FAQs about software test management and their answers

1,TestDoes the owner need to strictly track the Test Progress?Many times, due to lack of human resources, the testing project owner is executing the test, which leads to a lack of control over the entire project and some problems (for example, the quality of Defects of some members is insufficient; some functions cannot be tested due to some serious system functional problems due to untimely modification by developers .) Unable to solve the problem, delaying the progress. Therefore, the test responsibility must be monitored throughout the project, and as much information as possible. Generally, the test owner needs to manage the following content. Work:

 

Test Case execution;

 

Defects submitted by each Tester;

 

Whether an unexpected problem occurs during the test.

 

　　2. Is version control available for testing?

　　The version here mainly refers to the version control of the test object, that is, the version control of the product submitted by the Development Department. When the development team version management is not standardized, it is very important for the test team to implement version control. Make sure that the test objects are controllable. It is recommended that the development and testing parties make a clear agreement to specify a dedicated test leader, formulate the submission principles, and record the submission details in detail, in this way, test errors or failures caused by version out of control are basically avoided.

 

　　3. How to deal with the flow of testers?

　　The flow of personnel is not only a test department, but also a common phenomenon in the IT industry. From the manager's perspective, the supervisor needs to communicate with the team members to establish a harmonious team environment, grasp the situation in time, and make adjustments earlier. However, only enterprises can establish a good employment system to provide employees with a broad space for development and good training.LearningOpportunities can fundamentally solve this problem.

 

EnhancedProject ManagementTo strengthen document management and ensure the effectiveness of documents, which can greatly reduce the loss caused by the loss of staff. At the same time, the testing department should establish a training mechanism to enable new employees to receive direct or indirect training and quickly adapt to work.

 

　　4. Why do developers often complain that the quality of defects submitted by test engineers is too poor?

　　We often hear developers say, "This is not a defect !", "This defect does not exist because my system runs normally !". Test engineers are engaged in quality work, and the submitted results should be of higher quality. Why is there such a phenomenon?

 

Disputes Caused by defects submitted are a normal phenomenon. For example, if the tester's description is unclear, it will cause disputes. The method to reduce or even avoid this phenomenon is cross testing. Cross testing is an effective way to improve the quality of testing. Of course, cross testing will increase the cost of testing. After the test task is completed, the test engineers verify the defects submitted by each other to avoid a series of problems, such as the unclear description of the defects and the defects caused by the running environment, this greatly reduces the cost of regression testing and communication. Therefore, this investment is worthwhile.Unit TestCross-testing will also be conducted to improve the development quality.

 

In addition, the tester must follow the specifications to describe the defects found in the test. A defect must at least clearly describe the summary, detailed description, and reproduction steps,Defect managementRefer to Chapter 8.

 

　　5. Is it true that "let new users do the test, and they will not do anything anyway?

　　In actual project development, we often see that some organizations ignore the significance of the test team. When testing is to be implemented, we often find several programmers to serve as testers temporarily. Even though some organizations recognize the importance of building a test team, they often arrange some industry beginners who have no development experience to perform tests during implementation, which often leads to low testing efficiency, testers are boring about the test work.

 

Based on the author's experience, the test team should first hire a senior expert in the testing field, who should have extremely rich similar projectsSoftware TestingExperience, understanding of common defects or errors in software development; in addition, he also has good affinity and Personality Charm. Secondly, the project testing team also has many skilled members, suchAutomated TestingTools are skillful or easy to compile automated test scripts.

 

In addition, the test team should also hire some part-time members, such as peer review is the most commonly used form during the verification test implementation process, these peer experts belong to part-time test team members. For new Testers in the test team, these testers can schedule delivery verification orBlack box testingAnd so on.

 

6. What is assimilation?

　　Assimilation means that over time, developers will gradually influence the tester's thinking and ability to judge defects, especially for the same product, the same group of developers and the same group of testers have been working with each other for a long time. Many of them are defects. Because testers use the software "naturally", they will not be treated as defects, especially with the explanation and persuasion of developers. Assimilation may start with a "vicious circle": testers will help developers explain the rationality of each defect and will not find any problems in a round of tests.

 

When recruiting new personnel, different test project teams can rotate to test different products, which can be avoided. At the same time, we recommend that you release a beta version of the product. More people can test it to discover more problems.

 

　　7. How can test engineers avoid positioning effects?

　　Social psychology experts once conducted an experiment: Let people freely choose their seats when they convene a meeting, and then take a break outside the room before entering the room, five to six times, it is found that most people choose their first seat. This phenomenon is called the positioning effect, indicating that most people do not want to change it easily if they are used to what they identify.

 

The positioning effect is reflected by both developers and testers. For example, developers often port code for a function written by themselves. Because of the previous debugging, the copied "function" is often not debugged seriously in new places, these codes often cause many types of defects such as shared variable conflicts.

