“I wouldn’t rely on vibecoding as a magic pill.” Writer and IT professional Iryna Grabovska on QA, applying IT practices in literature, and why AI won’t replace testers

— Everyone knows you mostly as an author and writer. I would like to ask about your IT profession. What is your IT background, how did you get into this field?

I officially started working in IT when I got a job as a Middle QA Engineer at Innovecs on a gaming project. They had and probably still have a large gaming division. We were testing a game for Warner Brothers — Batman: Arkham Underworld on mobile devices — first only on iPad, then we moved on to Android.

Despite the fact that the development lasted for over three years (I joined the testing already at the last stage), the game, unfortunately, failed in production and the project was closed. It’s a shame, because I actually really enjoyed working with games and before that, in 2012, I even managed to be a freelance scriptwriter for several games on social networks.

After that, I moved into the business sphere — I never tested games again. Then I had projects: a trading platform, a data visualization system. And now I’m testing browser extensions at BiScience, a company that analyzes marketing data.

— I saw your post about being unemployed for a few months. Can you tell me about that experience?

Yes, I was looking for a job from October to January 2023. It was not the best time in the market and before, when I was going to change jobs, I found the next one in two weeks, but there were quite a few reviews and invitations for interviews, although there were a lot of messages from HR before. I was lucky to attract attention through a recommendation and, having gone through six stages of employment, I finally got the job I am still working on.

At the same time, I received another offer, but that project wrote back within a few days, saying it had not received proper funding and would get back to me in a few months, but I couldn’t wait. Employers, in my opinion, have become more demanding and meticulous, because the risks have increased significantly.

— Have you ever noticed during interviews that people say: «Oh, I’ve seen you somewhere before, you’re the author of „Leoburg“»?

It seems that this has not happened in interviews, although when I go for an interview, they Google me, and there is already a lot of information about me on the Internet. But so far no one has said that they will not hire me because I am a writer. I have many acquaintances who are professional writers who also work in IT. These are two very different industries.

My IT work is purely technical, I work with test documentation, test products from the perspective of the end observer, write simple autotests. And writing involves completely different abilities — it is creative work with text, plot, imagery, so I can rest, switching from one activity to another. It was difficult when I worked only with text and also at work — then I worked as a media analyst and news editor.

However, I also use some IT techniques in my writing. In fact, my plan for a book is a big epic with a description of what exactly I want to write. Then I break it down into episodes that resemble individual tasks. I plan in detail, and accordingly I can calculate when I finish the draft — give an estimate in months and in the number of characters (approximate), I can work on episodes in advance when the main plot has not yet reached there, and then integrate them into the text. I use Excel to track gaps in the storylines by character and supplement the plan so as not to rewrite the text later.

Several written episodes are collected into a chapter that I can send to alpha readers for review — and sometimes they reject this «pull request» because they have comments on the plot or the actions of the characters, then I think about how to fix it. And then the finished product is read by beta readers, who make their own edits. So before my book gets to the publisher, it goes through a kind of SDLC — like any development product.

— In general, based on your expertise, compared to 2023, has the market situation improved, changed, or remained the same?

It seems to me that it has improved a little. We can see this from the statistics published by DOU. Since I am not actively looking for a job right now, I can only judge from the outside, but I see that vacancies are opening up in our company all the time. So, there are vacancies and a need for specialists. However, I cannot say whether it has become easier to get an offer, whether there have been more reviews, or whether people have started to proactively look for people again. War risks remain, the economic situation is worsening.

— Have many of your acquaintances or friends who work in IT completely changed the vector of their specialty and gone into other areas or are thinking about it?

Of course, among my acquaintances there are those who went to war — both voluntarily and by mobilization. There is also one guy I know who went to work with drones in miltech. He will work with them as a civilian specialist. All other acquaintances continue to work in their specialties in IT — it seems to me that during the war there is not much time for experiments, unless, of course, it is participation in deftech projects.

— How do your employers feel about your additional profession? Do they ask about it or do they just say: «Well, write so that the work gets done»?

Sometimes they are surprised to see me as a speaker at book events or my books in bookstores, but mostly everyone knows that I write and doesn’t worry too much about it because I do my job. Although, of course, writing is a second professional job, since you have to devote time not only to writing or inventing something, but also to presentations, video recordings, promotional tours, and lectures for aspiring writers.

— In one of the podcasts, you were asked how you combine working in IT with writing. You said that five days a week is work, and you dedicate the weekends to writing books. Again, the same question — when do you manage to do all this? You go to meetings, host a fantasy podcast, write books, and also work.

I don’t have time. There are people who write much faster, more, several books at a time. And, of course, I don’t write regularly. I write when I feel the need — and it can be a little every day, or once every few weeks a large piece of text (2000-3000 words), which another person would write for a whole week.

I have a novel that I have been writing since early January 2025. I thought I would finish it by the end of that year, but I still haven’t finished it and I don’t know if I will have time this year, probably not. Even with detailed planning, it is still creativity.

