Being a father in a remote town, Depa Panji Purnama stands out as one of our favorite community builders. He is humble, down to earth, and always ready to lend a hand. With a mindset centered on helping others, Depa has become a reliable presence in the Katalon Community, showing that passion and dedication can thrive no matter where you live. We had a chance to have a warm conversation with him, and below is our interview. 
Q: First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Depa: My name is Depa Panji Purnama, you can call me Depa. I live in Cianjur, a small town roughly 3 hours by car from Jakarta. I have been working in QA for more than seven years, both manual and automation. Right now I work remotely for a software house company in Jakarta.
Q: Besides testing, what are your hobbies? What do you usually do?
Depa: Actually, I’m a gamer, so you can call me a gamer. In my free time, I usually play games like EAFC/FIFA, Fortnite, and Call of Duty. That’s my daily routine outside working hours. But I also have hobbies related to tech. I like contributing to open source, and recently I’ve become very interested in cybersecurity.
Q: What is it like to have a QA job in your town? Can you describe your daily routine?
Depa: Since I work remotely, my day starts with taking my daughter to school. Living in Cianjur, a small town far from the big tech hubs, this daily routine keeps me grounded and reminds me why I value remote work so much. It gives me the flexibility to be present for my family.
After that, I begin work by checking the automation results from the night before. If everything is green, that is a good start to the day. If there are failed tests, I switch into problem-solving mode, debugging the issues and raising them with the team if needed. This is usually where collaboration begins, because it often leads to discussions with developers about fixes or improvements.
Once that is done, I join the daily scrum meeting. The rest of the day is filled with testing tasks such as handling ready-to-test tickets, working with developers to resolve bugs, and making sure the projects stay on track. It is a mix of independent focus time and teamwork, which I enjoy.
In the afternoon, I usually take a short coffee break and then pick up my daughter from school. That is one of the best parts of remote work because I get to spend more time with my family, something I would not have if I had to commute every day. After that, I continue with QA tasks until the day ends.
So it is nothing too special, but it gives me a good balance of work and family life. That balance is one of the main reasons I have been able to grow in my career while living outside the big cities.
Q: In Cianjur, is QA a popular career, or not really?
Depa: Of course not. The tech industry does not exist in my town. In Indonesia, most tech companies are based in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Malang. Cianjur is a very small town. If I asked my neighbors about QA, nobody would even know what it is. Here, common jobs are in banking and insurance. So when it comes to tech, especially QA, it is very rare. Regardless of any of that, I chose this path because it gives me the chance to solve problems, grow my skills, and work remotely while being close to my family.
Q: You don’t have a lot of professionals around you, and also not many opportunities nearby. Where did you meet people, and do you want to join more meetups in the future?
Depa: The last time I attended a tech meetup was about four years ago. At that time, I was still living in Bandung. It’s a big city, so there were many tech meetups, and it was easy for me to join. But after moving to Cianjur three years ago, it’s been difficult. There aren’t any tech events here, so I haven’t attended any since.
Yes, of course. Because I work remotely, I don’t really meet people face-to-face. I feel the need to interact and socialize, it’s not good to always stay at home without building connections. Networking is very important in the tech industry. It can open doors, whether it’s a referral to a company or hearing about new opportunities. I think I really need to attend meetups to grow my network. The only challenge is that Cianjur is far from big cities, so I would need to commute to join. But if there’s a chance, I’d definitely like to go.
Q: What do you see in terms of the QA community in Indonesia? What are the trends right now?
Depa: Based on my knowledge, the hottest topic right now is definitely AI. People in the QA community here are sharing their experiences using AI in testing platforms. Some of them are already trying out the AI features in Katalon. Every day, it feels like new platforms are launching with AI capabilities for QA. Actually, one of my daily routines is checking Product Hunt in the morning. I like to see the latest product launches, and many of them are about AI in testing. So yes, AI is very high-profile in the QA community in Indonesia.
Q: And from your point of view, what more can we do to support you and the QA community in Indonesia?
Depa: I think Katalon needs to be more intense in introducing the Katalon Forum to people in Indonesia.
