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Seven Traits of Successful Test Managers
July 3, 2007 | |
I recently read Michael Shrivathsan’s post on 7 Traits of a Successful Product Manager (well worth a read, IMO). I thought I’d take a crack at a list for Test Managers. So here’s my list of 7 Successful Traits of Successful Test Managers.
Communication
As a test manager, you communicate - a lot. You need to be aware of the different consumers of your information (such as business stakeholders, developers, project managers, etc…) and their different needs. You need to be able to produce both written and verbal communication at different levels. For example, a status report needs to have some sort of executive summary so the readers can quickly understand the testing status, but also have sufficient detail included for those who need it. During status meetings, you’ll be asked to briefly summarize testing activities, but you’ll also need to be prepared to drill down on specifics. One of the key pieces of value the test manager brings to the project is data - and people will quickly assess your ability to provide that data in the form that they need.
Political Agility (Leading Without Authority)
I almost placed this one at the top of the list - it’s that important. Imagine you just got the first release of code from Development and it sucks - completely. Or you’re need the end of a planned test phase but due to quality problems you’re only 50% complete and you run into the key business stakeholder and they ask you how testing is going. Or you tell the project manager that you need an additional week to complete regression testing and they tell you that you can’t have it. As test managers, you don’t produce the code, you don’t write the requirements, you don’t control the schedule - but you rely on others to do these things so you can get your job done.
Your ability to respond to and influence others in a politically astute manner is key to being an effective test manager. For example, simply telling the Development Manager that his/her team’s code sucks and wasn’t unit tested is not going to win you any friends. The manner in which you deliver these kind of messages is important - you need to be tactful, unemotional, and stick to facts. To affect change in other groups without true authority can be a difficult skill to master. I’d recommend reading Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence Others.
Time Management
This is an obvious one, but true nonetheless - especially during test execution. You must be able to use your time wisely enough so you can effectively respond to the critical test system failure, last minute modification to the test iteration plan, the emergency staffing issue, and the weekly status report (all happening simultaneously). Basic time management skills (like delegation, prioritizing, developing processes to deal with routine tasks, etc…) are really essential over the long run. Testing is one of those things that is always stressful, pressed for time, and hectic - and if you can’t manage this over the long run, you’re headed for burn-out.
Technical Ability
A lot of experienced testers came up through the programming ranks and like to dissect code and write testing stubs. Personally, I didn’t start as a programmer - but much of my testing experience has been with packaged software, so extensive programming skills were not really a requirement. Whatever your background, an effective test manager needs enough technical ability to be credible with the test engineers and developers.
Attention to Detail
You can’t be a “big-picture” person and be a great test manager, IMO. Good test managers are expected to know the overall status of testing, details around why planned test cases haven’t been executed, the exact status of major defects, and be able to drill down on any given defect and talk about it. You also need to know enough detail about the requirements and test cases to have confidence that your test team will have the proper test coverage.
Analytical Ability
I’ve written about test metrics before. You know the old saying - you can make a set of statistics look like anything you want it to. Well, to an extent that’s true. You have to be able to dig and really understand what’s driving your numbers. For example, if the open defect count is going down - that’s good, right? Well, maybe - but what if that is combined without a corresponding increase in passed test cases? A possible explanation for that scenario might be the Development team clearing a lot of lower priority defects while leaving high priority/blocking defects open. You’d want to examine the priority level of recently closed defects and the reason test cases are not getting passed.
The ability to truly understand what the numbers are telling, and be able to educate others on the team is a must.
Testing Discipline
The last trait for successful test managers is testing ability. In order to effectively manage and lead your team, you must be intimately familiar with the testing discipline. This includes how to develop a test strategy/plan, how to plan and write test cases, how to use testing tools effectively, how to conduct exploratory testing, and many more - and be able to train your staff.
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