Test process improvement – how hard can it be?

Private & Confidential Experimentus Ltd 85 Tottenham Court Road London W1T 4TQ T: +44 (0)870 770 6099 www.experimentus.com
Assess | Visualise | Transform | Manage | Train
Test Process Improvement
How hard can it be?
17th May 2017
Geoff Thompson

Copyright © 2016 Experimentus Ltd
Agenda
 How did we get here?
 Defining a test process
 Why does Process change fail?
 Challenges
– People/Culture
– Communications
– Other SDLC processes
 We have come a long way…

How did we get here?
 IT is a relatively new industry – but growing very fast
 Testing is perhaps the least mature part of the lifecycle?
 A lot of testers ‘fell’ into the role
 It’s still a craft – not a profession!

Defining a Process…
Level 0 – process-to-process high-level
integration diagram
Level 1 – sub-process definition diagram
Level 2 – high level activity diagram with
integration and primary roles
Level 3 – detailed activity and steps
diagram with integration
“Snake”
“Swim lanes”

Level 0 process area
Validation and
Testing
Defect
Management
Test
Environment
Management
Business
Analysts
Configuration
Management
Development
System Design
Design
Authority

Level 2 Process area

Level 3 process area

Why does process change fail?
1. No sense of urgency
2. No guiding team
3. No change vision and strategy
4. No communication for Understanding and Buy In
5. No one is empowered to act
6. No Short term wins
7. No pressure to deliver
8. No one understood the need to change culture

8 Step Process to Successful Change
 Set the stage
1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Pull together the guiding team
 Decide what to do
3. Develop the change vision and strategy
 Make it happen
4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In
5. Empower others to act
6. Produce Short term wins
7. Don’t let up
 Make it stick
8. Create a new culture

The change plan (Vision and Strategy)

Lets talk about People and Culture

Gartner Hype Cycle
Change
Trigger
Peak of Inflated Expectations
Trough of Disillusionment
Slope of Enlightenment
Plateau of Productivity
Old Status Quo

CHAOS

Find your way or RIP

Dunning Kruger effect
 The unskilled suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability
as above average, much higher than it actually is
 While the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from
illusory inferiority

How is this reflected?
 Tendency to overestimate ones own level of skill
 Failure to recognise genuine skill in others
 Fail to recognise the extremity of their inadequacy
 Only recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be
trained to substantially improve
 The utter confidence of those who, with no expertise, remain stubborn in their
views regardless of overwhelming evidence
 Those with the least knowledge and the lowest level of skill tend to be the
loudest and most confident

Organised/Dis-organised teams
Which one is better at accepting change?

The one dissenter

Not everyone will make the journey

Develop a Communications plan

Develop a Process Interaction diagram

We have come a long way
 We have over 450,000 testers certified by ISTQB
 3500 test resources see Process Improvement as the major way forward in
2016 (ISTQB)
 29 TMMi certified organisations, 9 at level 5
 EuroSTAR has been going for 23 years (nearly 24)!
2012 2013 2014 2015
TMMI Certification Trends
Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Experimentus Software Testing Maturity Survey
24
• Yearly online survey undertaken
by Experimentus
• 250 respondents from across the
globe
• Most IT Sectors represented

Where are we?
25
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2.1 Test Policy and
Strategy
2.2 Test Planning
2.3 Test Monitoring and
Control
2.4 Test Design and
Specification
2.5 Test Environments
3.1 Test Organisation
3.2 Test Training program
3.3 Test Lifecyle and
Integration
3.4 Non Functional Testing
3.5 Peer Reviews
2015
2014

Where are we?
26
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2.1 Test Policy and Strategy
2.2 Test Planning
2.3 Test Monitoring and Control
2.4 Test Design and Specification
3.3 Test Lifecyle and Integration
3.5 Peer Reviews
Telecommunications Sector Results
2015 2014

Where are we?
27
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2.1 Test Policy and Strategy
2.2 Test Planning
2.3 Test Monitoring and Control
2.4 Test Design and Specification
3.3 Test Lifecyle and Integration
3.5 Peer Reviews
IT Service Provider Sector Results
2015 2014

Closer look
28
58%
48%
42%
48%
46%
49%
62%
30%
37%
45%
42%
36%
37%
31%
12%
15%
14%
10%
18%
13%
7%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Test Policy and Strategy
Test Organisation
Test Process
Test Monitoring & Control
Test Planning
Test Specification
Test Execution
Last Year
Fully Achieved Partially Achieved Not Achieved

Closer look
29
53%
59%
50%
48%
45%
52%
66%
34%
28%
39%
41%
42%
38%
29%
13%
14%
11%
10%
13%
10%
5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Test Policy and Strategy
Test Organisation
Test Process
Test Monitoring & Control
Test Planning
Test Specification
Test Execution
This Year
Fully Achieved Partially Achieved Not Achieved

30
How do you
compare against
the industry?
Your results
Sector benchmark
Take our survey
and benchmark
your company.
www.experimentus.com

Summary
 Process change is 20% of the change
 People and culture are everything
 Remember the eight step change process
 Key success factors can be found in:
– People
– Communication
– Understanding how you integrate with other SDLC processes

Thank you
www.experimentus.com
+44 (0)207 871 2300
geoff.thompson@experimentus.com

Test process improvement – how hard can it be?

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Test process improvement – how hard can it be?

Similar to Test process improvement – how hard can it be? (20)

More from TEST Huddle

More from TEST Huddle (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Test process improvement – how hard can it be?

Editor's Notes