‘Yes’ Men

That Good Morning Cup, by Wespionage on Flickr

I once worked for a manager who did a great job of smiling and saying ‘Hello’ to his employees every morning. He then spent most of his time in meetings during the rest of the day… he was a manager after all, and managers are busy people.

When he was available for his employees, he enjoyed having discussions with his senior staff members to make decisions, decide on new directions, and figure out how to handle challenges.

Sounds like a great person to work for! … Right?

Perhaps so…

… But perhaps only if you paid attention to WHAT they were doing…

… and not HOW they were doing these things.

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Charting a Course

My experiences in testing with an exploratory mindset and methodology have been positive.

Finding important, messy, and hard-to-nail-down bugs is easier than by using the old blindly-run-test-cases-anyone-at-all-could-do-because-little-thinking-goes-on variety.  I personally thrive in being able to use my experiences, curiousity, a variety of test techniques, and brain power to test software (see more in my recent post Be An Explorer!).

Moving into using session-based exploratory testing to help manage testing across a team and provide metrics to management was easy for me.  It was straightforward to write charters that were not so specific as to be test cases, but also not so generic that they were not helpful.  I was able to quickly write a charter that identified the mission and goal of a test session with appropriate depth and breadth.

In working with many dozens of testers over the years, I discovered that creating appropriate charters was not easy for many of them.

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Be an Explorer!

Exploratory testing is an art.

For some it is a passion, and the only way to do testing critically, skillfully, and effectively.  It is an opportunity to use your brain, not only in day-to-day life, but also at work (imagine!).  …To be paid for questioning and thinking, not to blindly do what someone else said should be done.  …To feel alive!

After being introduced to exploratory testing by Michael Bolton several years ago, I never looked back.  It supported all the feelings I had about the dire write-tests-run-tests-ho-hum-drudgery I found myself in early in my career in testing software.

In those days I believed there was a better way to do testing, and so I did it amongst the management-mandated ‘test plans’ (word documents with lists of test cases to be executed).  I explored the software, aiming to find the next bug all on my own, using my wits and smarts.

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Signs of Frustration – Communication Series Part 2

How do you react when you are frustrated?

Calm and balanced?  Mean and spiteful? Do you drive your teammates bonkers? Or perhaps you run away and hide in a quiet place.

Whatever your reaction, you are not alone!

Everyone has some reaction to being frustrated, and you may discover that people with similar personality types have a tendency to react just like you.

So, as someone who gets frustrated, what do you do?  How do you want other people to interact with you?

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The Root of the Problem

Last weekend was quite bizarre.

Perimeter Institute, Photo: Marc Cramer

I live in Ontario, Canada, about an hour west of Toronto, in the wonderful city of Waterloo. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you should read about it. Our region is known as Canada’s Technology Triangle, aka the Silicon Valley of Canada. We have loads of technology companies and start-ups. There are hundreds of job openings for tech people. Seriously, what are you waiting for?

In Waterloo at this time of year we usually have several inches of snow and an average temperature of about 0 degrees Celcius. Not this year.

On November 22 in Waterloo it was 10 degrees Celcius. The sun was shining, and the air was warm. Kids were outside playing ball hockey in the street in their t-shirts, while parents were outside putting up holiday decorations.

Really!

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What’s Your Type? – Communication Series Part 1

My department enjoys having regular workshops – to have a break, learn, reflect, collaborate, and build relationships. Well, that’s my perspective. I do know they enjoy them though, as they request workshops on different topics, and even opted to hold them for two hours over lunch every week.

After a workshop a few weeks ago I asked what they would like they next topic to be.  Based on recent 1:1 discussions, I expected something on technical skills, but to my surprise, everyone requested communication!

They wanted to learn how to have more effective conversations, handle frustrating situations, and simply communicate better with their team members.

After a couple weeks of cancelled workshops (the flu, and a week away at AYE kept me from the office) I was finally able to hold the first of a workshop series on communication.

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Coaching Testing Skills

At one point in my career I was able to sit down with each person on my team every couple of days and provide them with feedback and guidance to improve their testing skills.  Even better were the days when I could pair with them while planning tests,  writing tests,  executing tests,  and reporting on testing.

It was beneficial as I was able to help employees learn new concepts and improve skills,  in a manner that fit for them.  The added bonus for me was that I learned something new from them as well.  What powerful experiences those were!

Now, as a manager for 18 testers who are spread across several different agile teams, I find it difficult, if not impossible, to coach testing skills one-on-one.  On a weekly basis I also spend time coaching the agile teams, management-level initiatives to improve company-wide practices, and the usual management administration.  Such is life in a ’start-up’ type of company.  As a result, my one-on-one time with each person is limited to 30-60 minutes over two weeks.  This seems a miniscule amount given they are working a minimum of 80 hours in that same time period!
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