This document discusses lessons learned from a failed attempt to improve testing capabilities at a company. It describes challenges faced by testers who felt unsupported and not listened to. The culture was identified as a key issue, with testers afraid to speak up or question things. Several assumptions were made, including about roles, abilities, and how the culture was affecting things. It's noted that culture can kill curiosity, and lists some factors that do so. The document concludes with other lessons learned, like reviewing goals regularly, recognizing you can't change culture alone, having a backbone, and being persistent.
6. Objectives and Goals
“As we discussed, our key priority is to bolster
the existing testers and to help broaden the
testing capability across the rest of the team
with a view to understanding what we need
to do to achieve a viable testing capability
preferably without increasing our dedicated
testing resource levels.”
@charrett
7. Challenges
Testers felt they had no support
Testers felt they weren’t listened to
Excessive points for testing
Stories not making release
Difficult to accommodate change in
priorities
• HTML breaking code in merge
• Hidden work
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13. Culture can kill curiosity
“Culture is a pattern of shared tacit
assumptions that has been learned
by a group, that has worked well
enough to be considered valid ….”
!
--Edgar Schein
14. •Don’t communicate
•Keep your head down
•Jiggling is good
•The business is not to be
trusted
•Testers offer little value
@charrett
15. What kills curiosity?
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Being Dead
Being intimidated
Lack of Understanding
Lack of Authority
Lack of Clarity
Lack of Trust
Lack of Knowledge
Lack of appreciation of culture
@charrett
18. •
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I made assumptions about my role
I made assumptions about the company
I made assumptions about the team members
I made assumptions about the testers ability
I made assumptions about my own ability
I didn’t see how the culture was affecting me
I assumed that demonstrating quality testing
@charrett
21. The cucumber gets pickled more than the
brine gets cucumbered.”
Jerry Weinberg
22. Other Lessons Learned
Review goals regularly
You can’t change culture on your own
Power handed over is hard to regain
Delegate versus abdicate
Have a back bone
Discover the leaders
Be vulnerable
Be Persistent
@charrett