Currently, there are relatively few Indonesian testers active on the Katalon Forum. This may be because many of them are more familiar with other platforms, such as ISQA (the Indonesian Software Quality Assurance community), which is very active on Telegram.
In those groups, it’s common to see questions related to Katalon. However, the Forum could be even more helpful, since it makes it easier to search past discussions, find existing solutions, and organize topics in a structured way.
One idea could be for Katalon to host meetups in Indonesia and introduce the Forum during those events. This could help more local QA professionals discover the platform and take advantage of its resources.
Q: When did you first hear about Katalon?
Depa: I think I first heard about Katalon around five years ago. In Indonesia, Katalon is actually very popular, I would even say it is more well-known than Selenium. I am part of the Indonesian Software Quality Assurance Forum (ISKA), and whenever people discuss automation, the main topic is usually about Katalon. Everyone knows it.
At that time, I did not use it seriously because I did not have responsibility for automation in my job. But when I joined my current company, they were already using Katalon, so I had to learn it. Now, I have been using it for about a year. Honestly, I call Katalon the Swiss army knife of automation tools. Everything you need is there: easy scripting, cloud execution, even AI with TrueTest.
Q: Can you tell us about your biggest project using Katalon? What did you do, and how did Katalon help?
Depa: As I mentioned before, my current work is mostly with auction platforms. Katalon helps me a lot with repetitive tasks and regression testing. One of the key requirements of my project is testing across multiple devices and OS versions. Here, Katalon TestCloud is really useful because I can easily run tests on different environments without setting everything up myself.
Another big highlight is that, for the first time, I was able to automate a WebSocket-based project. This means I could simulate live bidding in the auction platform using automation. That was a huge achievement for me as a QA. Of course, like every tool, Katalon has pros and cons. For me, the biggest challenge is pricing. In Indonesia, it feels quite expensive. But in terms of functionality, Katalon really is like a Swiss army knife, all-in-one, covering everything I need for automation.
Q: What brought you to the Katalon Community forum?
Depa: At first, I joined because I was stuck setting up a BDD project. I followed the wrong documentation, it was for version 8 but I was using version 10, so nothing worked. I did not expect much because in other forums people often do not reply. But I tried posting my question in the Katalon forum anyway. To my surprise, many members jumped in to help. I still remember especially Kazurayam, he is a star. If I ever get the chance to thank him directly, I would love that. His answers helped me a lot. After receiving help, I felt I should give back to the community. So now, I also try to help others on the forum when I can. Another thing that impressed me was the reward program. I did not even realize it at first, until a month after joining when I saw recognition from Katalon staff. That made me feel even more motivated to stay active.
Q: If Katalon gave you the power to build any feature, no matter how big, what would it be?
Depa: First, I have to say the self-healing feature in Katalon is the coolest thing I’ve used so far.But if I could imagine a new feature, I’d want something AI-based for cybersecurity. For example, a feature where you can input a URL or APK, and then Katalon would automatically scan for vulnerabilities and security issues in that web or mobile app.
That would be amazing, combining QA and security testing in one tool.
Q: Cybersecurity? Tell us more about that.
Depa: Yes, it’s something I’m really drawn to. I sometimes think if QA doesn’t exist in the future, I would switch careers and become a cybersecurity engineer. When I find a security issue, it feels like a “level up” compared to finding a stability bug. It’s more challenging and exciting. Recently, I even had a session with Coty because of this. I had posted on LinkedIn about my disappointment when I discovered a security vulnerability issue in the Katalon platform. That post actually led to a conversation and opened new opportunities for me to share my thoughts.
Q: Earlier you mentioned, “if QA no longer exists, I would move into cybersecurity.” What did you mean by that? Do you think QA jobs will disappear?
Depa: In the AI era, there’s a lot of speculation. Some tech influencers, especially on X (Twitter), have said that QA jobs might disappear in the next 10 years. Of course, that’s just their opinion, but it made me think: maybe I should have another area of expertise besides QA. That’s why I’m learning cybersecurity. If QA jobs ever really shrink, I’d like to be ready to transition.
Thank you so much for being a value member of our community
Feeling inspired by Depa’s story?
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We’re always happy to welcome new voices into our community.
-The Katalon Community Team
