From Statistics to Test Analyst: How Martin Fuger at UNIQA Elevates End-to-End Quality in Insurance

A non-linear path into quality

“I actually started with a field that has nothing to do with it. That’s statistics.” With this line, Martin Fuger opens his story—and captures a truth behind many tech careers: not everyone starts in software or testing. In the session “Martin Fuger, Test Analyst bei UNIQA,” the speaker recounts how his statistical background led him into insurance, then into the business domain, and eventually into IT—right to the moment where testing revealed its leverage.

After joining the insurance sector, he worked on the business side and became a Product Owner in an IT transformation project. That is when he realized the tangible value of testing for his role as a Product Owner. The discovery shaped his career: he intentionally moved into testing to learn its facets—always driven by the question of how to raise software quality and what collaboration between business and IT can really produce.

From our DevJobs.at editorial seat, this lands as a clear message to career changers: there isn’t a single, straight road into quality assurance. What matters—echoing Martin’s emphasis—is curiosity about real processes, proximity to requirements, and the understanding that sound testing is a bridge-building discipline.

The Test Analyst’s everyday: different every day, always between domains

“What I like about being a Test Analyst is that every day is different.” That line gets to the core. As Martin explains, testing isn’t an isolated exercise of ticking boxes. It’s an active connection across roles—between business stakeholders, business analysts, and developers.

• Upstream in requirements: Some days, he’s deeply involved in the requirement phase with business analysts and the domain teams. That’s where testing starts: with clarity, shared language, and a common understanding of what should be built.
• On the engineering floor: Other days are about exchanging with developers. Here, business and technical processes are translated into one another and tied together.

His summary: “We try to link the business processes and the technical processes.” That linkage is where quality happens. Tests are more than controls—they are conversation starters that bring crucial questions to the surface.

Testing as challenge: critical questioning to create real value

Martin adds a second dimension: “We try to critically question what we want to implement in a transformation project. Where do we want to go, and what should we actually test?” His stance positions testing as an active contributor to product shaping—not a checklist at the end.

In practice this implies:

• Not just reading requirements, but examining whether they’re consistent, testable, and value-adding.
• Synchronizing the business intent and the technical implementation—and naming the gaps.
• Keeping value front and center: “...generate value for the customer, generate value for the intermediaries.”

The role identity that emerges is clear: testers “challenge”—with intent and respect. They phrase observations in ways that can flow back into the process and make the product better. That ethos permeates his entire account.

Real usage in focus: becoming the customer and the intermediary in test systems

One moment that stands out: the emphasis on real usage behavior. “In our test systems… we are the customer, the intermediary.” Martin explains how the team steps into roles and thinks end-to-end—not in isolated modules, but across concrete flows as they would happen in production:

• “I want to complete an application with the insurance.”
• “I want to create a policy.”
• “I want to change my policy.”
• “I want to cancel it.”
• “I am reporting a claim.”

These are more than test steps—they are scenes from everyday operations. By acting them out, the team gets an honest look at the product: Where is the friction? Where is language missing between business and IT? Where does business logic collide with technical reality? This is where the “aha moments,” as Martin calls them, are found.

End-to-End means lifecycle: running the long arc of a policy

Martin focuses on “End-to-End processes,” simulating the entire lifecycle of a policy over time—from application to claim, from creation to modification to cancellation. For him, E2E is not a buzzword; it is the deliberate practice of walking with the policy across months or years.

In practical terms, this mindset entails:

• Testing at integration seams: deliberately probing interfaces and state transitions.
• Testing for consequences: asking how a change today affects downstream steps tomorrow.
• Testing for completeness: covering more than the happy path, reflecting how policies behave in real life.

This perspective differentiates review from reality. End-to-end testing validates the whole—not just the sum of its parts.

Finding a shared language: where business and IT meet

“It’s actually fun to keep finding that language together.” Martin’s words capture the collaboration he relies on. Quality needs at least two translations: from business logic into technical design—and back again.

What we take from his approach:

• Language is a tool. Shared vocabulary reduces misinterpretations and shortens loops.
• Tests create language. Through concrete experimentation, we make requirements tangible.
• Understanding beats assumption. Questions bring clarity before misunderstandings become costly.

In this frame, “challenging” is not an attack—it’s a contribution to better alignment.

Aha moments and defects: how communication shapes quality

Martin speaks candidly about a central difficulty in testing: communicating defects. “Most others are not as happy about defects or bugs as a tester.” The line hits home. Finding issues is necessary. Communicating them in a way that gets them accepted and resolved is an art.

His guiding question: “How do you communicate it, how do you phrase it, and how can you feed your findings back into the process so that together you create value and raise software quality?”

What we take away:

• Stay factual: describe, don’t judge. Focus on symptoms, not culprits.
• Ensure reproducibility: context, steps, expected vs. actual behavior.
• Make impact understandable: both business and technical—without exaggeration.
• Close the loop: don’t just drop findings; integrate them back into the process until they stick.

Handled this way, a bug report becomes a building block of quality—not just noise in the project channel.

