On Managing Testers, or Being a Coach

I had a revelation recently that I wish I could have had some time ago, like years.  It may have made me a better employee, and in my forays at lead and manager roles would have made me better at both.

While my thoughts here probably don't rise to the level of great writing that can be found for the betterment of leaders everywhere, it represents the sum of experience and belief demonstrated by many managers and leads I have worked for and with.  I trust that some may find it useful and help them manage testers perhaps better than they might without such thoughts.


1.  Encourage Learning.  This is important.  There is a significant difference between "training" and "learning."  Encourage your staff to look for ideas new to them and try things they have read about.  Don't bog them down with mandated, "This is the only way things are done" type of rote memorization.  Allow them to explore areas of interest to them, then gently guide them with how these can be applied to their current and future work.

2.  Discourage Self-limiting Behavior.  Kind of a contradiction, eh?  But really - anyone who has been around the block more than once has seen more than one person set themselves up for failure.  Maybe they like it.  Maybe they don't know any other way of doing things.  Help them discover what they are good at, what they enjoy doing and what they want to do and maybe other ways of doing things. 

3.  Encourage Participation.  I have found that one great way for people to learn and appreciate things, is to have a hand in the doing of it.  I know everyone is busy and is scheduled at 110%.  Well manager, MANAGE - encourage your staff to get involved - then make sure they have the time to do it without missing their kids school programs and family vacations and trips away and holidays and... right.  You get the idea.  The hard part about being a boss is telling other people "No."  And yet, we need to do that all the time, right?  This is just one more reason why you must tell someone "No," or if that makes you uncomfortable, try my favorite alternative "We can not work on that right now.  We should be able to start on it by ..."

4.  Discourage Lockstep Conformity.  I know we must all follow the process or whatever is in place at the company.  Sometimes it takes people with a lot more pull than we have to change the rules.  Well, sometimes bending the rules to let your people flourish is important too.  Allow them the space to be creative in approaching problems.  Allow them time to THINK.  Remember when you'd think about something deep and technical?  I still find a proper cup of tea, with a bit of sugar and a little milk, just sitting and sipping it, can help my brain unravel a problem that is in my way.  Allow your people the same room for creativity and innovation - particularly if there is no Time Reporting Code for that on their time sheets. 

5.  Encourage Innovation.  I find this tends to flow from what happens in number 4.  Sometimes thinking leads to a new approach.  This approach can take a little tinkering to get sorted just to see if it will work.  Give your people, that's what they are after all, people, the flexibility they need.  Don't force it on them, but if they want to try - let them.  Then help them learn and clear the path of roadblocks in ways only a Manager can.

6.  Discourage Disparaging Comments.  Negativity can be a serious drain on energy and morale and productivity.  If one of your people is down, a lot - see if you can help.  It might be nothing you can fix, but maybe just letting them know you are concerned is a help.  Then lighten their load, if possible, so they have the energy to deal with whatever is weighing them down.  If they are just being, well, negative for the sake of being negative, talk with them about that too.  Everyone gets down.  Everyone has a bad day (sometimes a week!)  Everyone has times when they'd rather be at the beach or the woods or... whatever.  We just need to get the job done.  Then let them go to the woods or beach or wherever.  Just keep an eye on folks - If they know you have their well-being in mind, more than just what they do at work, they may turn around and surprise you.

7.  Encourage Growth.  This one is a mix of "mentor" and "coach."  I know some people look to mentors for some level of guidance and teaching.  If you can do that for your people - fantastic!  Otherwise, keep an eye out for people who CAN do that - then get the mentors and students connected and allow things to happen - don't force them.  One thing I have learned is this.  Most technical professional types have a failing, somewhere.  One common one I have found is how they relate to other people - technical peers and non-technical as well.  It is amusing that so many people consider testers "non-technical" still, compared to some, most of us are.  Compared to others, we're technical rock stars.  Help them to navigate these waters.  Help them to learn to do them better.  Help them to learn to be a better team, and give them transferable skills they can use anywhere.

