EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2010 presentation on The Carrot or The Whip-What Motivates Testers? by Tafline Murnane. See more at: http://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/

1. K. J. Ross & Associates
6 / 530 Little Collins Street Melbourne
VIC 3000 Australia
M: +61 416 117 931
T: +61 7 5553 5601
E: taflinem@kjross.com.au
The Carrot or the Whip – What Motivates Testers?
Dr. Tafline Murnane
K. J. Ross & Associates, Australia
EuroSTAR 2010

2. About me
•Senior consultant at K. J. Ross & Associates in Melbourne, Australia (specialist testing consultancy)
•Previously worked as developer(before moving to the dark side…)
•Test management, test process improvement, training, mentoring
•Completed PhD in software testing (yah that’s right, a whole PhD on testing…)
•Co-editor of ISO/IEC 29119 Software Testing
•Passionate about testing…

3. Carrots?
…or whips?

4. Overview
•What motivates testers?
•Motivation models
•Motivating approaches
•De-motivating approaches
•Motivation programmes
•Summary

5. What Motivates Testers? Positive attributes
Analytical
Curious
Perfectionists
Planned, systematic and meticulous
Persistent
Crusaders
Practical
Moralists
Negative attributes
Little empathy for developers
Perfectionists
Undiplomatic
Skeptical
Stubborn
Too focused
Glamour seekers
•Testing can be destructive process, intent on finding faults
•Mindset quite different to developers
–Break it rather than build it! (crash-test dummies?)

6. Motivation Depends on Individual Goals
•Goals provide motivation, increasing productivity
•Each tester has different goals & ways of satisfying them
•Identify goals that match team & company goals
–Achievable
–Make testers stretch
–Career planning
–Roadmaps

7. Motivation Models
•Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
•Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory
•Hackman & Oldham's Motivating Potential Score
Focuses on needs, motivation & human psychology

8. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self- actualisation
personal growth, fulfilment
Self-esteem
achieved status, responsibility, reputation
Belongingness & Love Needs
family, affection, relationships, work group, etc
Safety Needsprotection, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc
Biological & Physiological Needs
basic survival –air, food, water, shelter, warmth, sleep, etc

9. Investigation Approach
•Surveyed 33 testers (Australia, New Zealand, Europe, India, South Africa & UK)
1.What things are motivating for testers?
2.What do you do to motivate your testers? (Test Leads and Test Managers)
3.What things are de-motivating for testers?
•Compiled qualitative & quantitative data
•Mapped to Maslow’s hierarchy

10. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
1 - Biological 2 - Safety 3 - Love &
Relationship
4 - Self Esteem 5 - Self
Actualisation
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
% of People
Recognition of Needs
Self-esteem & self-actualisation
responses were
most popular!

11. Biological & Physiological Needs–basic survival
What is it?
•Competitive salary
•Food, water (beer?)
•Comfortable environment
•Flexible & sensible hours
How to achieve it?
•Provide the above!
How common was it?
•Everybody needs it, but was rarer
–39% mentioned biological needs
–15% mentioned money

12. Safety Needs
What is it?
•Job security, stability
•Protection
•Predictable behaviour
•Safe to make mistakes
•Secure environment
How to achieveit?
•Protect your team!
How common was it?
•Least common (30%)

13. Belongingness & Love Needs
What is it?
•Friendship & teamwork
•Welcoming atmosphere
•With it, easier to communicate
How to achieve it?
•Lead by example
•Law of reciprocity
–Ask nicely
–Give approval
–Team building
How common was it?
•More common (45%)

14. Self-esteem
What is it?
•Self respect
•Acceptance
•Respect
How to achieve it?
•Enable strengths to be recognised & respected
–Reward & appreciate
–Responsibility
–Contribution
–Review & take interest
–Good relationship with developers
How common was it?
•Most common! (73%)

15. Self-actualisation
What is it?
•Desire to become everything a tester is capable of
How to achieve it?
•Support testers in being best they can be!
–Achievable goals
–Accountability, deadlines
–Challenging, varied work
–Problem solving, creativity
–New skills
–Career progression
–Training, conferences, mentoring
–Build teams testers want to be a part of
How common was it?
•Second most popular (58%)

16. Key Motivators and De-motivators

17. Career Progression –Roadmaps (motivator)
•Performance appraisal process
–Where are you now?
•Capabilities, contributions
•Training, conferences, events
•Awards
–Where do you want to be?
•1, 3, 5 years…
–What projects, roles & training do you need to achieve this?