 

The positioning effect is reflected in the fact that the tested functions are not tested seriously: During regression testing, some functions are often considered reliable due to previous tests, you only need to verify that some previously discovered defects have been modified. This phenomenon is more prominent when multiple regression attempts are repeated, because many functions in regression tests perform repeated tests. As we all know, developers often introduce new defects when modifying defects, and testers will bring these defects to users if they are neglected.

 

There are two solutions to this problem:

 

(1) complete execution test cases: This method has a large investment, but it is best to execute all the test cases during the last regression test during product development.

 

(2) Cross-test: testers can perform cross-test to avoid the positioning effect to a great extent. Test engineers exchange tasks during regression testing, greatly reducing the chance of repeatedly testing a function, so that "subjective" personnel do not have certain functions that are defective.

 

Generally, the above two methods are used in combination. Both cross-test and test cases must be fully executed, and the test coverage should be as extensive as possible.

 

　8. What should I do if the tester suddenly resigned?

　　At present, the flow of people in the IT industry has become an indisputable fact. The resignation of employees has a certain impact on the Organization, which is basically unavoidable. In the testing field, the sudden resignation of employees will also bring a great negative impact, especially when the testing team is relatively small. What we can do in the face of this situation is how to minimize this impact.

 

Based on the author's experience, there are two main methods: the first is to establish a good learning environment within the testers, so that everyone can learn from each other, in this way, some special technologies won't be mastered by one person, and most members are willing to learn from each other and improve themselves. The second is to manage knowledge in the Organization, the technology is precipitated as knowledge, so that new employees can easily get started when taking over the work and quickly adapt to the environment through learning.

 

In addition, you must pay attention to the standardization of work. For example, the formation of as many documents as possible can reduce the loss caused by employee resignation.
9. What should the test Manager Do if there is a problem with the tester's work?　　A tester's work is a problem that the test Manager often faces. As a test department leader, the first thing to do is to point out the errors made by the tester so that the tester can correct the errors as soon as possible.

 

The only thing that cannot be done is to stare at subordinate errors. Keeping an eye on the mistakes of subordinates is the biggest mistake of a leader. British behavior expert Porter said: when many criticisms are made, lower-level employees often only remember the beginning and the rest will not listen because they are busy thinking about arguments to refute the criticism at the beginning. As a test Manager, you should provide guidance based on the tester's psychology and mobilize the enthusiasm of each person to participate in the work.

 

　10. How should the test Manager assess employees without going deep into the specific test work?

　　This phenomenon is common in organizations with a large Test Scale. Test managers should try their best to arrange weekly conversations with each member in a non-disturbing environment, so as to discover and solve many problems as soon as possible.

 

One of the most important tasks of a test Manager is to regularly assess what the Organization has done and how it is done. At the same time, a report should also be prepared for employees, which gives testers a full understanding of what testers are doing and how they are doing, so as to assess their performance. This report shows everyone's news.

 

The test Manager and each employee focus on their current work, such as their questions or opinions at work and whether they need help. Many managers often complain that they don't have time to meet every employee in a week to talk about their work. However, based on the author's experience, if you cannot schedule a weekly conversation with the employee, the employee will disturb the test Manager's work because the employee has to come to the test Manager to discuss many issues.

 

At the same time, we should treat employees in a way they can accept, rather than a way we can accept. "Do not give yourself to others", this golden rule may be effective for pure social factors in many life, but it is not always useful for work. Efficient managers know how to treat each employee.

 

In short, the assessment can be performed more accurately only when there are as many contacts as possible with employees.

　　11. How should the test Manager deal with overtime issues?

 

In most cases, the author does not advocate overtime. When employees work more than 40 hours a week, they start to care about their own affairs at work. If they spend money, they will call people who haven't been in contact for a long time, because employees are always working. Employees cannot finish their work when they are too tired. This is because they do not care about themselves at work, which is usually very inefficient.

 

One of the important tasks of test management is to create an environment for employees to finish their work within the working hours, and encourage them not to exceed 40 hours a week, they can even be rewarded based on the amount of work they can do within 40 hours. In general, this will increase creativity and efficiency.

 

One of the highlights of the test itself is the constant repetition of boring and lengthy tests. If you are tired, it is likely that you are not concentrated and have skipped some important test links. In addition, sometimes testing requires writing a test driver, which requires a better state to work.

 

　　12. How do test managers face their own mistakes?

　　Everyone makes mistakes. We may get angry when we forget to hold a meeting. It is embarrassing to admit that we are making mistakes. In particular, the Management Personnel think that it may lose dignity if they make mistakes to their project team. If we do not make mistakes frequently, we will be able to win respect when we admit mistakes. For example, if we forget a meeting and apologize to our colleagues or customers, others will understand us.

 

Do not deny or deliberately ignore your mistakes, no matter what you do. Deliberately ignoring will not make the error disappear, but will make the error grow into a monster.

