Stephen Janaway reflects on his experience of losing his role as a test manager and the insights gained from the transition to cross-functional teams. He emphasizes the importance of community support, continuous education, and adaptability in a rapidly changing work environment. The document outlines lessons learned, the value of mentorship, and encourages everyone to take responsibility for quality and to leverage transferable skills.

1. WHY I LOST MY
JOB AS A TEST
MANAGER
AND WHAT I LEARNT AS A RESULT…

2. I DID NOT
GET FIRED!!

3. WHO AM I?
STEPHEN JANAWAY
www.stephenjanaway.co.uk
@stephenjanaway
www.testinginthepub.com
@testinginthepub

4. INSPIRED BY
• My experiences.
• Some dinosaurs.
• Radiohead.
• Winston Churchill.
• Take That.

5. BACKGROUND

6. MY SO CALLED TYPICAL
CAREER SO FAR….
Junior Developer
Tester
Test Team Lead
Test Manager
Quality Gate
Manager
Senior Quality
Gate Manager
Senior Test Manager

7. Photo © Stefz

8. Test Manager
Dev Manager
Dev Manager
Dev Manager
Dev Manager

9. SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?
• Too many teams = too much task switching.
• Lack of touch points to teams.
• No team to interact with day-to-day.
• Fire fighting = Perception of only being a
blocker.
• Too many managers required in decision
making.

11. Photo © Andrew Smith

15. CHANGE IN
THE AIR...

16. WHAT CHANGED?
• No more Test Managers.
• No more Development Managers.
• Cross functional, autonomous, independent teams.
• Teams aligned to architecture.
• Delivery Managers - team manager, scrum master,
point of contact, etc.

17. Delivery
Manager
Product
Owner
● Designers
● Architects
● Developers
● Testers
● Ops

18. WHAT HAPPENED?

19. WHAT WE
DID...

20. KEEPING A
FOCUS ON CHANGE
Image © Nana B

21. CHANGE CAUSES SIMILAR
EMOTIONS IN US ALL

22. CHANGE IS NORMALLY
JUST A TEMPORARY
DISCOMFORT
Image © kris krüg

23. FOUR STAGES OF
CHANGE
1. Unconscious Incompetence.
2. Conscious Incompetence.
3. Conscious Competence.
4. Unconscious Competence.

24. WE SUPPORTED EACH
OTHER
• Recognise there is change.
• Treat each other with respect.
• Be open and honest – say what you
think, feel and need.
• Ask questions.
• Listen to understand.

25. TEST
COMMUNITY
Image © Ian Sane

26. http://labs.trademe.co.nz/projects/the-self-organising-organisation/
http://blog.crisp.se/2012/11/14/henrikkniberg/scaling-agile-at-spotify

27. TEST COMMUNITY
• Testers group with a community leader and
committee.
• Responsible for arranging events:
• Discussion sessions.
• Internal speakers.
• Showcases.
• External speakers.
• Being the voice of testing.
• An enabler - getting testers together, talking and
learning from each other.

28. Image © Niall Kennedy

29. LEAN COFFEE
A simple and democratic way to discuss topics and
have conversations that people want to talk about.
It’s structured but agenda-less
Started in 2009 in Seattle
Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith
Today - all over the world
http://leancoffee.org
http://www.meetup.com/Lean-Coffee-London/

30. LESSONS LEARNT
• Bottom up works but you need people
overseeing it.
• It takes time and effort.
• Keep asking what people want - seek
regular feedback.
• External speakers help (but organisation is
greater).
• Don’t incentivise community engagement.
• Some people just won’t engage - focus on
those who do.

32. TESTING
COACH
Image © Chris Hunkeler

33. TEST COACH
Responsible for:
• Coaching and training about testing.
• Running the testing community.
• Working with teams to improve their testing.
• Educating managers and senior managers.
• Raising the company profile in the external
testing community.
• Bringing the latest, greatest and most useful
new ways of working into the group.

34. Image © Doug

36. WE WON’T BE ABLE TO PROVIDE THE SILVER BULLET FOR
ALL YOUR PROBLEMS
BUT WE’LL DEFINITELY BE ABLE TO HELP YOU ON YOUR
JOURNEY TO GREATNESS!
DISCLAIMER

37. EDUCATION³
Photo © Richard Lee

38. EDUCATION - PEOPLE
• Educating Managers
• About testing
• About managing testers
• Performance review and competency development
help
• Educating Senior Managers
• About testing
• About investment in testing
• Educating Testers
• How to talk about testing more effectively
• How to fight their own battles...

39. EDUCATION - SKILLS
• Educating Testers
• Testing Mondays - context driven testing
sessions.
• Testing Showcases - information sharing.
• A conference a year.
• Internal conferences.
• Widely publicising online events and meet-
ups.
• A blog post a day.

40. MENTORING
SCHEME

41. MENTORING
• Pairing testers with other more experienced
testers.
• Facilitates learning and “someone to look
up to”.
• Helps fill a gap left by not having Test
Managers.
• A great learning opportunity.

42. SO WHAT
HAPPENED?

43. EVERYONE IS
RESPONSIBLE
FOR QUALITY

44. NEXT STEPS
FOR TEST
MANAGEMENT
”WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
THE WORDS ARE COMING OUT ALL WEIRD
WHERE ARE YOU NOW WHEN I NEED YOU?”
RADIOHEAD - THE BENDS

45. WHAT IF IT AFFECTS
YOU?
• It’s not the end.
• You have transferable skills.
• Use the opportunity to your advantage.
• Use your transferable skills.
• Remember your roots a spread the testing
word far wider :)

46. AND NOT JUST IF YOU
ARE A TEST MANAGER
• Support as a tester.
• Someone to look up to.
• A subject matter expert to learn from.
• Learn how to explain the value of testing.

47. NEVER
FORGET WHERE YOU’VE COME HERE FROM

48. CHERISH YOUR
COMMUNITY
Image © Ian Sane

49. “Now this is not the
end.
It is not even the
beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the
end of the beginning”
Winston Churchill
Stephen Janaway
@stephenjanaway stephenjanaway.co.uk testinginthepub.com