Season 2 Episode #20: Dennis Thisner quit his first job out of pride, called his mom to brag, and realised he had no plan. A friend's tip and some truly terrible bug reports later, he was a QA engineer. Ten years on, he's built quality processes from the ground up across gaming, enterprise SaaS, agency work, and now telecom at Rebtel.

We explore what it takes to build QA where none exists, why developer buy-in is the hardest first step, and why he tells his team to code first and use AI second. Dennis also shares where test automation is heading when you can just hand AI your test cases, and why quality has less to do with attention to detail and more to do with the atmosphere around your team.

From technical artist to QA manager - how quitting twice, a friend's tip, and terrible bug reports shaped a 10-year QA career

He quit his first job out of pride, called his mom to brag, and she asked if he had a new one lined up - he didn't
A friend's wife introduced him to software testing, and at United Front Games he finally learned what a proper bug report looks like
Looking back at his old one-liner tickets with no screenshots was the moment he realised how far he'd come
Every career move started with networking and saying yes, not with a plan

Building QA from scratch - getting buy-in, shifting left, and knowing when the process actually works

The first step is always getting buy-in from engineering, which means asking them to do more work like writing acceptance criteria
You know it's working when developers come to QA before building, not after, and nobody is trying to run away when you approach their desk
The quality bar depends entirely on who you work with and what the company cares about - a four-client enterprise is different from hundreds of thousands of users
There's no excuse for developers not to add unit tests anymore - AI makes it trivially easy

Code first, AI second - why knowing the basics matters more than ever in the age of vibe coding

He told his team: write the code yourself first, use AI for guidance and code review, not as a replacement for thinking
The dopamine kick of AI-generated output is real, but if you can't explain what you built in a meeting, you've got a problem
AI is perfect for internal tooling and clearing the P4 backlog that sits in the void of doom, but your core expertise should stay human
The future of test automation may not require much code at all - just hand AI your test cases and acceptance criteria and let it run

Quality is atmosphere - why the people and culture matter more than any process

His definition of quality shifted from attention to detail to the environment you build around your team
If you don't enjoy your coworkers and your work, the attention to detail goes out the door because you stop caring
External partners should be treated as equals - he picks people he'd want to have a beer with and invests in their growth the same as in-house
His advice to younger self: don't take it so seriously, have fun, and when something isn't working, look inward before blaming everything else

Dennis Thisner

QA Manager at Rebtel

Dennis Thisner is a QA Manager at Rebtel who started as a technical artist in gaming, quit his first job out of pride with no backup plan, and fell into QA almost by accident. Ten years and four industries later, he has built quality processes from the ground up across gaming, enterprise SaaS, agency work, and telecom. At Rebtel he scales QA across web and mobile for hundreds of thousands of users and believes quality starts with atmosphere, not attention to detail.

Josh William Burmistre-Griffiths

Digital Marketing and Paid Ad Specialist

Josh William Burmistre-Griffiths works at TestDevLab, focusing on digital marketing and paid advertising across multiple platforms. His past experience working at agencies and unicorn startups has equipped Josh with the expertise to bring valuable digital marketing insights to Tech Effect.

#39 Dennis Thisner (Rebtel): Code First, AI Second - Why Knowing the Basics Matters More Than Ever

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