 

　　13. Why do we plan regular training?

　　Like development, testing should not only face the ever-changing new technologies, but also the domain knowledge of relevant systems. Only by constantly learning can we do a good job and keep up with the development of the industry. If the testing manager does not train employees based on constant changes, it will cause some losses to the Organization. Daily training can be about a specific project or technology. The following methods are generally used:

 

(1) free communication training within the testing department. This kind of training is relatively casual. You can exchange ideas at Friday's regular meeting or sit in the teahouse together. The method can adopt the "Brainstorm" method, so that each member can discuss a specific field. This communication method is especially useful for groups that need to do many different projects at the same time. When everyone works on different projects, it helps everyone understand all the projects in your group.

 

(2) Cross-department mutual learning. Testing requires many fields and technical knowledge. It is far from enough to learn it by yourself. It is a good way to communicate with colleagues in other departments. You can improve each other in technical aspects during your work.

 

(3) external training. Although the external training investment is high, it is worthwhile. These experts are generally very proficient in their own fields and can quickly improve the level of the entire test team. You can also use the test team to introduce some friends for training, which can reduce costs.

 

Training is the basic condition for building a learning organization and an important way to improve the level of employees. Regular regular training can enhance organizational cohesion and make employees more willing to stay in the organizational unit for long-term development. As the testing Director, regular training is essential.

 

　14. All tests are not allowed in time. What should the test owner do?

　　This problem may be ridiculous, but in reality our test managers have to face it. All tests here refer not to the traversal test of the software, but to all the test content included in the test plan developed by the test leader.

 

Generally, the progress may be delayed, regardless of the product development or specific projects. Once the overall progress cannot be delayed, the practice of project-related personnel is to reduce the test time. This phenomenon is even more prominent when features are not yet developed.

 

How can I solve this problem as a test Manager with high quality responsibilities? It is better to follow the steps below to gradually complete and improve the work:

 

(1) do your best to complete the test tasks according to the priorities of the test tasks. In the case of insufficient time, test tasks should be classified by priority, and important and urgent tasks should be completed first. At this time, the test task is an auxiliary task, and its purpose is to do its best to improve the quality. In this case, the test owner must lead the test team to make full use of all resources to ensure quality.

 

(2) Cooperate with developers in practical work to gradually improve work. Only when the software development capability of the entire team is improved can the problem be solved from the root cause. Therefore, the test owner should lead the team and the development team to find a suitable development model, so that the project planning is more reasonable and testing can be carried out according to the pre-plan.

 

In short, test owners should not complain in any case. Only by actively facing the problem can we better solve the problem.

 

　　15. The company does not pay much attention to testing. How does the test owner perform testing?

　　At present, software companies in China do not pay much attention to testing. Although many companies have begun to focus on testing in their consciousness, they often ignore testing due to catch up with the progress and save resources. In this case, the test owner is still responsible for the software quality. In this environment, how should the test owner work?

 

First, take the initiative to work with developers to complete the work. In particular, we cannot complain about the environment. In any case, complaints cannot solve the problem, but can only increase the intensification of contradictions. On this basis, the importance of the testing work is gradually highlighted, and then the testing system is gradually improved.

 

Secondly, the importance of testing is proved by actual actions. Only when the performance of the testing work is gradually presented can people really pay attention to the importance of testing. Therefore, the test owner starts from scratch to perform the test step by step.

 

In order to do a good job of software and make the software products developed into commodities, the testing work must be the same as the development. Otherwise, products with poor quality will soon be eliminated by the market. The scale of modern software is getting bigger and bigger, and the testing work is becoming more and more important. Therefore, as long as the test owner sticks to the work well, the space to play a role is getting bigger and bigger.

 

In the end, if you are in a team that has no hope, the Test director can consider resigning. Resignation is also a good choice. It is much better to give full play to your abilities in a new environment than to work with a "depressing" mood for a long time.

 

　　16. Do test managers need to be technical experts?

　　The main task of the test Manager in the test project is to develop the test strategy, manage the implementation of the test plan, and create a good execution environment for the test project. At the same time, it is necessary to mobilize the creativity of employees and evaluate their work. These jobs do not necessarily require testing managers to reach the expert level.

 

However, in practice, due to the shortage of testers, test managers often perform specific test tasks as testers. Especially for small test teams, the daily work of test managers is generally based on specific test execution tasks. In this case, test managers should have a good background.

 

In general, technical background knowledge is very beneficial to test managers. For example, assigning jobs, making progress budgets, and executing specific jobs require a certain degree of background knowledge. Of course, as a test Manager, there is no need to be proficient in all technologies, and that cannot be done. Test managers can help employees do their jobs right and provide the best environment to complete their jobs.
Reprinted: http://www.51testing.com/html/91/n-92591.html