Background: The company has just established a product line, and naturally needs to set up a corresponding test team. At this time, the company chose Xiao A to be responsible for setting up and managing the test team, and Xiao A is currently the only person. So the question is, as a newly appointed test manager, what should Xiao A do step by step? What skills are needed to be able to take on such responsibilities?
Looking for teammates : The so-called clever woman is difficult to cook without rice. The first step must be to recruit people (at this time, there should be a general direction for the team's goals, which will be explained in detail later); of course, the company is not a local tyrant, and the budget given is also limited. People who are generally very arrogant probably don't want to come here. In such a situation, how to find the right teammate? Not bad: find potential stocks, and then cultivate them in the team (we will consider how to retain them after cultivation).
At this time, go to the Internet to find or analyze some qualities and hard skills that the next excellent tester should have, so Xiao A listed the following points according to his own collection and understanding, as several conditions for finding teammates:
1. Familiar with a language, have coding experience, preferably from a professional background, these are very useful for subsequent automation and continuous integration;
2. The ability of logical thinking and divergent thinking is better, which is a very important quality for an excellent tester;
3. The initiative is relatively good, and there is a certain amount of self-motivation (at the beginning of the team, don't recruit people who mess around, this will definitely be a devastating blow to the team);
Of course, the recruitment requirements cannot be written like this, but should be written more simply, so that you can receive a lot of opportunities for resumes (because people who have proven themselves are generally not going to submit resumes), and then start Continue to screen resumes according to the requirements, interview for jobs. . . .
Ok , after a period of hard work and negotiation (Xiao A 's communication skills should have been improved unprecedentedly during this time), we finally formed an initial team, although the team currently has only 5-6 people (the boss said , the team will continue to expand as the business expands). Moreover, these 5-6 people do not all meet the above conditions (it is too difficult to recruit suitable teammates, we can only look at them slowly).
Team goals : The next thing to do is how to make the team work as expected? No matter what you do, you need to have a goal, and the same is true for the team. First of all, you must understand what the team's goal is? Of course, it ’s still not enough to do it yourself, here are a few ways to confirm the team’s goals:
1. Find relevant responsible persons to confirm their expectations, including: superiors, developers, testers, technical support staff, etc., because everyone's focus is different, for example: testers expect to see their own progress.
2. Think about how to better support the future development of the product.
3. From the company's vision (if there is any), think about how the test team can do its part. For example: if a game team has 100 million users, our performance test may be a challenge?
4. See what other excellent test teams are like online and in the industry
Through the above methods, Xiao A confirmed the team's goals as follows (have you found that the test team actually has many other goals besides quality assurance and cost savings):
§ Release valuable, high-quality, competitive products (company expectations);
§ Faster feedback on product quality and timely discovery of product problems (expectations of development)
§Continuous technical improvement to better support the future development of the product (expectations of superiors);
§ The skills of the personnel can be continuously improved and have a clear development direction (expectations of the testers);
§ The work of the whole test is more technical (the expectations of the testers);
§ The team atmosphere is better, and everyone can work in a relaxed environment (expectation of testers);
§ The team is stable, and the turnover rate of key employees is relatively low (expectations of superiors);
After forming the team goal, the next step is to decompose the goal and form a specific plan that can be implemented to support the corresponding goal; for example: for how to achieve the goal of releasing valuable, high-quality and competitive products, we can do What kind of things? This requires the test manager to have the corresponding target decomposition ability. The following aspects can be provided for reference:
1. Improve everyone's business understanding ability, this is the basis for ensuring the quality of a product;
2. Improve everyone's ability to understand needs and ensure that our products are what customers want;
3. The automation and continuous integration of functions ensure that the final basic functions of the product are guaranteed by automation;
4. Based on the test of code and business logic, to better ensure the code quality of the product;
Then formulate a specific implementation plan for each decomposed goal, such as: improving everyone's business understanding; what is the goal we want to achieve (try to quantify the points as much as possible to meet the smart law, otherwise it is difficult to evaluate). We assume that Xiao A determines to achieve the goal according to the following plan through analysis (here reflects the plan management ability of the test manager):
1. Everyone divides their own responsibility modules, and Xiao A is responsible for the module division of the entire product, and each module can be linked together (this reflects the business analysis ability of the test manager).
2. Everyone needs to confirm the business logic of the corresponding module together with the corresponding development, and produce the business logic responsible for the module by himself.
3. Take turns to arrange to explain the modules that you are responsible for, and arrange to ask questions to ensure that everyone is familiar with the business of other modules.
