Trends in the Marketplace Testers will have to change but how

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Trends in the MarketplaceTesters will have to
change but how?
Paul GerrardGerrard Consulting1 Old Forge
CloseMaidenheadBerkshireSL6 2RD UK e
paul_at_gerrardconsulting.comw http//gerrardconsul
ting.comt 01628 639173
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Paul Gerrard

• Paul is the founder and Principal of Gerrard
  Consulting, a services company focused on
  increasing the success rate of IT-based projects
  for clients. He has conducted assignments in all
  aspects of Software Testing and Quality
  Assurance. Previously, he has worked as a
  developer, designer, project manager and
  consultant for small and large developments using
  all major technologies and is the webmaster of
  gerrardconsulting.com and several other websites.
• Paul has degrees from the Universities of Oxford
  and London, is Web Secretary for the BCS SIG in
  Software Testing (SIGIST), Founding Chair of the
  ISEB Tester Qualification Board and the
  host/organiser of the UK Test Management Forum
  conferences. He is a regular speaker at seminars
  and conferences in the UK, continental Europe and
  the USA and was recently awarded the Best
  Presentation of the Year prize by the BCS
  SIGIST.
• Paul has written many papers and articles, most
  of which are on the Gerrard website. With Neil
  Thompson, Paul wrote Risk-Based E-Business
  Testing the standard text for risk-based
  testing.

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Agenda

• Its the Benefits, Stupid!
• Automation frameworks
• Test Process Improvement is a Waste of Time
• Software Success Improvement
• What Makes a Good Tester?
• Recommendations

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Its the Benefits, Stupid
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Why projects fail

• Wont bore you with yet another survey of IT
  projects that fail - take it for granted, most do
• But why?
• We can trace most failures to
• Bad decisions
• Decisions that were made too late
• Decisions that were not made at all
• We suggest this happens because stakeholders and
  project managers lack the right information at
  the right time
• Well call this information Project Intelligence

The frame of reference for making those decisions
is often wrong too!
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Four-eyed plans
Increasingly
Inaccurate
IT- focused
Initial Plans
The plan is a model of the project. The real
project consists of people, organisation, goals
and risks.
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Team Poster
benefits
Its the economy, stupid!

• The people like to see the broad range of issues
  covered by the politicians
• Makes politicians feel important
• But its all froth

Ultimately, our customers are only interested in
the benefits of IT
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Gartner predictions

• Number of people in IT will drop by 15 by 2010
• 60 percent of technology professionals will move
  to more business-focused roles, concentrating on
  the use of IT and processes rather than IT
  delivery
• In 2010, the typical IT department in a large
  company will be at least one third smaller than
  it was in 2000
• Departments within business will take on the
  traditional roles of IT.

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Heres my interpretation

• Increasingly, businesses will focus on benefits
  and will take control of projects or IT
  completely
• Projects involving IT will no longer be dominated
  or managed by IT
• The disciplines of Benefits Realisation,
  Goal-Directed Project Management and Project
  Intelligence will become mainstream
• Most testers will work for (or come from?)
  business
• (Some) Test Managers become PI Managers.

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Automation Frameworks

• I am very grateful to Susan Windsor
  (susan_at_wmhl.co.uk) for the use of some of her
  material

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Testing is in demand, and solutions reduce the
number of functional testers required

• Automation frameworks and more complex business
  requirements
• Agile development methods mean developers
  undertake more unit and component testing
• Growth of outsourced testing to different
  geographies gt greater competition for the roles

Is the role of the functional tester (who is
neither technical nor business specialist) dead?
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Functional test automation is broken!

