Team Building in Software Testing – How to Build and Grow Your QA Team

Just like software development, software testing also requires some important factors to develop and maintain that can contribute to continuous process improvement.

One such significant factor is Team Building. While building the right team, the focus should be on certain key elements like Roles & Responsibilities, Knowledge Transfer, Domain Knowledge, Career Ladder, Technical & Domain Certification, Team Dynamics & Group Outings, etc.

Let’s explore every key element in detail. In the further sections, we will dive deep to understand the ways to form an effective test team and see how we can build a successful QA team.

Team Building in Software Testing

Roles and Responsibilities

Each organization has a different hierarchy of Roles & Responsibilities in the QA team. However, on a broader level, there are two levels of the role in the software testing team. The first is the test lead or test manager and another is the test engineer QC tester or QA tester.

Test leads have responsibilities like resource allocation, test planning, defining project scope, assigning testing activities to team members, monitoring software testing life cycle, preparing status reports and sharing with higher management, participating in customer interactions, etc.

A test engineer is mainly responsible for understanding & analyzing the requirements, creating test scenarios, test cases & test steps, setting priority for each testing activity, performing testing & reporting bugs, keeping the lead informed about the testing status, etc.

The Software Testing team should have a proper structure where the roles & responsibilities of each member are clearly defined & understood.

The team members need to understand what they are supposed to do. This is quite often not communicated or discussed with the team.

If each team member is aware of his role & responsibility, then it becomes easier for the team as a whole to achieve its goal sooner & better.

Before the start of a project, the team members must be explained the typical tasks that they will be performing daily for their respective roles. Be it a tester or a test lead, setting the expectations and explaining what is expected out of them will give correct results without unnecessary delays or errors.

The following points need to be clarified to the team:

• Scope of the Project
• Roles and Responsibilities expected from everyone
• Key points to focus on like Deliverables, Timelines, etc.
• Explain the Strategy and Plan.

Apart from the above, the team members have the primary responsibility to keep in mind their own career aspirations, growth, learning, etc. These will be the key motivators to perform in their current roles and excel in the same.

Knowledge Transfer

The testers need to understand the Domain as well as the functions of the application. This enables them to thoroughly test the application under test.

KT sessions are essential to help them understand the core functions and logic that will be applied during testing. Brainstorming sessions are vital to share a common understanding of applications and domains.

There should be a healthy knowledge-sharing atmosphere in the team where everyone can learn & grow.

Testers should be involved in discussions right from the start of the project. Initial discussions essentially consist of business people, architects, developers, database experts, etc.

Involving testers during these early stages of software development will provide good knowledge and understanding about the application that is going to be developed and tested.

Knowledge transfer should happen in the following phases:

• Prepare: The key people with knowledge should be identified and motivated to transfer knowledge.
• Understand the Client: A business person or client themselves can impart this knowledge to you.
• Get familiar with the application: It is critical to understand the application you are going to test. You should be provided with proper documentation of the application.
• Get familiar with the teams, processes & systems: You should be made aware of what development lifecycle model is followed in the project (Agile or some other), what are the test processes and which test management tools are being used. Get a basic idea of all tools & processes used in the project.
• Study the application environments: There are different application boxes like dev, cert, test & prod. You should have imparted knowledge of these environments.
• Provide feedback: Once all KT sessions are over, you should provide feedback about the KT process. This feedback is important for improvement of the process in the future.

Domain Knowledge

Understanding the application’s Domain (e.g. Healthcare, Insurance, Education, Banking, etc.) is very important and will be helpful for testers to verify the functionality with different perspectives. The tester should be able to wear the hat of the end customer as well as an SME.

Domain knowledge building takes time and only throughout working in a particular domain, the resource will be able to get a sound knowledge of the domain he is working in.

Further Reading => How to Handle the Major Problems with Large QA Teams

Sometimes, a tester will get a chance to test different applications belonging to the same domain, so testing becomes easier and more meaningful if he knows the overall domain.

Technical and Domain Certifications

Having a talented pool of testers is a big asset for the project. The focus should be on training the team and getting them certified in the respective areas they work in by nominating them for internal certifications. There are also a lot of external certifications which can also be selected and get the team trained & certified in those areas.