8.  Don't be the Control freak.  Like this guy. If you're my boss and you do those things, I'll quit.  Promise. 


Lessons Learned - I've seen these ideas applied often at various shops.  Where two or three are used effectively, the result has been stupendous.  The staff revel from one positive experience to another, the software gets better from one project to another, practices improve and, surprisingly at some shops, customer satisfaction went up - way up. 

Remember: Managers are the oracles of the Truth, but the people working for them are the spirit that make that truth relevant.  My wife used to say (when the kids were younger, at least, not in their 30's) "If Mama ain't happy, nobody's happy."  You can set the tone - will you be happy and uplifting or a burden to be endured?  By setting an example in attitude, work, learning and life balance, a good manager can do more than simply qualify for stock options and large bonus checks. 

Thinking Testers, Unite! or Sometimes Thinking Needs Action

It is hard to believe that this is the First of March.  This year is simply flying past.

Coming up, for me, is a BBST Foundations Course that I am an assistant instructor for.  BBST is offered through AST - the Association for Software Testing.  It is an amazing course - the product of an awful lot of people, notably Cem Kaner assisted by a Legion of folks.

Yes, 1 March is here, which means that CAST 2012 is fast approaching.  CAST, the Conference for the Association for Software Testing is this July, in San Jose, California.  The Registration for the Conference is open now.  It is an interesting, if not astounding, experience.  You can check out the official page here .    

If you're reading this, I strongly suggest you go to, and participate in CAST.  My first year was 2010.  I was amazed, overwhelmed and, well, gobsmacked.  This year's conference promises to be something, well, go to the link above and check it out for yourself.  OK?

If you'd like to try your hand in presenting, or maybe you have presented elsewhere and want to try the formula used at CAST, the Emerging Topics track may be a solution. These are 20 minute snippets - enough for you to present the core of an idea and answer questions. The deadling for THOSE submissions is June 18.  The Call For Participation, and the information you'll need is here.  

Emerging Topics tracks are 20 minutes long.  Total.  The interesting thing, like with all CAST tracks, is the discussion at the end.  For Emerging Topics, the discussion is at least 5 minutes.  (Translated, the track host will cut off each presenter at the 15 minutes mark.  If you end before then, GREAT!  More time for discussion!)

The information you need to know about submitting proposals is on the website at the link above. If you are a Thinking Tester, I encourage you to consider attending CAST. If you are interested in telling people about your ideas, I encourage you to consider submitting a proposal.

Now, I wrote about this before, but I'm going to mention it again - If you are a Thinking Tester and you help people become better testers - the Test Coach Camp is the weekend before CAST!

The Camp will be the weekend before CAST - in the same hotel where CAST is going to be held.  Space is LIMITED. 

Matt Heusser wrote about it here. The official AST release and Call for Participation can be found here. 

If you are interested in helping testers do their testing better, which is what Test Coaching is all about, and in Thinking Testers - Look into both of these - THEN ACT.

This is going to be a great week.

Janus Part 2: Looking Ahead 2012

Last year was really incredibly busy for me.  Work stuff happened that was crazy hectic, then the "speaker" thing moved from 1st to 2nd gear. Then the broader community expanded a bit more - or maybe my awareness of it did.  The local testing group moved from "once in a while" to "monthly meetings".

What am I looking forward to in 2012?  That is an interesting question.

Personal/Professional Development

This is something that is kind of included in the following areas.  There is much I want to learn and much I want to participate in - to help learn and see how things work in the world and not just in the theory/idea stage.  Broadly, I want to "engage closer" in the local test community, the broader community of thinking testers, a variety of projects and meetups and... life.

So, a little more detail...

Projects, Writing, Work.

