Why I Lost My Job As a Test Manager - Nordic …...RADIOHEAD - THE BENDS WHAT IF IT AFFECTS YOU? • It’s not the end. • You have transferable skills. • Use the opportunity to

WHY I LOST MY JOB AS A TEST MANAGERAND WHAT I LEARNT AS A RESULT…

I DID NOT GET FIRED!!

WHO AM I?STEPHEN JANAWAY

www.stephenjanaway.co.uk @stephenjanaway www.testinginthepub.com @testinginthepub

INSPIRED BY

• My experiences. • Some dinosaurs. • Radiohead. • Winston Churchill. • Take That.

BACKGROUND

MY SO CALLED TYPICAL CAREER SO FAR….

Junior Developer

Tester

Test Team Lead

Test ManagerQuality Gate Manager Senior Quality

Gate Manager

Senior Test Manager

Photo © Stefz

Test Manager

Dev Manager

Dev Manager

Dev Manager

Dev Manager

SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?

• Too many teams = too much task switching. • Lack of touch points to teams. • No team to interact with day-to-day.

• Fire fighting = Perception of only being a blocker.

• Too many managers required in decision making.

Photo © Andrew Smith

CHANGE IN THE AIR...

WHAT CHANGED?• No more Test Managers. • No more Development Managers. • Cross functional, autonomous, independent teams. • Teams aligned to architecture.

• Delivery Managers - team manager, scrum master, point of contact, etc.

Delivery Manager

Product Owner

● Designers ● Architects ● Developers ● Testers ● Ops

WHAT HAPPENED?

WHAT WE DID...

KEEPING A FOCUS ON CHANGE

Image © Nana B Agyei

CHANGE CAUSES SIMILAR EMOTIONS IN US ALL

CHANGE IS NORMALLY JUST A TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT

Image © kris krüg

FOUR STAGES OF CHANGE

1. Unconscious Incompetence

2. Conscious Incompetence 3. Conscious Competence 4. Unconscious Competence

WE SUPPORTED EACH OTHER

• Recognise there is change. • Treat each other with respect. • Be open and honest – say what you

think, feel and need. • Ask questions. • Listen to understand.

TEST COMMUNITY

Image © Ian Sane

http://labs.trademe.co.nz/projects/the-self-organising-organisation/ http://blog.crisp.se/2012/11/14/henrikkniberg/scaling-agile-at-spotify

TEST COMMUNITY• Testers group with a community leader and

committee. • Responsible for arranging events:

• Discussion sessions. • Internal speakers. • Showcases. • External speakers. • Being the voice of testing. • An enabler - getting testers together, talking and

learning from each other.

FORMING THE COMMUNITYADD SOME STUFF HERE ABOUT FORMING COMMUNITY AND KEEPING IT RUNNING!!!!

LEAN COFFEEA simple and democratic way to discuss topics and have conversations that people want to talk about.

It’s structured but agenda-less

Started in 2009 in Seattle Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith Today - all over the world

http://leancoffee.org http://www.meetup.com/Lean-Coffee-London/

LESSONS LEARNT

• Bottom up works but you need people overseeing it.

• It takes time and effort. • Keep asking what people want - seek

regular feedback. • External speakers help (but organisation is

greater). • Don’t incentivise community engagement. • Some people just won’t engage - focus on

those who do.

TESTING COACHImage © Chris Hunkeler

TEST COACH

Responsible for: • Coaching and training about testing. • Running the testing community. • Working with teams to improve their testing. • Educating managers and senior managers. • Raising the company profile in the external

testing community. • Bringing the latest, greatest and most useful

new ways of working into the group.

Image © Doug

WE WON’T BE ABLE TO PROVIDE THE SILVER BULLET FOR ALL YOUR PROBLEMS BUT WE’LL DEFINITELY BE ABLE TO HELP YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY TO GREATNESS!

DISCLAIMER

EDUCATION³

Photo © Richard Lee

EDUCATION - PEOPLE• Educating Managers

• About testing • About managing testers • Performance review and competency development

help • Educating Senior Managers

• About testing • About investment in testing

• Educating Testers • How to talk about testing more effectively • How to fight their own battles...

EDUCATION - SKILLS

• Educating Testers • Testing Mondays - context driven testing

sessions. • Testing Showcases - information sharing. • A conference a year. • Internal conferences. • Widely publicising online events and meet-

ups. • A blog post a day.

MENTORING SCHEME

MENTORING

• Pairing testers with other more experienced testers.

• Facilitates learning and “someone to look up to”.

• Helps fill a gap left by not having Test Managers.

• A great learning opportunity.

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR QUALITY

NEXT STEPS FOR TEST MANAGEMENT”WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

THE WORDS ARE COMING OUT ALL WEIRD

WHERE ARE YOU NOW WHEN I NEED YOU?”

RADIOHEAD - THE BENDS

WHAT IF IT AFFECTS YOU?• It’s not the end. • You have transferable skills. • Use the opportunity to your advantage. • Use your transferable skills. • Remember your roots a spread the testing

word far wider :)

AND NOT JUST IF YOU ARE A TEST MANAGER

• Support as a tester. • Someone to look up to. • A subject matter expert to learn from.

• Learn how to explain the value of testing.

NEVERFORGET WHERE YOU’VE COME HERE FROM

CHERISH YOUR COMMUNITY

Image © Ian Sane

“Now this is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end.

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”

Winston Churchill

Stephen Janaway

@stephenjanaway stephenjanaway.co.uk testinginthepub.com