Certifications will give the team moral support and maturity to perform the testing activities with confidence. Domain-certified resources will also leverage the intellectual knowledge gained and that can be showcased to prospective clients for new business opportunities.

It is important to ensure that the testing team members jointly have the right combination of domain knowledge & technical skills required to achieve the common testing goals of the team.

Career Ladder

It’s not enough to create just a team of testers with all skill sets, but to provide opportunities for them to rise up in their career ladder is also significantly important. Create career-building programs for them or nominate their names for programs that can shape their careers and make them eligible for their next level of role.

Making them ready for the next level of the role will fulfill the need to identify and allocate resources in the project as and when required. Team meetings can be effectively utilized to discuss their roles and responsibilities for the next level.

Educating them on the various skills required to perform in their next roles is advantageous and it also aids in continuous process improvement. Every Manager has the responsibility to explain the duties that are expected to be performed when the resources are getting promoted.

This will make sure that not just a set of resources promoted, but ready-to-work, responsible, and skilled individuals are being promoted.

Team Dynamics and Group Outing

It’s quite obvious to ensure that there is a level of healthy team dynamics established and followed by the team for effective group work, meeting common goals, finishing planned targets, and achieving goals on time.

It is vital to make them understand that “Project” is the common objective for all in the project and completing what the customer wants is the “Priority”.

To accomplish this, everyone should work together as a “Team” by leaving all differences behind, and completing the planned tasks should be the only “Target”.

During weekly team meetings, the team members should receive information on Tasks and Priorities for the upcoming period and have a common, clear, and loud understanding of the work to be performed.

Team building exercises and team outings are really necessary to burn out the stress and recharge the team to work more. This will also help for a better understanding of team members outside the project work and in a different environment altogether.

A small token of appreciation can be announced during team meetings to identify talents and thereby encourage and motivate others to perform better.

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Form An Effective Software Test Team: Expert Tips

Most testing professionals are technically strong enough to test their solutions, but to form a strong Test Team with various skill sets, and maintaining it, requires some different individual skills that are equally important.

This section focuses on an individual’s skills that contribute to forming a good test team and the selection criteria for the induction of the tester into a team. 

Here are the 6 important skills to form an effective test team, from here you will get to know the ways to develop these skills.

Skill #1: Tester’s Knowledge Base

We are aware that Testing cannot be taught to an individual. It is a continuous learning process. The tester’s knowledge is continuously upgraded through experience or training in various diverse work areas. Some of the key areas are:

• Different software systems
• Domain Knowledge
• Various Software Testing phases

Testers that know different software systems possess the best understanding of the software behavior, functions, and operations, where test cases are bound to fail, and the system’s expected reaction.

Testers having domain knowledge understand the functional requirements better. For Example, in Industrial Automation, if the tester has domain knowledge of industrial products then it becomes easy to understand if there is any gap in requirements of the product and the software which is to be developed. This helps to prioritize the test cases and testing activities.

Basic knowledge of the Software Testing process starts with identifying specification requirements, creation of Test cases and prioritization, Risk analysis, executing tests and recording the actual results. Apart from this, Test managers should have the knowledge and skills of Test planning, Control, Tracking progress and Status reporting to the client

Skill #2: Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills always give a positive uplift to your team. Interpersonal skills are an important factor in a tester’s role. An employee with strong interpersonal skills gets along well with the team and communicates effectively with colleagues, customers, and clients.

To form a strong test team, a good rapport amongst the testers is a key point. To achieve this, carry out some interactive sessions where the team will interact with each other or with new team members regarding defects or automation tools, or project-related discussions, or brainstorming valuable innovative ideas.

Always build a team comprised of a variety of personal and technical skills. Every individual must have a defined role in the team. The balance of strengths and weaknesses of the individuals in the team should be optimized.