• Focus on technology rather than business needs
• 80 of functional testing still manual
• 60 to 70 of automation tools used for
  non-functional testing
• Typically, traditional functional automation
  stops at 100 scripts, regardless of test coverage
  requirement
• Critical factors
• Cost of implementation and maintenance
  prohibitive
• Insufficient and expensive skills required
• Inability to asset share over different
  technologies

Source Paul Herzlich, OVUM UK
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Business analysts already using them, and use
will grow

• Home grown frameworks built within organisations
  to meet business demands
• Niche suppliers provide frameworks - try Google
• 34,400 exact matches for test automation
  framework
• A few are now mature
• Latest review by Paul Herzlich (OVUM analyst)
• Market Leaders such as Mercury developing
  Business Process Tester (BPT)

This seems to be the tools industry direction now
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Where frameworks fit
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Test Process Improvement is a Waste of Time
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How to improve

• I want to improve my (insert any activity here)
• _______ people improvement
• _______ organisation improvement
• _______ process improvement

?
Changing people (like me) and organisation (like
my company) is so hard lets not even think
about it
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The delusion of best practice

• There are no practice Olympics to determine the
  best
• There is no consensus about which practices are
  best, unless consensus means people I respect
  also say they like it
• There are practices that are more likely to be
  considered good and useful than others, within a
  certain community and assuming a certain context
• Good practice is not a matter of popularity. Its
  a matter of skill and context.

Derived from No Best Practices, James Bach,
www.satisfice.com
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The delusion of process models(e.g. CMM)

• Google search
• CMM 12,100,000
• CMM Training 12,200
• CMM improves quality 4
• A recent client
• CMM level 3 and proud of it (chaotic, hero
  culture)
• Hired us to assess their overall s/w process and
  make recommendations (quality, time to deliver is
  slipping)
• 40 recommendations, only 7 adopted they
  couldnt change
• How on earth did they get through the CMM 3 audit?

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But process models make improvement simple dont
they?

• People like simple models
• levels of maturity, stepping stones, checklists,
  roadmaps and outside support for credibility
• But life is much more complicated, unfortunately
• Things should be made as simple as possible,
• but no simpler
• Albert Einstein

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People need process?

• A big problem with process is it becomes all
  encompassing
• Process folk sell process and cast all things in
  terms of it
• They ignore that people who are smart
• Smart people succeed regardless of process, not
  because of it
• It could be argued, that less smart people need
  process
• (By less smart, we're talking about people who
  need so much structure and enforced discipline
  they can only operate in the military, or in
  prison probably)
• Is our industry really staffed by such people?
• Do we really want production-line workers?
• Do YOU really want to be a production-line worker?

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Physics quotes

• I believe that a scientist looking at
  nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the
  next guy
• It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is,
  it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it
  doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong
• Richard P. Feynman

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You can quote me if you want

• I believe that a process consultant looking at
  non-process problems is just as dumb as the next
  guy
• It doesn't matter how beautiful your process
  model is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If
  it doesn't agree with reality, it's wrong
• Test process improvement is tinkering
• Paul Gerrard -)

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Software Success Improvement
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From this
Perceived Results Chain
CurrentMaturity
FutureMaturity
Acts of Faith
CurrentCapability
FutureCapability
Better Capability better, faster, cheaper
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To this
Actual Results Chain
CurrentConstraints/ Problems
Acts of Change
CurrentCapability
FutureCapability
Better Capability better, faster, cheaper
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Constraints, problems and aspirations

• Constraints are fixed headcount, budget,
  timescales, quality of requirements, contracts
  etc.
• Problems are testing takes too long too
  expensive cant hire testers bugs get through
  etc. etc.
• Aspirations
• Personal personal development, fulfilment,
  motivation
• Organisational hero culture to team culture,
  outsourced, higher consistency, predictability
• Acts of change are

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Acts of change focused on constraints, problems
and aspirations

• Changes in behaviour to address specific problems
  (time, cost, quality etc.)
• Targeted personal and team development
• Infrastructure change (process, techniques,
  tools, environments) to support the changes
• Managed Transition

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Principles of change

• Current behaviour assessed in the context of
  current problems, goals and constraints
• Aspirations drive the definition of goals
• People in the job define and consent to the
  required changes in behaviour
• People supported by
• Personal/team development plans
• Infrastructure investment (process, technology,
  tools, environment) specific to the change
• Transitions are managed, not assumed.

