will the test leaders stand up?
DESCRIPTION
This talk was given at Eurostar 2013 in Gothenburg, Sweden. “Significant forces in the IT industry that mean testing in most organisations is under extreme pressure. Bosses wonder why they need people ‘over here’ to make sure people ‘over there’ do their job properly. Users, analysts, developers and testers may have to redistribute responsibility for testing and checking and by collaborating more effectively. Testers won’t drive this transition, and they may be caught out if they ignore the winds of change. There's complacency, self-delusion and over capacity in the testing business; there is too little agreement about what testing is, what it’s for or how it should be done. In this talk, Paul will suggest what leadership is required in our industry, the market and our organisations. Of course, some responsibility will fall on your shoulders. Whether you are a manager or technical specialist, there will be an opportunity for you to lead the change.”TRANSCRIPT
Will the Test Leaders Stand Up?A personal view
@paul_g
erra
rd
Paul [email protected]
gerrardconsulting.com
Diversity, Innovation and
Leadership
My Theme for Today
Theme
• The testing community is large and diverse• We work in every single systems domain• Every day, testers get asked to solve the
most diverse, challenging and difficult problems in no time at all
• Innovation? You bet!• Right here, right now, our business is
changing• But it takes people to lead that change.
Some EuroSTAR Delegates with
Diverse, Interesting Challenges
I could have picked perhaps 10 people at the show that I
know as examples
Mike Jarred,Director of Testing
• The Challenge– Testing perceived as a bottleneck– Testing perceived to be poor at estimating– Testing required to work long hours to help ensure delivery
• Responses– Introduce measures that makes quality visible– Measure rework as percentage of development time – Correlate Dev quality with rework, express time in terms of money wasted– Waste is opportunity cost
Mike JarredDirector of Software Delivery• Recognise trends for all products and show
ongoing improvements• Implement business analysis• Product quality and product management
alignment• Creating a Portfolio Management Office• Challenge the business to ensure there is
understood benefit and prioritisation for all IT work
• Improving … improving … improving …
Rob Lambert
• NewVoiceMedia - a leading provider of true cloud contact centre and voice solutions, enabling businesses to deliver a personal and unique customer experience quickly and securely
• Service availability and security are critical attributes of the cloud
• Guarantees 99.999% service availability and publishes the performance of it's services on the world's only cloud contact centre Trust site.
New Voice Media - Challenges• First challenge:
– Become reactive to dramatic, fast moving market changes– Adopted agile and took our release cycle down from every
9 months to every week• Second challenge:
– Growing the team rapidly whilst still maintaining our delivery focus
– Development team grew from 15 to 50+ in just a year.
• “We needed to break down the barriers between teams to enable a holistic environment. So we created a DevOps structure to bring the teams together both physically and culturally.”
Hiring!!
Dave ParkinsonDirector, First Party QualityAssurance Europe
• PlayStation - a business within Sony Corp.
• It’s a hardware and a software business• Large network of global game
developers• Support proprietary hardware platforms
and mobile devices• Desire to front load testing activity.
PRE-PRODUCTION PRODUCTION POST-PRODUCTION APPROVE & RELEASE
Concept PrototypeFirst
Publishable
Black Box Testers
α β Master Live
The Old Model…
• Sequential, non-iterative , siloed, corrective focusIndependent
Of Developers
PRE-PRODUCTION PRODUCTION ITERATE
Test Engineers
Concept
Test AnalystsBlack Box Testers
Decommission1st Release
Co-located
Co-located
Co-located and/or Offsite
Test Management Engagement
Future model
Hiring!!
PRE-PRODUCTION PRODUCTION POST-PRODUCTION APPROVE & RELEASE
Concept PrototypeFirst
Publishable
Black Box Testers
α β Master Live
The Old Model…
• Sequential, non-iterative , siloed, corrective focusIndependent
Of Developers
PRE-PRODUCTION PRODUCTION ITERATE
Test Engineers
Concept
Test AnalystsBlack Box Testers
Decommission1st Release
Co-located
Co-located
Co-located and/or Offsite
Test Management Engagement
Future model
• Iterative Products & Services• Lifecycle Testing Engagement• Detection & Prevention Focus• White, Grey , Black Box Testing• Extensive automation• Testing becomes discipline of product developmentTesting Paradigm Shift…
Hiring!!
Three Innovations
AgileShift LeftAnalytics
#1Agile doesn’t work
but being agile might
Agile is no longer innovative.Challenging Agile and being
agile might be.
#2Shift Left
Developers in testTesters everywhere
#3Test Analytics
Analytics from productionAnalytics from test
What an opportunity!
We are in transition
• A re-think is in progress• Adopting new architectures and a more
streamlined approach to development• Requirements half-life of weeks• Agile approaches are homing in on continuous
delivery• Kanban-Ichiwichi-Hokikoki-Kamikaze-Driven
Development – Whatever!• A hybrid Agile-Structured process:
– Structured Analysis, Agile Delivery?– That would be SAAD!
What is Agile really, really about?
COLLABORATIONand
RAPID FEEDBACK
The trend of testing
• Testing isn’t a stage at the end, it’s a part of all creative activities– All artefacts are tested, by someone, in some
way
• Front-loaded testing (test early, test often)– But it’s not always called testing
• Test-driven approach isn’t about test, its about design+risk – embrace it
• Behaviour-driven approach connects requirements, software design and testing
Change Needs Leadership
Will you lead change or be changed?
Some thoughts on leadership
“I must follow the people. Am I not
their leader?”Benjamin Disraeli
Politician’s view
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is
to say thank you. In between, the
leader is a servant” Max DePreeA businessman’s view (Jeeves leadership model?)
“Lead me, follow me, or get out of
my way!”General George
Patton
A soldier’s view
“You don’t lead by pointing and telling
people some place to go. You lead by going
to that place and making a case”
Ken KeseyA radical author’s view
“You don’t need a title to be a leader”
anon
anyone can be a leader (volunteer)
“A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing
occasionally to stand alone”
Henry A. Kissingerslings and
arrows
“I start with the premise that the
function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more
followers”Ralph Nader
now we’re getting there
“Don’t get so far ahead of people that they cannot
follow”
Paul Gerrard
Every now and then, stand still for
a while and let people catch up
Because there’s trouble ahead and you can’t face it
alone
Will Test Leaders Stand Up?
Here are the clichés you need to kill
Developers write code; testers test
because developers can’t
No they don’t
Goal: End Manual Feature Checking
Let the tools do it all andfree the testers to do
explorationPlease!
Testing doesn’t just apply to existing software, at the
endWe test systems, not
software;We test early, we test often but it might not be called
testing
Testing is about measuring
achievement, not quality
Align systems delivery with project goals and risks and you’ve got a seat on the
board
Testers don’t own testing anymore
Be a TestMaster
The phase after development is REWORK, not
Testing
The phase after development is REWORK, not Testing• Test Phase should not exist• Testing must align with development, not
follow it• Change focus:– Emphasise up-front automated test design– Integrate test with code change and software
delivery
• Testers must embrace the change, not resist it
• Make that leap! Stand up!
Will the Test Leaders Stand Up?A personal view
@paul_g
erra
rd
Paul [email protected]
gerrardconsulting.com