A test manager’s tips

Test plan guide? The list features tips and insights from experts on many of the less black-and-white aspects of testing. Such as considerations for choosing the right tests, creating a testing culture that sets the stage for successful testing among teams, prepping for tests, testing with greater efficiency, and other important insights to streamline your testing process and get better results in less time and, often, at a more affordable cost.

Following on from getting your A-Team together, you now need to get them involved in every which way you can. Get team members involved in documenting the process, in the decision making for your projects, and encourage actively speaking up when they see problems or issues. Keeping the communication lines open with honest and frank discussion, and group involvement, is always going to be better than a dictatorship! Waterfall, Agile, Exploratory, Context-Driven… the list goes on. You need to decide – hopefully as a team – which methodology and which practices of that methodology fit your organisation.

Taking you deep into this ever changing industry is software test management consultancy Cania Consulting, comprised of industry leaders who specialize in software testing audit, strategy, and management. They use the techniques and insights provided in this book on a daily basis with their clients and are sharing their insider tips as a key resource for readers in the test management industry. As a young graduate I started looking for potential career opportunities and this eBook has shown me the beauty and complexity of the Test Manager profession from a theoretical standpoint. See more info at Test Levels.

Find your good enough threshold. Everyone wants perfect software, but budget constraints, business priorities, and resource capacity often make ‘perfect’ an impossible goal. But if perfection isn’t your goal, what is? Recognize that the goal of testing is to mitigate risk, not necessarily eliminate it. Your applications don’t need to be perfect — but they do need to support your business processes in time to leverage new opportunities without exposing companies to unnecessary or untenable risk. Therefore, your definition of quality may vary by application. As you initiate a project, get the right roles involved to ask the right questions: What constitutes perfect versus good enough versus unacceptable?

Work from home software testing trick of the day : For those who are not used to remote working, it sounds idyllic until your dog/kid/partner starts driving you up the wall. And remember we are not at home because we want to be. We should do what we can to make this easier for each other, and look out for each other. Sending care packages can be a good idea, as long as they don’t get in the way of essential supplies being delivered (at the time of writing this article, Amazon is rumoured to have started delaying non essential shipments). Leaders in the company need to let people know that the company is OK with productivity taking a dip overall. Also there will be a tendency for people to use the company’s channels (instant messengers, virtual meetings) to discuss things in the news and compensate for their relative isolation. Leaders should tolerate and encourage this. Expect that most company meetings will start with 10 minutes of banter unrelated to work, that’s OK. Find a few extra details at cania-consulting.com.