How to boost the effectiveness of testing in a team?

However, only well-chosen personnel are not enough. Each new task poses new challenges for specialists. Often, the testing team does not use all its real resources to the fullest extent when doing the work. This prevents both individual professionals and the whole team from realizing their full potential. 

Several methods will help to make testing in the team more effective. They are aimed at increasing the productivity of the specialists who participate in the work on the project. By following these principles, you can not only improve the effectiveness of an existing team of testers but also create a new group.

Participation of a team of testers in the full cycle of development and creation of IT solutions

It happens that good specialists in the field of testing do not have a complete picture of the product that is being tested. This is a significant minus. The lack of the necessary comprehensive knowledge simply does not allow you to see those mistakes that can be avoided at the stage of early product development. Problems identified in the earliest stages will help minimize the team resources that are needed to correct these errors. 

That is why the testing team needs to take part in all stages of development, starting from the moment of formation of requirements for the product. All this makes the work of the team of specialists even more cost-effective and productive.

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Set goals to improve team performance

If you are responsible for the work of your team, you need to have a clear idea of what goals you plan to achieve. It is worth increasing the efficiency of the work of specialists gradually, moving from one intended achievement to another. Thanks to this approach, you can increase the motivation of team members, interest them, and give them an idea of the prospects. When specialists know and understand what is expected of them, they are more productive in their tasks. Therefore, you need to develop an action plan to improve the effectiveness of your team. 

To develop a plan, you need to define short-term and long-term goals. It is necessary to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each participant. You need to determine who will be responsible for what tasks. It is important to allow all specialists in the team to discuss solutions and find the best ways to solve the tasks. It is worth taking care of a positive environment in which all members of the team will feel harmony. Thanks to this, it is easy to ensure that each specialist begins to strive for his professional growth and disclosure of his potential. Healthy competition will also ensure the desire of team members to engage in self-development and improve their skills. 

Develop an individual test plan

Only the correct organization of work will help to achieve the effectiveness of the testing team. If you need to complete a task, should take care of a working algorithm that ensures its timely and most successful solution. Create a plan based on the knowledge of experienced testers. You need to outline the goals, responsibilities, deadlines, possible risks, and budget constraints for a particular project. 

It is necessary to streamline all working correspondence, to make sure that all materials are stored centrally. Make documents available to all team members in a format that is convenient for them. This will save time and effort for each of them.

Use metrics

It is necessary to see the results and compare them with expectations. You need to have an idea of the work done, your problems, and your strengths. Important to measure performance and efficiency because some indicators must be documented and monitored. Therefore, you need metrics that will help you track the overall picture of team performance.

Schedule metrics include data on the number of test cases written and executed. Testing audits also use size metrics to give an idea of the amount of work done. This is the volume of written lines, performed or written test cases. It is also necessary to know the data on the use of modules. You should be aware of the quality of the work performed, which is expressed in DRE. To evaluate the effectiveness of work, you need to know all the data about the test cycles. Metrics can provide information about resource usage — the costs spent, and the hours of work of specialists.

All this data is necessary to assess the effectiveness. The Test Manager or the lead tester works with them. Based on the information received, you can make decisions on the optimization of personnel, or connect the automation of part of the processes. To use the data to improve the effectiveness of the team, you first need to define critical success factors, CSFs, and key performance indicators, KPIs. By correlating these points, you can monitor the results and monitor the performance of specialists.

Communication between team members

We have already touched upon the importance of communication between specialists in the team. A harmonious and healthy microclimate in the team is not inferior in importance to the technical skills of the team members. In addition to good relationships between specialists, it is important to establish effective communication between the team and the developers. No less significant contact with managers.

The testing team should be able to effectively address such issues:

• Feedback.
• Documentation of working products.
• Preparation of documents for the testing team.
• Discussion of optimization of IT solutions.

If consider that testers have to communicate with many people who participate in the project, then one conclusion becomes obvious. It is equally essential to improve not only the technical abilities but also the communication skills of the team itself, as well as take care of maintaining high morale. This is helped by the creation of flexible working conditions and timely remuneration of team members.

If you take into account all of these points, you can get a special testing team that is a mix of specialists with different technical skills. With the right approach to organizing their work, you can unite them with a single goal, and in the process of achieving this everyone will be able to improve their personal or professional level.

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