friend, she's from tech. Now she's a. She's also a manager, technical test manager. She was from a hotel management background, oh wow. And and she, uh, she was from a hotel management background and she started as a from a call center and then she transitioned into a tech and now she is into a big organization as a test manager, which is quite interesting, girl. I would say journey for her as well, and when you listen, you get inspired yes, exactly, did she see what you were doing in tech?
Speaker 1:or? I've heard a few ladies on here say actually my husband worked in tech and I saw what he was doing. When we're all working from home or I could retrain and do that, yeah.
Speaker 2:I won't say because my husband he's also in tech.
Speaker 1:Oh, there we go.
Speaker 2:My husband. He's in tech, but I think we both started career at the same time. Yeah, but no, it's never late. So you can transform your career from any other area to the tech industry, but you have to have that mindset of learning the things and just go with the flow. I would say.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. That is brilliant advice for anybody wanting to transition into tech at a later stage in their career and as well as falling into the right company or not just falling in, but picking the right company that embraces the fact that you are transitioning in your career, for instance, or joining even as a graduate, and a company that really wants to retain you and invest in you makes such a difference and, like yourself, continues to, to train you along the way as well and to find ways to retain you. That's so, so important. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Every time. I think organisation also helps you when they know your situation or the background. I think organisation helps everyone. I would say it depends. Sometimes you have very different situation, but I think most of the organization I have worked on I felt that that organization helps you. If, as I said, when I started my career, I asked my manager but you have to share your thoughts with your senior leaders as well, or the managers, just so that they know what your aspirations are and they can help you and guide you as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are correct. Yes, just been communicating on what you would like to do moving forward. I've heard that from a lady on here before about you know your managers are not mind readers and you need to communicate on where you'd like to go. You know good companies, like Planet, for instance, they want to listen to their employees and retain you and develop you in the areas that you're interested in moving forward in, because, as you've mentioned today, there are so many areas that you could move into and so many new and exciting technologies for you to work on.
Speaker 1:In tech it's hard to narrow down what you want to do and where you want to go. Yes, yes, um, it's uh how to narrow down what you want to do and where you want to go. Yes, yes, um, actually we're already out of time. It is absolutely flown by talking to you. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2:It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, thank you so much for having me and it was a lovely talking to you. I would say say, and I enjoyed. Thank you, you can feel that we have passed or we have finished the time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely flew by. We'll have to have you back again for another conversation with us, so thank you For everybody listening, as always. Thank you for joining us and we hope to see you again next time.
