I’ve surveyed many groups and forums in search of an answer for the top challenges facing software testing services managers today. And compiled them into a report.
Delivering what the customer really wants on budget, on time and with the requisite quality. These are the same challenges software testing services has been facing for decades. However, on top of these, software test managers face a variety of extraneous administrative and financial matters that need to be cleared away so they can focus on the challenges noted above. Agile’s main contribution to meeting these challenges is to emphasize improved frequency & bandwidth of communication plus flexibility in dealing with change. Both of these help reduce the risks of missed deadlines, cost overruns, and failure to meet customer expectations. (They do not “solve” these issues, but help focus attention on the impediments to doing so.) A growing challenge is ensuring non-functional quality in a multi-tier applications where no single individual or in many cases even team can be expert in all the languages and technologies involved. Many of the most serious operational problems result from non-functional defects that manifest themselves in interactions between the tiers and technologies in the application.
In my view, there are bigger issues on the softer side Right competency for the right job is also an issue. Allocation of project is often a function of availability rather than the right fitment, and issues like this are often difficult to forecast. On top of this, promotions often happen based on long years of experience in a particular organization that the right capability to handle the future role. And the discovery of such mistakes in promotion is detected far too late. There is also a lack of clear definition of KRA’s and ownership of tasks and activities and linkage to reward schemes. This often results in lack of objectivity in identifying the deserving person for an award, making it further complex to retain the right competency. Industry/domain specific competency frameworks are not available off the shelf and there is a lot of secrecy around the organizations who have developed great frameworks…so each organization goes through a complete discovery for identifying competencies, software testing paths, linkages with compensation and what not…..And such task forces are long drawn and sometimes just drop off in the middle of the exercise, fatigued with the multiple levels of coordination
On the technical side Constantly identifying what is happening right and what is not happening right across the software testing life cycle is a challenge due to lack of accurate and timely data and inadequate focus on analysis and feedback loop Cost pressures at this time are more than ever…and size estimates continue to be a challenge.
I have often found that our greatest challenges are self-induced. As a result, different companies are likely to find different challenges at the top of their list. But today, in my opinion, there are a few challenges commonly faced by most software testing services
software testing managers. The top three I’ve seen are:
Complexity. While I echo comments on getting the handle around technology, I’d also add product and operational complexities as part of this challenge. From a product standpoint, software testing services is increasingly being used to indefinitely extend the life of the hardware it operates. Harnessing that vision and consistently delivering that kind of expandable software testing services capability involves skill sets that few traditional software testing services managers currently possess. Similarly, from the operations side, customers are increasingly expecting the software testing services to know everything there is to know about the customer’s business. Customer requirements have always been a challenge. But this complexity takes on a new dimension when you as the developer find yourself not only having to put yourself entirely in the customer’s place, but to become the customer’s expert on the customer’s own customer and their business environments. If, for example, you’re building software testing services to monitor data center operations and performance, you probably cannot go to the expense and effort to build and operate one to become the expert yourself.
Tools. I could probably stop right there. But if it isn’t a vendor selling a new one (this is all you need!), it’s a Director or VP with money to spend intent on giving your team what they want you to have. Some companies change tools every year, never managing to fully deploy and integrate them. Others never get upgrades, let alone new ones. Budgets, and their included tool upgrades or additions, are often disconnected from meeting actual team needs. The manager’s challenge is to stay at least one step ahead of them all.
Methods. There has never been more to choose from, and less clarity about which to choose and why. An over-riding assumption in many companies is that one method fits all projects and all products. One company, for example, becomes an “agile shop”, while another “does CMMI”. Others believe their tools ARE their method. Such decisions are often political, made with little connection to the business itself. The challenge here is for the software testing team to create and effectively use their right method for the right project and product line in a way that consistently delivers the value proposition. This means that the method must not only be well thought out. It must encompass far more than just simple code, test and migration; it must address the product life cycle. And it must involve all stakeholders critical to product success including product management, marketing, sales, finance, and others. Finally, it must be intimately tied to the goals of the business because the success – or failure – of the one is literally and inextricably linked to the other.
I would like to share an interesting experience that I had a couple of years back. In the middle of on software testing services engineering practices, project manager came back to me telling that the real beneficiary of all this is the next project manager who takes over from me but ‘what is in it for me’.
About SQA Solution
SQA Solution Inc. is a provider of On Demand software
testing , Our US based and global professionals with proven methodologies serve as software testing
partner throughout a client’s product implementation schedule. Our clients rely on SQA Solution services to deliver quality and bug free software to their customers. Based in San Francisco, California SQA Solution maintains offices in India and Ukraine providing services under the SQA Solution name. To learn more about the SQA Solution team, visit http://www.SQASolution.com
Tweet This Post