The day-job is the day-job.  Yeah, there will be some interesting projects there, including a cool mobile device project.  The projects I mean here are some interesting side-projects - things with other people.  There are some cool initiatives with Matt Heusser that are interesting.  Matt is a bundle of energy with lots of ideas.  I'm flying as his wing-man on some items coming up (more on that as they get closer on the horizon.)

I'm looking into doing more writing.  Writing is cool.  It is work I can do anywhere and still have some semblance of a home life.  Its funny - the more you write on a topic, the more you find there is to learn about on the same topic.  So, if I can continue the process of writing/learning/sharing - so much the better.  There are some magazines I've decided I want to approach about article submission - and follow-up on some contacts from late in 2011.  Look for more on this in the near future.

This past August, I expressed an interest in getting more involved in the EdSIG - Education Special Interest Group of the Association for Software Testing.  Aside from a few emails, I've been really lax in that.  I want to change that this year.  I'd like to become more involved with, and as a result learn more about, training software testers - helping them learn and think and grow as craftsmen.

Two interesting factors here - First is the announced Test Coach Camp the weekend before CAST - the Conference for the Association of Software Testing.  This year's conference theme is The Thinking Tester - its going to be cool.  The Coach Camp though is a new addition and it looks fantastic - a peer conference to talk about improving how we coach testers.  I'm excited about that.

The second interesting factor is I volunteered to be a "contingency" instructor (I kind of missed the rush of people signing up to be "assistant" instructors because I let non-work email slip a bit while wrapping a project) for the BBST Foundations Course this March.  I don't know if it will balance out, but I'm looking forward to it. 

Community

Aside from the education and learning stuff, there are other aspects I'm looking forward to engaging (OK, note, don't try and write something after watching "Office Space" and trying to sound "professional").  The local tester group is up and running - next meeting is in two weeks and on a topic that should bring about good discussion - we're talking metrics.  Oh yeah, pass the popcorn. 

Toward the end of 2011, I began attempting to be more helpful in online forums - I'm afraid some folks consider my approach "annoying" - others seem to realize I'm asking questions to help me form an answer, and will "play along". 

There are, of course, a pile of conferences out there - the mentioned CAST conference in July.  STPCon Spring, I'm afraid I can't make work, but there are other possibilities out there.  It will be a busy, fantastic year that way, I think.

Cool People

There are many folks out there that I spend time with as much as I can.  There are others that, if I can, I want to spend more time with, learning from, learning with, sharing ideas and getting a clue.  Now, some are broadly spread - over North America, Europe, some in India... So, kind of a "I'd like to and I'm not sure I can make it work, but I want to" list. 

In generally alphabetical order, people I really want to find a way to hang with and learn from this year...

Perze Ababa   Ajay Balamurugadas   Bernie Berger   Paul Carvalho  
Salena Delesie   Markus Gaertner    Paul Holland     Phil Kirkham  
Micahel Larsen   Darren McMillan   Catherine Powell   Mark Tomlinson
And of course, the folks I enjoy learning from already, although meetings are sometimes few and far between, and often only by Skype - Fiona Charles, Michael Bolton, James & Jon Bach, Griffin Jones, Nancy Kelln, Lanette Creamer, Matt Heusser, Mel Bugai, Lynn McKee... and all the rest.

For all you have done to help me learn, thank you.  I look forward to learning with you all this year.

Coaching and Learning and Opportunity to do Both

My last post was fairly short, well, for me anyway.  This one will be, too.  No more rambling oddities that may, or may not, have anything to do with testing.  Just kind of too the point. 

My last post was on the Call for Participation being open for CAST 2012.  It turns out that the weekend before CAST,  July 14 and 15, there is another learning opportunity - Test Coach Camp.  I'm pretty excited about this. 

Test Coach Camp will be held at the same hotel where CAST will be held. 

Matt Heusser wrote about it here.  The official AST release and Call for Participation can be found here.

These folks said it better than I can. 

If you are interesting in helping testers do their testing better, which is what Test Coaching is all about, right?  Then I suggest you dive in to this.

Its going to be good.