Anne-Marie Charrett, Testing Times@CHARRETT

Curiosity Killed the Cat….

(a case study)

www.eurostarconferences.com

@esconfs#esconfs

But what kills curiosity?This case study will be a springboard into a talk and then discussion on some ways we 'kill curiosity' within our teams. I will share some ‘Lessons Learned’ from the case study. Using my experience with test team transformation I’ll offer some pointers on how to create teams that encourage testers to question without compromising on project deadlines and goals.

The Story

Objectives and Goals

“As we discussed, our key priority is to bolster the existing testers and to help broaden the testing capability across the rest of the team with a view to understanding what we need to do to achieve a viable testing capability preferably without increasing our dedicated testing resource levels.”

Coaching philosophy

• A test coach

• Facilitate change

• To be dispensable

Challenges

• Testers felt they had no support

• Testers felt they weren’t listened to

• Excessive points for testing

• Stories not making release

• Difficult to accommodate change in priorities

• HTML breaking code in merge

• Hidden work

Some wins

• Testers worked together to solve the problems

• Brainstorming sessions between projects

• Developed cross project knowledge

• Introduced coaching

• Revised automation strategy

Quality Wins

• Agreement on Quality

• Definition of Done

• Checking & Testing

• Exploratory Testing

• Team ‘owns’ the problem

Smells

• No Stand Ups

• Poor Stories

• Cliques

• Bugs not being fixed

• Little communication

• Process Change

• Strategy Change

• No Scrum Master

Testers

Afraid to speak up

Afraid to question stories

Afraid to suggest change

Afraid to get bugs closed

Afraid to question developers

Blind spots

• I made assumptions about my role

• I made assumptions about the company

• I made assumptions about the team members

• I made assumptions about the testers ability

• I made assumptions about my own ability

• I didn’t see how the culture was affecting me

• I assumed that demonstrating quality testing would show value

What kills curiosity?

• Being intimidated• Lack of Understanding• Lack of Authority • Lack of Clarity • Lack of Trust • Lack of Knowledge• Lack of appreciation of culture • Arrogance • Cliques• I wasn’t a good fit • You can’t if its already dead

Discussion

Culture can kill curiosity

“Culture is a pattern of shared tacit assumptions that has

learned by a group, that has worked well enough to be considered valid ….”

--Edgar Schein

Culture @ ACME

• Don’t communicate

• Keep your head down

• Jiggling is good

• The business is not to be trusted

• Testers offer little value

LESSONS LEARNED

Be a Servant

Ask their opinion about what was needed

Ask their opinion about testing

Ask what isn’t working for them

Ask how can testers help?

Hold sessions explaining testing

Ask if you can help review the stories

Other Lessons Learned

Review goals regularly

You can’t change culture on your own

Power handed over is hard to regain

Delegate versus abdicate

Be humble – look to serve

Be vulnerable

Work with culture to achieve your goals

Test Team Transformation

• Get buy in from the top • Demonstrate value• Encourage Testers to lead change• Encourage testers to contribute to problem solving• Allow for failure • Review goals with stakeholders• Watch for your blind spots• Watch for culture! • Approach with humility • Step in where necessary • Bring in people they respect (Use people they respect)• Know your own goals

Thank You!