Beyond test cases: the broader testing ecosystem

For Martin, testing doesn’t end with analysis and execution. He highlights the surrounding disciplines: “We also have surrounding areas such as test automation or load and performance tests or security tests.” These are not islands; they are interfaces that both consume and provide input.

This imposes two responsibilities on Test Analysts:

• Orchestration: End-to-end thinking stacks manual, automated, load, and security testing into a coherent whole.
• Collaboration: Quality is made at seams. The depth of exchange among testing teams determines how well results reinforce one another.

In Martin’s words: foster collaboration, provide input—so these disciplines “help increase the quality of the software.”

Attitude over certificates: how to enter and grow in testing

“I think what’s important is the attitude. It’s not so important to come in already top trained.” Martin shifts the focus from formal training to lived practice. Yes, there are certifications—he mentions “SQB.” Yet the mindset matters more:

Practically, that means:

• Actively clarifying requirements: “Have I understood the requirements?”
• Following the implementation: “Have I understood what is being developed?”
• Being fearless about findings: don’t hesitate to discover defects—or to make mistakes in testing.

His reasoning is unambiguous: “We are the last fortress… before it goes to market or into production.” That is exactly why speaking up matters, addressing uncertainty matters, and learning from mistakes matters. “Collect experience, exchange, grow from the errors, and learn what to watch more closely next time.”

Actionable guidelines from “Martin Fuger, Test Analyst bei UNIQA”

From our vantage point, several clear guidelines emerge—useful whether you work in business, development, or testing:

1. Engage early, test early

• Testing starts at requirements. Clarify questions, tighten terminology, think in acceptance criteria.
• “Every day is different”—use that diversity to surface friction sooner.

1. Think end-to-end, act in roles

• Simulation as method: become the customer and intermediary in test systems—from application to claim.
• Lifecycle over snapshot: examine state changes, interfaces, and downstream implications.

1. Challenge with respect

• Align what is being built with what is being tested: “What do we want to implement… what should we actually test?”
• Frame challenges as contributions to clarity rather than resistance.

1. Let communication drive quality

• Phrase defects so they get accepted: neutral, complete, and actionable.
• Feed findings back into the process—stay with them until resolved.

1. Work the testing ecosystem

• Treat test automation, load/performance, and security as partners.
• Connect outputs across disciplines rather than keeping them in silos.

1. Mindset first

• Certifications like “SQB” are means, not ends.
• Curiosity, proactive communication, tolerance for mistakes, and a learning posture go further than any checklist.

Why this view of testing matters

Especially in transformation projects—where legacy and new coexist, expectations grow, and timelines are ambitious—communication, end-to-end thinking, and the ability to tie business and technical perspectives together determine quality. Martin’s story underscores a simple truth: the strongest lever rarely sits in an isolated test case. It sits in the interplay.

• Testers are bridge builders—between requirements and implementation.
• They are simulation experts—experiencing the product like customers and intermediaries before real users do.
• They are translators—finding language that makes defects understandable, solvable, and valuable.

That’s also why Martin’s “aha moments” during test execution resonate. Those are the inflection points where products and processes improve—when teams accept the signal, understand the cause, and embed the solution.

What we at DevJobs.at are taking away

From “Martin Fuger, Test Analyst bei UNIQA,” we’re taking four central insights to strengthen everyday life in tech and product teams:

• Empathy for real usage: role-based testing closes the gap between intention and production.
• Clarity through language: a shared vocabulary across business and IT shortens loops and avoids rework.
• E2E as a must-have: validating the lifecycle ensures the whole works—not just the individual parts.
• Attitude as foundation: proactive communication, “questions, questions, questions,” and the courage to log defects define a testing team’s impact.

What stands out across Martin’s account is the central place of collaboration—both with business and development, and within the testing discipline itself, including test automation, performance, and security. Quality is a team sport.

A compact portrait of the role—minus the buzzwords

The essence of Martin’s perspective can be summarized without losing its nuance:

• Test Analysts engage early: they shape requirements and ensure testability.
• They think in end-to-end processes: understanding lifecycles, testing transitions, anticipating consequences.
• They communicate for impact: phrasing findings, making defects actionable, emphasizing value.
• They connect disciplines: weaving manual, automated, load, and security testing into one narrative.
• They grow by asking: learning beats formalism; mindset beats certification.

Bundled together, this role profile is exactly what transformation efforts—like the one Martin describes—depend on.

Conclusion: Quality grows where teams keep asking

“Do not hesitate to log a defect or a bug.” That’s not only a call to testers—it’s a call to teams. Quality is not random. It is the product of clear requirements, realistic simulation, precise communication, and a willingness to learn.

The session with speaker Martin Fuger from UNIQA Insurance Group AG shows how powerful that approach can be: from business understanding and technical implementation to the way findings are fed back into the process. Work like this moves testing to the heart of product development—not a gate at the end.

And that’s where they happen—the “aha moments” that lead to robust software, satisfied customers and intermediaries, and a shared bar for quality.

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