Soon to be published, The European Software Testing Summit Report, contains findings derived from four years’ worth of project-based entries into The European Software Testing Awards, written by The European Software Testing Awards judging panel.

Sneak Preview of the Testing Manager Chapter

A sneak preview of the Testing Manager Chapter is shared below:

The role of the software testing manager is changing. Both in terms of the strategies that are being understood and implemented and the management style. This chapter discusses some key trends and learnings from nominated testing managers into The European Software Testing Awards. 

Over the past few years there has been a rapid move towards greater building in of quality as opposed to testing it in, dynamically changing and modifying strategy, bringing context driven test management further into the mainstream.

Shift left (and to some extent shift right) has emerged as a strategy/technique of choice for highly successful managers, although it has not had the uptake that one would expect given the volume of noise in the industry. Shifting left is about enabling quality to be built into the product by every member of the team, and not just the test team. It means having conversations and identifying bugs during story definition, allowing developers to create and execute unit tests (and functional tests). 

Disappointingly many test managers still run testing in phases towards the end of development, despite claiming that they are operating in an agile manner. A sprint of development followed by a sprint of test is simply a miniature waterfall. Nevertheless, this has become a common anti‑pattern implemented by test managers and organisations who are struggling with moving from a traditional software delivery model into more agile practices.

Managers who focus on enablement of the team over command and control appear to be having greater levels of success. Where managers are resolving problems and allowing their teams to do what they do best, provide great software testing, both team and manager appear to benefit.

Teams appear to be provided with greater opportunities by their managers to work in the ways that suit them best. This takes multiple forms, but of note are such things as tool choices, personal machine set up, communication preferences and in some cases working hours…

The European Software Testing Summit

The full chapter, along with more insights from different Awards categories, will be available in The European Software Testing Summit Report, which will be distributed at The European Software Testing Summit.

The European Software Testing Summit is a one-day event that will take place on 16^th November in central London. To find out more information and register: click here.

Written by Cecilia Rehn.