what a QA lead should plan when assigned to a new project

4 Comments

1. cemueses

   September 14, 2015 at 10:51 pm

   Hi,

   Your question is a bit general and different projects will require different preparation. Your team size, skills, availability (you might have the skills on the team, but they could be tied up with another project or on vacation during the time you’d need them), the length and size of the project and familiarity that teams have with the product/feature set and the overall culture of your company are all factors that will have a say on how you approach an assignment. The following is by no means a final list but rather a collection of questions and ideas that could be helpful to start a project.

   -You should know your team, what their strengths are and where they shine most. Depending on the length of the project, you may want to switch testers midway through the project to bring a completely different set of skills to the process. This allows the lead/manager to use their testers where they shine most depending on their skill set or their overall test approach.

   -If the project requires a particular skill that your team lacks, how will you mitigate this? Is there time to acquire such skills? Knowledge transfer from an outside team member (maybe a dev?).

   -Does the project require a particular software or piece of hardware that your company lacks? Again, how will you mitigate this? In some companies is difficult to justify incurring in new expenses for software or hardware. Will you have to create the tool yourself? Does your team have the skills to make this an option?

   -I like doing an initial meeting with all team members and have an open conversation about the best approach or technique for a particular project or feature. Simpler ones don’t require much time, but complex ones do. This open conversation also allows for all team members to have at least an overview of the project and what’s going on. It serves as an education for everybody.

   Again, without going extremely long here, this will vary from team to team. Preference and your overall testing philosophy will take the driver seat. There’s not just 1 good way to do this. You can start with different things and tinker with what works best for your company and especially for your team.
2. Thanh Huynh

   September 15, 2015 at 9:57 pm

   Hi cemueses,

   Well said. You beat me to it!

   Hi Rita Hasan Chowdhury,

   First, congrats on your new position!

   I think @cemueses gave a great answers (and great questions) for you to think more about that.

   Not sure what else I can add here but let me try:

   1) Understand your team and project
   When you asked this question, I assume you are new to this new QA Lead postion. When you are new in a position, (or new in anything), you first need to understand the water you are in. Spend as much as your time to understand about your team members: what is their expectation and motivation, what skillset they are having, what skillset are they missing, etc

   Regarding your project, you need to understand who is your stakeholders and what is their expectation, what kind of quality they are looking from QA team, etc

   2) Be a supporter

   As QA Lead, you will not have enough time to all day to day works such as designing test cases, find defects like an engineer. Instead of that, try your best to support your team member so that they can do their best job and move forward.

   3) Be a leader

   Most of QA Lead position is more about manager where they have tons of matrix and process to monitor and control their team members. Of course, you still need metrics and process to manage your team, don’t be just a manager. Try motivate team, give them space to have their own voice, empower them, train them and make they successful

   4) Be yourself

   You don’t have to become a complete strange version of you when you are in new position. Be yourself and enjoy the new journey.

   My 2 cents and best wish to you
   -Thanh
3. Rita Hasan Chowdhury

   September 17, 2015 at 12:23 pm

   thanks both of you for your valuable answers.would love to know more from you in future. 🙂
4. Thanh Huynh

   September 17, 2015 at 12:32 pm

   Hi Rita,

   You’re welcome any time.