Skill #3: Independent Testing

To contribute to delivering good quality solutions, independent testers are identified by the organization. Independence of testing such as:

• Testing performed by the developer who develops the code
• Testing performed by different developers other than those who develop the code
• Testing performed by the tester who is a part of the team
• Testing performed by testers from other teams
• Testing performed by the test specialist
• Testing performed by an external team from a different organization

The extent of independent testing is directly proportional to good quality products, but this also leads to less interaction within the team and less knowledge transfer. The degree of independent testing for the testing project must be decided by the organization based on schedule, cost, software development model and priority.

Hiring a test team from an external organization also brings challenges in a test team such as cultural differences, knowledge transfer, employee turnover, cost estimation, quality, skill sets, and communication.

Skill #4: Motivation

Motivation plays another important role in the formation of a good test team. If individuals are not properly appreciated for their work, their level of interest in the work reduces. The individuals get demoralized and it becomes difficult to work in the team. This affects the quality of work produced and also other team members.

How to increase the motivation of your test team:

• Respect among peers
• Appreciating the value of inputs
• Encouraging remarks and actions from higher management (leads and managers)
• Rewards for quality work

Individuals earn respect and recognition from peers by providing a valuable contribution to the positive development of the project.

Skill #5: Communication – A Key Factor

As we discussed each of the above points, you may have noticed that all of them are based on one basic rule.  That is effective communication.

A test team often communicates with peers regarding:

• Documentation of the work products where there should not be any gap in requirements and understanding. Developers and testers should be synchronized in their approach to effective work
• Feedback related to functional documents, specification requirements, and estimates
• Documentation of the test team consists of the Test Plan, Test cases, Test strategy, Test Defect report, etc.

Effective communication is very important while reporting defects to the development team. It should not lead to any conflicts within the team. It should be professional, precise, diplomatic, and effective in the interest of the project.

Skill #6: Team Bonding

How to improve team bonding:

Every team occasionally faces problems related to low morale. Organizations with high morale experience high productivity. Let us examine the root causes of low morale in the team and how it can be corrected.

Sometimes the morale of the team suffers because of (to name just a few reasons) poor leadership, poor communication, inflexible work conditions, team turnover, difficult co-workers, losing a big client or project, heavy workloads, or stress.

This leads to low morale that manifests in obvious unhappiness, employee turnover, conflicts between team members, decreased productivity, and complaints regarding peers or work.

In such cases, reconnect with your team by organizing brainstorming sessions, maintaining constant contact, hanging around, project launches, expressing appreciation by just saying “You did a good job”, rewards, giving them opportunities to explore and learn, and setting up objectives and goals for them.

On a day-to-day basis, testers have to communicate with clients, developers, different teams, users, and customers. So the basic skills mentioned covering communication, interpersonal skills, and knowledge, should be effective enough to maintain a strong link between all of them.

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Guide for Building a Successful QA Team from Scratch

So far we learned how to form an effective team, in this section, we will understand how to build that effective team into a successful one.

Why Do Some Software Testing Teams Fail And Others Succeed? Is there any solution to this problem? The answer is Yes and No depending on how the team members align themselves towards the common goal of the team, and not at the cost of suppressing the team members’ interest, thereby working together with the common understanding of the problem at hand.

The success also depends on leadership attributes possessed by the Test Lead – “Captain of the ship”.

The objective of this tutorial is to help software test engineers or anyone who believes in teamwork, to understand the characteristics of a high-performance team and educate on how to cultivate them in their teams.

The success of a team, in the long run, doesn’t depend on an individual who is considered the “STAR” but depends on all who form clusters of stars that make a great team.

Characteristics of a Great Software Testing Team

Initial stage: Ask yourself the following question:

Does the new team member know the reason for which he has been selected for the team?

New members of the team are often puzzled about their presence in the team. Although you may argue that he/she need not know the purpose and just work on the task assigned to him/her. Many higher management people make this mistake.

Help individuals understand the project in a bigger context by clearly defining their roles and responsibilities.

This includes the relevance of his/her job, skills of individuals that could contribute towards the projects, and shared common team goals defined earlier. This indeed brings a great commitment towards the work and hence contributes towards its quality.

Ownership

When project complexity increases in terms of tasks and team size, then it would not be possible to keep track of individual tasks by a single leader. Hence the solution to this would be assigning ownership to individuals.

