Bogdan Carcadea

The problem

A live product with four cross-functional teams and no QA function behind it. No inherited process, no second opinion. Every decision about what to test, when to automate, and what blocks a release is mine.

Outcome

Manual QA effort dropped by about half per sprint, the defect pipeline is used by the whole studio, and the QA function now scales beyond one person. Coverage extends to other internal products, including a finance-focused AR/MR application.

What I did

• Designed the QA strategy from zero: risk-based coverage, tiered regression scope, release criteria, and 10 to 20 new test cases per feature each sprint.
• Introduced automated testing across core application flows using C#, Unity Test Framework, AltTester, and Python, removing repetitive smoke and regression passes.
• Redesigned the Jira workflows and tracking boards; the reporting standard is now used daily by QA, development, art, and management.
• Took over the department's technical hiring: running assessments, then training and mentoring the testers I helped bring in.

The problem

Productions like Assassin's Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Watch Dogs: Legion ship across PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and mobile, with a state-space no team can test exhaustively. Build cadence swung with context, from one or two builds a week in quiet phases to 8-10 a day near release.

Outcome

Contributed to an estimated 10,000+ reported defects across the portfolio, and was trusted with team coordination without holding the lead title.

What I did

• Worked in a strike-team model: rotated onto projects needing senior coverage, delivered analysis and reports, moved to the next.
• As Quality Analyst Technician, covered specific features and areas sprint by sprint. On selected projects this included coordinating a team of 15 expert testers: allocating tasks, tracking technical KPIs, and reporting to QC leadership.
• Applied risk-based, functional, and non-functional testing to keep coverage meaningful when exhaustive testing was impossible.
• Supported milestone delivery, platform compliance, and certification across console generations, PC, and mobile.

The problem

Manual test scripting for match-3 games does not scale: every new level means hours of case-by-case setup, and content updates quietly invalidate old coverage.

Outcome

New-level test setup time went from hours to minutes, and the framework keeps working as content changes.

What I did

• Built a single reusable framework, with AI-assisted development in Claude Code, that runs automated suites for level validation, game-logic checks, and functional coverage across performance, visual, audio, event, notification, and monetization systems.
• Simulated multiple player personas through configurable alter-ego profiles (distinct playstyle presets) across parallel multi-device sessions, validating personality-driven mechanics and progression loops.
• Designed it to adapt to new levels and content updates instead of being rewritten for them.
• Building Playwright and TypeScript skills through a personal portfolio project: UI end-to-end tests, API testing, Page Object Model, fixtures, and GitHub Actions CI, to develop capability I want to bring to a team.

The problem

A solo project run like a real product, to practice the engineering discipline QA usually observes from the outside: Git/PR workflow, release practices, and owning defects I wrote myself.

Outcome

A live, working app, and a better understanding of the developer's side of the defect lifecycle. It changed how I write bug reports and how I design automation.

What I did

• Built a predictive analytics engine: regression-based progress forecasting with confidence scoring, self-correcting calorie targets, and meal planning that respects dietary restrictions.
• Integrated an AI conversational coach (Claude, Gemini, OpenAI) with persistent long-term memory and daily briefings.
• JavaScript, Firebase, and LLM API integration, developed end to end inside a PR-based workflow.