Seven questions to Quality Manager, Oleg

Oleg Pankratz (Quality Manager, Cologne office), written by Sonja Felix

Driven by an eye for detail, always on the lookout for hidden bugs combined with a strong focus on quality: Oleg has been an integral part of the Avenga Germany team since 2019. He got a PhD in business informatics, enjoys chess and calisthenics, a good crime novel and would like to meet Sherlock Holmes. Time for a short interview – time for seven questions to Oleg.

Dear Oleg, why don’t you tell us what motivates you to start your computer on Monday morning?

What I particularly appreciate about my work is the variety that comes with the number of complex web projects. We always work on different projects in parallel and so I get exciting insights into different departments, industries, and systems. Every day is different and through the interactions I am constantly learning. The combination of exciting tasks and the human encounter at eye level gives me a lot of pleasure and motivates me.

What does a typical working day as a Quality Manager look like?

My morning routine is characterized by meetings, which give an overview of the status of my projects, and by status checks of automated tests, which run every night. Afterwards I do “classic” QA activities; the tasks depend mostly on the project. Examples include automated or manual testing, coordination with the QA and project teams, test planning and design, review of documents and requirements, and – most importantly – communication with and support of our clients.

What do you like most about Avenga?

The (team) culture! We have flat hierarchies, which makes the interaction and exchange with each other very open, collegial and cooperative. I am happy to see my colleagues every day. Also, we are not held back by unnecessarily rigid processes and structures.

Stars, heroes, role models, influencers: Who would you like to meet in person?

In my ideal world, this would probably be Sherlock Holmes. I’m curious what he would be able to deduce about myself by just looking at me. Maybe I can trick him somehow! In the real world, I would pick a meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger or Elon Musk. It is impressive what a person can achieve in a single lifetime.

How are you doing with the transformation from Sevenval to Avenga, how are you experiencing the transition?

I find the merger exciting and appreciate both the challenges and opportunities that come with it. It is great that we have a much bigger pool of know-how and company-wide expertise to draw upon. Sometimes, there are even personal sources of enjoyment involved. At some point, we began working on a challenging project with a colleague from Ukraine, and at first held our conference calls in English until we realized that everybody involved speaks Russian. Since Russian is also one of my native languages, it was quite enjoyable (and effective!) to be able to use it in one of my projects.

Half full or half empty?

Sounds to me like the glass is twice as big as it could be.