After the plan is determined, arrange the corresponding time, then analyze the possible risks of reaching the goal by yourself, and find a solution in advance by yourself. For example: several risks that may be encountered in this process and the corresponding solutions are to test the manager's risk analysis and control capabilities):
1. There are too many modules, and everyone's energy and time are limited, and there may be no way to get all the modules; the corresponding solution is: allocate them according to the importance of the modules, and let the corresponding developers train for others.
2. The lack of cooperation in development leads to poor communication and the expected effect cannot be achieved; the corresponding solution is to communicate with their boss and seek cooperation.
3. Some testers have insufficient ability, resulting in the general business understanding of the modules they are responsible for and cannot meet expectations; the solution is to identify in advance, track the process, and let excellent people take more responsibility.
4. The module is too complicated, the analysis is very difficult, and many developers are not clear; the solution is: identify in advance, and immediately terminate or replace the module if it is found to be unsolvable, to save everyone's time and avoid hitting everyone's enthusiasm.
Of course, we may not be able to predict all risks, and we can solve problems in time if we find them later.
Team process and system : the so-called no rules can not make a circle, in order to make the team better move towards the goal, we need to ensure this through a series of systems, so as to avoid the inconsistency of each person's goals and the team's goals cannot be achieved, then we should How to formulate the entire process and system of the team? Here are a few suggestions for reference:
1. The system must serve the goal, otherwise the system will not be needed (of course, the goal may also need to be improved);
2. There should not be too many systems, and it is necessary to give everyone a certain free space;
3. Each system needs to have a corresponding reward and punishment mechanism, otherwise it will not be the same;
4. After the system is determined, it must be treated equally, and you must lead by example, otherwise no one will abide by it;
5. The system should be discussed with team members, so that it will have more credibility and it will be easier to form a departmental culture;
6. Do not conflict with the company's system;
We assume that Xiao A has formed the following team system through the above analysis method (others will be improved as needed):
1. Departmental assessment process and system
2. Mentor system
3. Leave and overtime system
4. Technical improvement system
5. Sharing and communication system
6. Departmental activity system
7. Work instructions and systems for testers
After the completion, discuss and improve with everyone, and finally reach an agreement, and confirm with everyone for each improvement in the future (it is not recommended to update the system frequently, which will make the system less credible and avoid headaches feet)
Division of labor : After the team goals and specific plans are confirmed, it is definitely impossible to do it all by yourself, so it is necessary to assign the appropriate work to the appropriate personnel. This can not only cultivate everyone's ability, but also allow yourself to focus more on the direction of the entire team and some key events (here, the test manager needs to have the ability to know people and make good use of them, to be able to discover the advantages of everyone in the team, and to use them reasonably). There are also some methods on the Internet, and you can make up your own mind. So who does a team need? The author provides the following references based on my own experience:
1. Project manager ( later trained as team manager)
2. Technical experts (responsible for the technical improvement and planning of the team later)
3. Product experts (be able to be very familiar with the business and requirements of the product)
4. Testers (complete the daily testing tasks of the department and continuously improve their testing skills)
Personnel training: After recruiting the right people or arranging the right people to the right positions, we need to train these personnel to improve their competence; here, the test manager itself is required to have corresponding skills; for example : If a test manager can't automate, or even has no contact with automation, then unless another automation expert is found, the team's automation will definitely take a lot of detours; then how to train the corresponding personnel? Let’s take the training of automation personnel as an example (similar methods are also adopted in other aspects)!
1. Select 2-3 people with better coding ability;
2. Choose an automation framework suitable for your product based on your previous experience.
3. Let everyone choose some use cases with the most basic functions (which need to be tested frequently), and try to automate them (because the above does not necessarily give time, it is recommended to use extra time for this time, or to squeeze out time to do it yourself, otherwise it will fail. good to explain to the above);
4. After completion, run it quickly, so that everyone can see the effect (if it is unsuccessful, it can be found quickly), which can improve everyone's confidence;
5. After identifying the plan, continue to invest extra time and display effects until the development and the above feel that automation has brought value. At this time, the above will naturally ask the investment personnel to enter (this time the golden age of automation is coming. ), and at the same time, they should be more recognized for their work;
6. Find a person with better ability from the automation personnel, focus on training, and let him start to be responsible for the entire automation project; when he is fully competent, he can be freed to do other planning work;
OK , when the personnel capabilities of the entire team have been cultivated to be competent for the corresponding work, I only need to be responsible for the future development direction of the entire team, and continue to motivate everyone to improve the combat effectiveness of the entire team.