— And you also have to find time for Baldur’s Gate somewhere.

Oh, Baldur’s Gate is a completely different thing. Thank God, this game happened to me after I submitted «The Crystal Castle» — the last novel in the trilogy — to Vivat. On April 7th at noon, I submitted the text, immediately turned on the game and disappeared for several months. It was really hard to get out of it.

— How many hours have you spent playing this game? And do the games you spend a lot of time playing affect your romances and activities?

Globally, for novels, no. But this game is very focused on characters and interaction with them, and for me that’s the most interesting thing in general. I don’t really care what the plot or world will be like — that applies to games, books, and films. What fascinates me is the interaction with the characters: how their attitude is built and changes, how your perception changes when you learn their background.

As for the hours I spent playing the game, I think I played around 560 for sure. I’m not playing it right now, I decided to try Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It’s clear that this game is much smaller than Baldur’s Gate, although it’s very sad and beautiful. The characters are likable, although I don’t agree with some of the plot decisions.

— How realistic is it to live in Ukraine solely from your writing? What needs to be done for this, what should be the circulation?

It’s hard to say, because authors have individual conditions. It all depends on the contract with the publisher, the royalty percentage, and the fee.

My income has increased because I have a successful series called «The Crystal Castle,» which has sold over 30,000 copies, so now my annual income as a writer is somewhere around the average monthly salary in Ukraine. Let’s add speaking and lecturing fees here.

But there are authors like Illarion Pavlyuk, who sold over 100,000 copies of «I See You’re Interested in Darkness,» or Max Kidruk, who sold over 10,000 copies of «Collapse» (a continuation of the science fiction series «Colony») on pre-order alone.

The problem with writing income is that it’s unpredictable and irregular. For example, I get royalties once a year, not monthly like a salary. You also never know if people will like your next book.

— And regarding selling the rights to your books to a Western audience?

I don’t have any such contracts yet. It’s very difficult to sell Ukrainian fantasy there — it’s a big risk. We’re a wild field for them. Most people abroad are interested in texts about war, Chernobyl, or the current political situation. To sell fantasy, it has to be super successful in Ukraine. The momentum of curiosity has noticeably faded since 2022.

— Regarding artificial intelligence. How is it being implemented in your work and what do you think about QA automation?

Artificial intelligence helps automate certain routine things, it can help prototype a product. But I wouldn’t rely on vibecoding as a magic pill. People will use the product, and AI can’t think like a human, so it can’t predict how people will use the product and what they will like or dislike.

It seems to me that the interest in implementing AI is a bit overheated right now. It will be integrated into development, but it will not replace programmers and testers. When I first came to work, they said that manual QA would soon be gone. Now they say that Automation QA would be gone too, because all the tests would be written by AI. It is unlikely that this will happen, although I do not rule out the appearance of strange vacancies like Vibecoding Engineer.

It’s convenient to have paid accounts for ChatGPT or Claude for work. AI can quickly write a checklist, review test cases or code. Sometimes I check myself through AI to see if I missed something, but I never trust it completely.

— What about using AI in writing, for research or writing?

Recently, I watched an interview with the members of the band YUKO and they were given a song written through the Suno service. They immediately understood that this was not a person — strange intonations, rhythms, musical phrases. Yulia Yurina very aptly noted that the value of creativity is that a person gives emotion from their own experience, reveals the pain and trauma they have experienced, and it is this experience that resonates with the listener/reader. This cannot be achieved with generated text, even if AI worked well with Ukrainian.

I don’t use AI for creativity. The only thing is that I can ask it to quickly suggest something or find information, but I constantly check, because AI invents and gives false facts.

When I was doing research for The Crystal Castle, I ordered monographs on medieval figures from Amazon. They sent me a couple of pieces from France that you won’t find digitized anywhere, because one was published in 1996, the other in 1970. It was invaluable material, monographs by European scholars, no AI will give you that kind of information. I also don’t use it for editing (because it has no sense of text) or for plotting.

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— Have you had any requests from Ukrainian game studios to create games based on your books?

At the Book Arsenal the year before last, a guy came up to me who was thrilled with Stars and Dice and suggested I make a board game. But you have to work on that.

I’m open to suggestions. If anyone wants to make a game or an adaptation, write, let’s discuss. Unfortunately, I’m not an orchestra person and I can’t do games or animation myself. My way of expressing myself is text.

— Finally, name your top 5 favorite games or board games.

Well, of course, Baldur’s Gate 3. I really like Life is Strange, because it’s also about characters and choices. I was a huge fan of The Sims at one time, where I created entire stories of generations. I also loved creating dynasties in Crusader’s Kings. I also really like Expedition 33.

I hardly watch movies and TV series now. And from the tabletop games, I like fast games — 7 Wonders, Evergreen, Bang!. I played big tabletop games like Game of Thrones and Rising Sun — they are very atmospheric, but strategically complex and require a lot of concentration.

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