Communication skills for testers
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A good tester uses communication not only to 'let others know', but also to get the information they need. An even greater tester knows how to use communication as part of their actual testing, to focus their process and achieve better results. In this Webinar we will go over all the advanced aspects of communication and how to leverage them as part of your testing: - The communication process in testing - a 360 Degree view. - How to leverage communication as an ongoing part of your process. - Tips and tricks on how to communicate effectively with your project stakeholders.
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Communication skills for testers
- 1. Communica)on Skills for Testers Why you have been doing it wrong all this )me… With: Joel Montvelisky - Chief Solu)on Architect
- 2. What we want to cover today? What is Communica)on? Typical Tes)ng Communica)on 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Model Communica)on and Career Path Maturity Q&A 1 2 3 4 5
- 3. Who am I? Professions : (last 20 years) -‐ Tester -‐ QA Manager -‐ Blogger -‐ Speaker -‐ Solu)on Architect Prac)Test: -‐ Chief Solu)on Architect -‐ QA Manager
- 4. About ✓ SaaS ALM Solu)on ✓ Simple & Intui)ve – yet – Professional & Flexible ✓ Integrates with Jira, Selenium, Jenkins, Pivotal Tracker, QTP, Bugzilla, Ranorex, SoapUI, etc… ✓ Best Darn Support in the Business ☺
- 6. What is communica)on? The Goal The Players • Sender • Receiver/s The Channel (encoding -‐ medium -‐ decoding) The Message In Theory, we think of Communica)on like this… Every communica)on event is defined by 4 components: 1 2 3 4
- 7. What is communica)on? In Prac)ce, Communica)on is more like this…
- 8. What is Communica)on Alignment? Focusing on the GOAL, we need to ask ourselves 3 important ques)ons: – What do we Want to Achieve? – Who is Sending and Receiving the Message? – What Channel Should we Use?
- 10. Typical Tes)ng Communica)on Bugs Release Notes Test Results Tes)ng Recommenda)ons Tes)ng Summary Reports Status Updates
- 11. The main problem: As testers, we don’t understand the GOALs we can achieve with the correct Tes)ng Communica)on. Typical Tes)ng Communica)on We limit Tes*ng Communica*on to upda*ng “everyone” on the status of our tes*ng, when we could be achieving a lot more...
- 12. Communica)on is the Most Important Tool of the Tester!
- 13. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on 3
- 14. Construc)ve Communica)on Inves)ga)ve Communica)on 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Learning Communica)on Over the Wall Communica)on
- 15. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 1: Over the Wall Communica)on Over the Wall Communica)on
- 16. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 1: Over the Wall Communica)on Examples ! Bug Reports / Lists ! Tes)ng Results / Reports ! Update Presenta)ons / Emails Objec.ve Help stakeholders with their tac)cal decisions. Characteris.cs ! One way communica)on: “Fire & Forget” ! Dry and fact based ! “One Size Fits All” templates Biggest problem ! Most of )mes we don’t provide any new informa)on or real help. ! It enrages more than it helps. Over the Wall Communica)on
- 17. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 2: Learning Communica)on Learning Communica)on
- 18. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 2: Learning Communica)on Examples ! Reqs & Design Review Mee)ngs ! 1-‐on-‐1 mee)ngs with Dev or Product ! Sessions with other tes)ng teams Objec.ve ! Befer understanding of the AUT ! Create awareness of tes)ng in Dev & Product teams Characteris.cs ! Mainly inbound communica)on ! Around concrete and simple informa)on of product and risks ! Introduces some stakeholders to the tes)ng process The Good and Bad ! Great first step to get informa)on from addi)onal stakeholders. ! Most )mes it misses the chance to get these stakeholders more involved in the tes)ng process. Learning Communica)on
- 19. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 3: Inves)ga)ve Communica)on Inves)ga)ve Communica)on
- 20. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 3: Inves)ga)ve Communica)on Examples ! Mee)ngs with Support to analyze )ckets ! Mee)ngs with Pre-‐Sales or Tech-‐Sales ! User Profiles (Personas) ! Compe)tor Profiles ! Sessions with higher management Objec.ve ! Get more complex informa)on on the AUT. ! Understand what informa)on is needed by stakeholders that can be provided by tes)ng. Characteris.cs ! 2 way communica)on channel – Expect more ques)ons than informa)on. ! Provides addi)onal tes)ng ideas, not necessarily related to func)onality. ! Usually surprises people when you come and ask for a mee)ng – Surprises are good! The good and the bad ! Provides valuable informa)on on non-‐ func)onal stuff from Real Life Users. ! Awakes interest from addi)onal stakeholders in the tes)ng process. ! Generates noise from the outside – some Development Managers will not see this nicely! Inves)ga)ve Communica)on
- 21. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 4: Construc)ve Communica)on
- 22. 4 Levels of Tes)ng Communica)on Level 4: Construc)ve Communica)on Examples ! Pair tes)ng sessions with Dev & Support engineers ! Test Planning workshops with representa)ve from different teams ! Visits or sessions with Strategic Customers or CABs to understand their usage Objec.ves ! Get and share informa)on and involvement with internal stakeholders ! Generate recogni)on on the value of tes)ng. ! Get first hand informa)on from users and the field. Characteris.cs ! 2 way communica)on ! Internal and external players. ! Requires advanced skills of communica)on and group management. ! Generates more involvement into the tes)ng process. The good and the bad ! Generates recogni)on on the value of tes)ng ! Requires tons of prepara)on and execu)on ! This is a long range gain and a short range investment. Construc)ve Communica)on
- 23. Communica)on and Career Path 4
- 24. Communica)on and Career Path Maturity in Tes)ng Level of Communica)on in Tes)ng Added value by the Tes)ng Team
- 25. To summarize Communica)on is a complex mechanism There are many goals testers don’t even try to achieve via correct communica)on use There are a number of levels of communica)on you can use (smartly!) to advance your goals The befer you use your communica)on, the higher the percep)on of value you will bring to your team 1 2 3 4
- 26. Q&A
- 27. Thank You! joel@prac)test.com hfp://qablog.prac)test.com/