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Eight stage change process (Kotter)

• Establish a sense of urgency
• Create a guiding coalition
• Develop a vision and strategy
• Communicate the change vision
• Empower broad-based action
• Generate short term wins
• Consolidate gains, produce more change
• Anchor new approaches in the culture.

Derived from Leading Change, John Kotter,
www.johnkotter.com
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Eight stage change process (after Kotter)
Changes identified here

• Mission
• Coalition
• Vision
• Communication
• Action
• Wins
• Consolidation
• Anchoring

This is where your process model comes into play
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What Makes a Good Tester?
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A perfect tester?

• Pedantic
• Sceptic
• Nitpicker

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Attributes of a good tester?
redoubtable
imaginative
curious
stubborn
pedantic
thick-skinned
accurate
observant
assertive
articulate
thorough
sceptical
systematic
intelligent
logical
conscientious
persistent
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Attributes of a good tester?
Personal intelligence and skill
Personality to cope with your environment
redoubtable
imaginative
curious
stubborn
pedantic
thick-skinned
accurate
observant
assertive
articulate
thorough
sceptical
systematic
intelligent
logical
conscientious
persistent
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Tester selection criteria

• Intelligence - are they smart enough?
• Thinking skills
• Approach to problem solving ability to reason
• Interpersonal skills
• Communication, assertiveness, conflict handling,
  survival, team skills etc. etc.
• Testing skills
• Theory (ISEB/ISTQB Etc.)
• Practical (hands on testing)
• Technical (technology, business domain etc.)
• Plus Personality
• Many well-known attributes are usually required.

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Tester skills (and training budget?)

• Testing theory (ISEB/ISTQB etc.)
• see www.bcs.org.uk/iseb
• www.istqb.org
• Thinking skills
• verbal reasoning, numerical/abstractreasoning,
  fault diagnosis, accuracy
• Testing Practice (Testing Case Studies)
• hands-on practical test activity
• Interpersonal skills
• communication, assertiveness,conflict handling,
  survival, team skills

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40
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Summary and Discussion
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Its the benefits, Stupid!

• Take a closer look at benefits realization,
  results-based management, performance management,
  project intelligence
• Become more business-oriented
• Be ready to talk their language benefits and
  risk
• Align your test activities with the need to
  provide information on benefits and risk to them
• Be prepared to be managed by your customer!

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Automation frameworks

• Take a close look at frameworks
• What is your organisation doing about it?
• Understand how Frameworks support testing so you
  have a view, because you will be asked
• If you are functional tester evolve or
• Look to enhance your skills
• Become an automation/framework specialist
• Move towards management
• Take on non-functional skills
• Get closer to your business/customers

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Software Success Improvement

• Dont take on Test Process Improvement projects
• Too many problems in test are caused elsewhere
• Testers shouldnt compensate for other peoples
  failures
• Whole-process is in scope for change - or
  nothing!
• Ask why things are the way they are
• Focus on people, culture and organisation
• The art of the possible get your suggestions
  from your practitioners, not a book
• Follow the 8 step change process (or another
  transition management method there are many)
• Be realistic about benefits, and be prepared to
  measure them

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Developing, as a tester

• Functional testing skills are a commodity so
  move on
• Have a vision of where you want to be manager,
  specialist, consultant, business expert
• Following technology changes can be lucrative,
  but is a never-ending journey
• Broaden your horizon thinking, interpersonal,
  business, management, project management skills
• Create a development plan training yes, but
  look out for practical hands-on, not theory
• Most learning takes place on the job so choose
  jobs wisely
• Find a good coach.

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Trends in the MarketplaceTesters will have to
change but how?
Good luck in your career!
gerrardconsulting.comuktmf.comriskbasedtesting.c
om