However, this virtual leadership often acts as an impediment rather than a solution if not considered appropriate. Mere appointment of an individual as Owner without giving serious thought to whether he/she could manage the team would not bring the desired result.

Individuals acting as owners should have a mindset that matches leaders mindset and the pride on their part to act as future leaders. These are the people who could make a difference by carrying their team members along with them. The same people by showing indifferent attitudes towards their team will disintegrate the team.

The task of the owners is not merely restricted to assigning the task to team members but to understanding the task in hand i.e. a situation from a much broader perspective and bringing a common level of understanding among their team members.

Supporting the team members at times of difficulty in handling the task, words of encouragement, correcting their mistakes by not acting as the lead but as a peer, acting upon ideas, or taking advice for the appropriate situation from experienced members would certainly benefit the shared goal.

Collaboration and a solid sense of interdependency in the team will defuse blaming behavior and stimulate opportunities for learning and improvement.

Knowledge of Seasoned Players in the Team

The term Seasoned Player indicates a person who has spent a considerable amount of time on the same project or similar kind of work. They are resources who have vast knowledge about the project. By properly channeling their knowledge, the entire team could benefit.

This individual should show an act of diligence towards others’ work rather than arrogance. It is commonly said, that “Past success breeds arrogance”. They are high performers whose absence could be felt in a team but it should not be the sole criterion as there is an equal chance for the others who have a similar caliber to act in this position.

Motivation – Key Factor

Motivation is not all about giving a speech when the members of the team are assembled but rather every effort should be made to tailor this speech to address each individual.

This means that each team member has unique qualities and a unique working style. This task is more complex than said for the Test Lead since it needs efforts on the leader’s part to sense the team member’s feelings not only towards the task assigned but also about the project as a whole.

The positive attitude of the lead will energize the team – This is quoted from experience working for one of the great test teams. If the leader complains about long working hours or insists the team members work with a schedule that is impossible to meet, then your team will reflect your attitude.

A true leader is one who despite an unreasonable schedule instills the confidence among team members to believe in their abilities and at the same time works in the background to justify his team members working on unreasonable schedules and bring an extension to this schedule to make his team members job simple.

Recognition

Everyone likes to be recognized for his/her work. When an individual is awarded for his/her work, the responsibility of the team lead should bring the reason for individual recognition in front of others.

The team lead’s decision for this kind of task should be impartial. This does bring great respect for the awarded individual by the members of the team. They will be acting on similar grounds and ultimately the team will benefit from their collective response.

Most often the members working for a virtual leader are not recognized due to zero visibility to the team leader. It is a virtual leader’s responsibility to highlight the accomplishments and contributions of a team member. This indicates that a virtual leader is a future leader who takes good care of his team and is well-received by his team members.

One-on-One Meetings

It is often noted that roles and responsibilities of the members are defined in the beginning and assessment is done at the end of the project. Agreed that this is a formal process. However informal discussions on a one-on-one basis add to this formal process.

These informal meetings should address current issues that the members won’t feel like conveying during the group meeting, future opportunities for members, identifying future leaders/owners of the team, and acting on issues at hand after feedback from the team members.

Delivering appropriate feedback on time can make the difference between a team that hides mistakes and a team that sees mistakes as opportunities. The responsibility for poor performance is usually a function of the team structure rather than individual incompetence; yet, it is the individuals who are sent to training programs to fix it.

If team members feel like they are pitted against one another to compete for rewards and recognition, then they will withhold information that might be useful to a greater team. When a team has problems, then an effective team leader will focus on the team’s structure before focusing on individuals.

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” – George Patton

Conclusion

A test team is a mixture of diverse personalities and backgrounds, both professional and personal. It is undoubtedly a challenge to manage successfully, as no one is perfect.

There are plenty of things to be considered while building a successful team. Unity, Trust, Respect for others’ opinions, and acting without fear are the ingredients for a great test team and in general for any successful team.

After going through this tutorial, look at your team and ask yourself “Are you working in a great test team?” or  “Will you make every effort to build a great test team?”. Then don’t wait anymore, get ready and try to build a “Great Software Testing Team” right away.

Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below on the importance of team building and how to build a successful QA team.