Building a testing group
It was
mentioned that organizing, staffing, and directing were major activities
required to manage a project and a process.These apply to managing the testing
process as well. Staffing activities include filling positions, assimilating
new personnel, education and training, and staff evaluation. Directing includes
providing leadership, building teams, facilitating communication, motivating
personnel, resolving conflicts, and delegating authority. Organizing includes
selecting organizational structures, creating positions, defining
responsibilities, and delegating authority. Hiring staff for the testing group,
organizing the testing staff members into teams, motivating the team members,
and integrating the team into the overall organizational structure are
organizing, staffing, and directing activities your organization will need to
perform to build a managed testing process.
Establishing
a specialized testing group is a major decision for an organization. The steps
in the process are summarized in Figure 8.2. To initiate the process, upper
management must support the decision to establish a test group and commit
resources to the group. Decisions must be made on how the testing group will be
organized, what career paths are available, and how the group fits into the
organizational structure (see Section 8.3). When hiring staff to fill test
specialist positions, management should have a clear idea of the educational
and skill levels required for each testing position and develop formal job
descriptions to fill the test group slots. When the job description has been
approved and distributed, the interviewing process takes place. Interviews
should be structured and of a problem-solving nature. The interviewer should
prepare an extensive list of questions to determine the interviewee‘s technical
background as well as his or her personal skills and motivation. Zawacki has
developed a general guide for selecting technical staff members that can be
used by test managers . Dustin describes the kinds of questions that an
interviewer should ask when selecting a test specialist [2]. When the team has
been selected and is up and working on projects, the team manager is
responsible for keeping the test team positions filled (there are always
attrition problems). He must continually evaluate team member performance.
Bartol and Martin have written a paper that contains guidelines for evaluation
of employees that can be applied to any type of team and organization .They
describe four categories for employees based on their performance: (i) retain,
(ii) likely to retain, (iii) likely to release, (iv) and release. For each
category, appropriate actions need to be taken by the manager to help employee
and employer.
Structure of test group
It is
important for a software organization to have an independent testing group. The
group should have a formalized position in the organizational hierarchy. A
reporting structure should be established and resources allocated to the group.
will eventually need to upgrade their testing function to the best case
scenario which is a permanent centralized group of dedicated testers with the
skills described earlier in this chapter. This group is solely responsible for
testing work. The group members are assigned to projects throughout the
organization where they do their testing work. When the project is completed
they return to the test organization for reassignment. They report to a test
manager or test director, not a project manager. In such an organization
testers are viewed as assets. They have defined career paths to follow which
contributes to long-term job satisfaction. Since they can be assigned to a
project at its initiation, they can give testing support throughout the
software life cycle. Because of the permanent nature of the test organization
there is a test infrastructure that endures. There is a test knowledge base of
test processes, test procedures, test tools, and test histories (lessons
learned). Dedicated staff is responsible for maintaining a test case and test
harness library.
A test
organization is expensive, it is a strategic commitment. Given the complex
nature of the software being built, and its impact on society, organizations
must realize that a test organization is necessary and that it has many
benefits. By investing in a test organization a company has access to a group
of specialists who have the responsibilities and motivation to:
•
maintain testing policy statements;
• plan the
testing efforts;
• monitor
and track testing efforts so that they are on time and within budget;
• measure
process and product attributes;
• provide
management with independent product and process quality information;
• design
and execute tests with no duplication of effort;
• automate
testing;
• participate
in reviews to insure quality; are meet.
The
duties of the team members may vary in individual organizations. The following
gives a brief description of the duties for each tester that are common to most
organizations.
The Test Manager
In most
organizations with a testing function, the test manager (or test director) is
the central person concerned with all aspects of testing and quality issues.
The test manager is usually responsible for test policy making, customer
interaction, test planning, test documentation, controlling and monitoring of
tests, training, test tool acquisition, participation in inspections and
walkthroughs, reviewing test work, the test repository, and staffing issues
such as hiring, firing, and evaluation of the test team members. He or she is
also the liaison with upper management, project management, and the quality
assurance and marketing staffs.
The Test Lead
The test
lead assists the test manager and works with a team of test engineers on
individual projects. He or she may be responsible for duties such as test
planning, staff supervision, and status reporting. The test lead also
participates in test design, test execution and reporting, technical reviews,
customer interaction, and tool training.
The Test Engineer
The test
engineers design, develop, and execute tests, develop test harnesses, and set
up test laboratories and environments. They also give input to test planning
and support maintenance of the test and defect repositories.
The Junior Test Engineer
The
junior test engineers are usually new hires. They gain experience by
participating in test design, test execution, and test harness development.
They may also be asked to review user manuals and user help facilities defect
and maintain the test and defect repositories.
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