Slides from Kari Kakkonen and Marko Rytkönen track talk at EuroSTAR 2025 in Edinburgh, Scotland 4.6.2025 We presented the need for leadership to stay in touch with their teams and lead the software testing as a valuable activity. For this we introduced the ACT2LEAD heuristic, and also discussed examples of how to do it.

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● 30 years of expertise around testing and test leadership
● Author of ‘ACT 2 LEAD Software Testing Leadership Handbook’
● Voluntary work, public talks
● Married, two daughters, 70’s & 80’s heavy rock, travelling, cycling, floorball
Marko Rytkönen
QA Coach at Hidden Trail, Advisor at Marko Rytkönen Oy
marko.rytkonen@act2lead.net
+358 50 5066 405
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markorytkonen/

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kari.kakkonen@act2lead.net
+358 40 5239004
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
Kari Kakkonen
Service Owner, Customer Expertise Development, Gofore
● Almost 30 years in testing, a bit less in agile, DevOps, and AI in all industries
● Author of ‘ACT 2 LEAD Software Testing Leadership Handbook’ and ‘Dragons Out’
● EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award, Tester of the Year, Exemplary DevOps
Instructor
● Volunteer at FiSTB, ISTQB, TMMi etc.
● Married, 1 son, kayaker, snowboarder, roleplayer, a cappella singer

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How many of you think that…
…testing is really understood* by leadership
(as CxO’s, directors, managers, product owners, etc.)?
* e.g., terms, test process/types/approaches,
dependencies, competencies…

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How many of you think that…
…testing is really led*
on all needed leadership levels?
* e.g., vision, strategy, capabilities, competencies…

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Our observations
There are way too many people*
who should understand and lead testing,
but they don’t.
* e.g., director, manager, product owner, tester…

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Our conclusions
Testing is not led as it should, and it results in
poor quality testing and software.
Testing is poorly understood and not valued as a profession.

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What is test leadership?
● Leading testing and testers through the product lifecycle
○ Inspiring, encouraging and empowering people
○ Respecting the autonomy of teams and individuals
● Ensuring that testing is diverse, timely, and of good quality, compared to business needs and risks
○ Organizational level: Company or department level
○ Operational level: Product, project, or team level
● Cannot be separated from other leadership work

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Test leadership in organizational level
Test
leadership
Test analysis
Test design
Test execution
Test planning Test leadership
Operational level
Project team
Operational level
Product team
Holistic testing infinite loop: https://janetgregory.ca/testing-from-a-holistic-point-of-view/
Test leadership levels, example

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Test leadership at organizational level
● Building testing capabilities in a long-term
○ Strategic leadership
○ Empowering the organization
○ Setting the direction, structure and harmony
● Helping leadership and managers to lead testing
● Providing transparency to the current state of testing across the
organization
○ Look for systemic and team-level problems
● Keep it in own hands!
Tools
Methods
Process
Competences
People with time
Budget
Quality culture

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Test leadership at operational level
● Operational excellence in a short-term
○ Tactical leadership
○ Test management and self-leadership
● Aligning testing to the
○ Context
○ Development and Operation processes
○ Organizational level testing guidelines
● Helping teams to get all testing done
● Leading yourself and others to the test better
● Providing transparency to test results
Operations
Testing
Test env. mgmt
Programming
Design
Requirement mgmt

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Said by Edwards Deming
“Support of top management is not sufficient… They must know
what they must do. These obligations can not be delegated.
Support is not enough: action is required.”
Out of the Crisis, Deming, Edwards.

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What is heuristic?
Approach to problem-solving that employs a practical method
that is not guaranteed to be perfect,
but is sufficient for reaching a short-term goal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Add
Add testing to all aspects so that testing is not a separate process
or phase. Lead it as a whole.
Organizational level Operational level
Budgets, contracts, team
structures…
Plans, development process,
DoD…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Context
Understand your context, and lead testing accordingly.
There is not just one correct way to lead testing.
Organizational level Operational level
Business, regulations, contracts, budgets…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Transparency
Create transparency in testing.
The better the visibility, the better it can be led.
Organizational level Operational level
Culture, capabilities, vendors… Test results, quality, risks…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
2
Humans are good at exploring the product, and
automation is good at checking the product.
Organizational level Operational level
Budget, time, metrics.…
Pipelines, test automation,
exploratory testing…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Learn
Learn to test and test to learn.
Organizational level Operational level
Culture, community, training… Debriefs, feedback, pair testing…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Enable
Enable quality culture
where the importance of quality and testing are understood.
Organizational level Operational level
Budget, trust, team structure… Time, competencies, tools…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Adapt
Adapt testing to risks.
Organizational level Operational level
Risk identification and mitigation,
focus testing on high-risk areas…

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ACT 2 LEAD heuristic
Diverse
Ensure testing is diverse enough.
The more diverse the testing, the more diverse information you get.
Organizational level Operational level
Recruiting, vendors,
improvement…
Test types and approaches,
test environments...

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Key takeaways
● Leadership must be aware and skilled to lead testing
● Leadership cannot delegate all actions; they must take the initiative and actively lead testing
● Two test leadership levels: Organizational level and operational level
● Help leadership to lead testing
● Use ACT 2 LEAD!

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Questions?
Visit: www.act2lead.net
Order: https://bit.ly/act2lead-book
Contact and network:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markorytkonen/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
Conference promo code:
E-book for 20 USD (+ VAT), until May 31
https://leanpub.com/act2lead/c/EuroSTAR2025

25. Questions?
Email kari.kakkonen@act2lead.net
marko.rytkonen@act2lead.net
Social https://www.linkedin.com/in/markorytkonen/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/