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Why People Have to Like You For Automation to Work
- 1. Why people have to like YOU for automation to work Paul Merrill, Beaufort Fairmont, LLC @dpaulmerrill
- 3. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Beaufort Fairmont • Helping teams automate testing since 2009 • Java, C#, Javascript, Objective-C, Python, and more • Unit, Integration, E2E • Cucumber, RobotFramework, WebDriver (Selenium), etc. • APIs, UIs, Mobile Apps, Legacy Code • Training • Contact Us!
- 4. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Who am I? • Paul Merrill (@dpaulmerrill) • Software Engineer since 2000 • Began Working in Automation in 2002 • Sole Focus on Automation since 2010 • Entrepreneur • Founder
- 5. Why people have to like YOU for automation to work Paul Merrill, Beaufort Fairmont, LLC @dpaulmerrill
- 6. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Always define terms • Who are “you”? • What is likability? • What does it mean to have automation “working”?
- 7. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 “You” • Automation Engineer • Skilled in Coding • 1+ Testing Frameworks Under Your Belt • Previous Continuous Integration Success • Foundation in QA
- 8. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 To be liked:
- 9. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Automation is “working” ✓ CI runs tests frequently & deploys codebase ✓ Failures investigated quickly & resolved ✓ Infrastructure is solid ✓ Build, Deployment, Tests, & Reporting are “push button” ✓ Devs can run tests locally ✓ The default mode is to automate
- 10. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Automation is “working” (continued) ✓ Testers can run app w/ tests locally ✓ Adequate technical know-how available ✓ Fits budget & resourcing targets ✓ Organizational “friction” is limited ✓ Tests are written at nearly the same pace as development ✓ Automation is an exercise in software engineering
- 11. Overview • Why? • Who? • How?
- 12. Why do people need to like us?
- 13. – Malcolm Gladwell, “Blink” “The overwhelming number of people who suffer an injury due to the negligence of a doctor never file a malpractice suit at all. Patients don’t file lawsuits because they’ve been harmed by shoddy medical care. Patients file lawsuits because they’ve been harmed by shoddy medical care – and something else happens to them.”
- 14. – Malcolm Gladwell, “Blink” “What comes up again and again in malpractice cases is that patients say they were rushed or ignored or treated poorly.”
- 15. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Cooperation is easier when we like each other!
- 16. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Cooperation is harder when we dislike each other!
- 20. What can we learn from these brands and our feelings about them?
- 21. What if you consider yourself a brand?
- 22. Who needs to like us?
- 23. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Automation is “working” ✓ CI runs tests frequently & deploys codebase ✓ Failures investigated quickly & resolved ✓ Infrastructure is solid ✓ Build, Deployment, Tests, & Reporting are “push button” ✓ Devs can run tests locally ✓ The default mode is to automate
- 24. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Automation is “working” (continued) ✓ Testers can run app w/ tests locally ✓ Adequate technical know-how available ✓ Fits budget & resourcing targets ✓ Organizational “friction” is limited ✓ Tests are written at nearly the same pace as development ✓ Automation is an exercise in software engineering
- 25. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Who else? • Higher-ups • Peers • Project Management • Product Managers • Remote • Administrators • Human Resources • Security
- 26. How do we get people to like us?
- 28. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Tips • Smile • Don’t complain • Be Positive • Say “Good morning” • Attitudes are contagious, good or bad
- 29. Copyright Beaufort Fairmont, LLC, 2015 Tips (continued) • Look for people’s intentions or motivations • Assume people are doing the best they can • Do what you say you’ll do
- 30. How does identity factor into likability?
- 31. How does alignment with leadership affect likability?
- 32. Finally, a few quotes worth remembering…
- 33. –Theodore Roosevelt “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
- 34. –Harry S. Truman “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
- 35. In Review • Why? • Who? • How?
- 36. Why people have to like YOU for automation to work Paul Merrill, Beaufort Fairmont, LLC @dpaulmerrill
Editor's Notes
- In the immortal words of Donkey, from Shrek, “Everybody likes parfait”. I figured, we’re talking about likability, let’s use an image of something everyone likes!
- This is the company I started in 2009. We work with teams to implement, consult and train on automated testing.
- We tend to work with open source tools, although we have worked with other tools.
- I have a strong background in Software Engineering, having worked in many roles within software development shops.
- Enough about me, let’s get started…
- First we need to define the terms we’re using.
- This is who I’m assuming you are.
- Anyone know who this is? Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid, Most liked person on Facebook (as of March, 2015) 107,129,082 likes on Facebook. Is this what we mean by “like”? No. I mean personally like. Have real knowledge of and interest in another. We want to get to where the “like” people have for us is enough that people have to listen to us, because they like us too much to ignore us. We want to get to where people have to consider our ideas - because they like us too much. They can’t say a bad thing about us without saying “but he’s a really nice guy afterwards.”
- Let’s talk about what I mean by “automation is working”. There are 2 slides here with aspects of working automation.
- Do you agree that this is a good working definition for “automation is working”?
- Now that we’ve defined our terms, I want to tell you how this talk is laid out. First we’ll talk about Why people need to like us for automation to work. Second, we’ll talk about who the people are that need to like us. Third we’ll talk about how do get people liking us.
- I kept thinking about this quote and the one on the next page from Gladwell about malpractice suites as I was writing this presentation.
- If you’re a doctor, its in your best interest to be liked and to invest in good customer service. Does this apply to us in Automation? Understandably, its unlikely that we’ll get sued for malpractice, but is there a cross over? I think there is. How often do we rush others into a decision we’ve already thought through? How often do we ignore what others have to say for one reason or another? Do we treat people poorly sometimes?
- I found this picture online and thought these two looked like they like each other… What things make it easier to work with others?
- What things make it harder to work with others?
- Do you like this company? Why or why not? Note, in this area, this company has little competition, how do you think that affects their interactions with you? Does competition or lack thereof affect how you interact with others? Do people go to your competition to get something done because they’re easier to work with?
- Do you like this company? Why or why not?
- Do you like this company? Why or why not? I love Honda. They’re reliable, retain their value pretty good and are low maintenance.
- We all are brands, whether we like it or not. People take very little information about us and deduce what we are from that.
- Let’s talk through touch points for each bullet. Who needs to be involved in each? Dev? Ops? Management?
- Let’s talk through touch points for each bullet. Who needs to be involved in each?
- Administrators are some of the most important people in a company. They make things happen that no one else does. They can make life easy or difficult for just about anyone.
- Just read it, if you haven’t.
- I had a manager that walked by me every morning without saying hello or good morning. Wish people a good morning, you never know how that may brighten their day!
- I met a guy early in my career who said the only measure he had for people was “do they do what they say they’ll do?”
- Sometimes we box people into a small definition we’ve created for them. Sometimes people do it to themselves. Does that affect likability? I think so. People are much bigger than what you see. They’re like icebergs, and generally, we know much less than 10% of what there is to know about them at any time.
- Helps to have air cover! New manager? Is your manager aligned with her manager? How does getting on board with leadership help/hurt you with peers?
- We work in a knowledge industry, but knowledge isn’t what gets things done, execution is.
- Ironically, Truman was not the first to say this.
- Thanks!