18. Rewards for Finding Defects (motivator or de-motivator?)
•Avoid rewarding defect counts only, e.g.
–Easy low severity defects rather than complex critical defects
–Raise defects that aren’t really defects
•Better to reward value, e.g.
–High severity defects
–Number proven defects before go-live
–Verification of system completeness

19. Task Boards (motivator)
•Create task board for test team
–Visible project tasks & individual tasks
–Visible progress
–Visible rewards
•Realistic budget & schedule
•Board needs ownership

20. Not Enough Time (de-motivator)
•Unrealistic budgets or timelines
•Code overrun
•Rush to utilise technology without training or budget
•Heroics required

21. Peer Review (motivator or de-motivator?)
•Feedback
–Constructive
–Feedback sandwich
•Peer review
–Test artifacts
–Defect reports
–Developer artifacts?
•Use good examples as basis for improvement

22. Communication (motivator)
•Keep testers in the loop
–Regular meetings
–Walk floor daily
–Team lunches
–One-on-one’s
•Know where they fit
•Feedback
•Appreciation
•Include in decision making

23. Good Relationship with Developers (motivator)

24. Bad Relationship with Developers or Business (de-motivator)
•Causes of conflict:
–Second class citizens
•“Developers are treated as being more important than testers”
–Physical separation
–Not enough time or resources
–Schedule slippage
–Product too unstable to test
–Reported bugs not fixed

25. Passion for Testing (motivator)
•People who like testing are naturally motivated!
•Those assigned to testing for wrong reasons will likely be unmotivated, e.g.
–Lack of other jobs
–Retrenchment

26. Be an Inspirational Leader! (motivator)
•Lead by example!
•Mentor, trust & reward
•Pick right person for task
•Focus on what can be done, not what can’t
•If anyone fails, we all fail!
–Don’t point fingers
–Protect team
•Seek organisational support

27. Motivational Programmes –Goals!
1.Assess motivation (individuals, team)
2.Ask & identify goals
3.Map individual goals to team & company goals
4.Develop roadmap
5.Carry out improvements
6.Assess progress
7.Repeat!

28. Summary
•Every tester has different goals
–provides motivation,
–increasing productivity,
–leading to better quality software!
•Guide testers in defining goals & roadmaps
•Be a motivational & inspiring leader!

29. Thank you!
I hope this presentation has motivated you 
Dr. Tafline Murnane
K. J. Ross & Associates
Melbourne, Australia
taflinem@kjross.com.au
M: +61 416 117 931
Visit http://softwaretestingstandard.orgfor information on
the new ISO/IEC 29119 Software Testing standard

30. Acknowledgements
•Big thanks to testers who participated in the survey, which included testers from:
–Coles Group (Australia)
–City West Water (Australia)
–Delta Axiom (Denmark)
–Department of Human Services (Australia)
–K. J. Ross & Associates (Australia)
–Software Quality Systems (India, UK, South Africa)
–Soft Ed (New Zealand)

31. References –Textbooks & Websites
•A. H. Maslow. A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50:370-396, 1943
•Anne Mette Jonassen Hass, Guide to Advanced Software Testing, 2008
•Craig & Jaskiel, Systematic Software Testing, 2002
•Dinesh Maidasani, Software Testing, 2007
•Sarah Rees, The Art of Test Team Management and Motivation, STANZ 2007
•http://www.basdebaar.com/motivate-your-team-members-248.html
•http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=30

32. References –Images
•http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dH0q9hvpVHg/R_tsJIp0E_I/AAAAAAAABnk/gk7k6ABXn7o/s320/award.png
•http://www.moneyisjustanidea.com/wp-content/themes/tma/images/latest/motivation2.jpg
•http://www.businessballs.com/images/jim_barker_cartoons/carrot_motivation_cartoon.jpg
•http://blogs.uct.ac.za/gallery/669/Goal-Setting.jpg
•http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l47py19o5w1qc58uzo1_500.jpg
•http://datingjesus.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/argument_businessfistfight4.jpg
•http://blogs.smh.com.au/sport/syd-5bq7357trpgk203r9cb_layout.jpeg
•http://photos.ibibo.com/photo/1306478/attitude-cat-and-lion
•http://tinker.com
•http://www.getyourlifebackfromme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ladder-into-the-sky1.jpg
•http://www.funnyphotos.net.au/images/difference-between-software-bugs-and-features1.jpg
•http://www.xqa.com.ar/visualmanagement/wp-content/gallery/status-tags-revisited/xqa_0540.jpg
•http://www.shino.de/images/blog/84%20Waterfall%20in%20Theory.jpg
•http://www.sciencesurvivalblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/peerreview.jpg
•http://www.adlinktech.com/ampro-extreme-rugged/img/Communication.jpg
•http://www.kjross.com.au/content/Document/BugFixBingo-A4-Web.pdf
•http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/wp-content/qa/uploads/2010/07/tester-and-developer-relation.jpg
•http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YzKCMr- tcMM/S9bLn4ZiDoI/AAAAAAAAALQ/s2oPQWy6f58/s1600/33supermarket.jpg
•http://gs-press.com.au/images/news_articles/cache/leadership1-600x0.jpg
•http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/08_03/075olegunnar_468x312.jpg
•http://www.binaryturf.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/motivation.jpg