I’ve been watching New Zealand’s Junior Tall Blacks play at the U19 FIBA World Championships (Auckland New Zealand) and what struck me the most was the level of teamwork showed by the team. This was one of the contributing factors behind the team doing so well – i mean undersized, under gunned but plenty of heart, a good coach, sound systems AND generally good teamwork. What it did lack was the experience. Even though this was the U19’s, a number of teams had professional basket ballers in their team and that experience help decide close games.
When i think back to software testing teams i have been on i immediately think about the varying degrees of teamwork. I’ve worked on a team that was very hierarchical, there was a definitive pecking order and if you upset the head honcho (or in this case, honcho-ess), you quickly became ostracised. And this was regardless of skill, knowledge or enthusiasm and when you were out, you were out. This meant that the peripheral testing activities became harder to accomplish until you got back “in”. You had no or little peer support and pleas (subtle or otherwise) to management were fruitless. It didn’t bother me too much because (either i was naive or ignorant) but one tester i saw felt this ‘pressure’ and it affected her ability to test. Why? Because she was too busy dealing and thinking about her social status that she couldn’t concentrate on testing (AND I mean thoughtful, critical testing.)
I’ve also worked as a sole tester in which, generally speaking, i never had to contend with team politics. I guess i was seen more as a project peer, an individual and not some annoymous member of an annoymous team. I was real and approachable and i guess this made it easier to build a rapport with. This is my experience but obviously it may not be typical. We have ‘control’ over ourselves but not much so over our environments.
I have also been part of a team that was supportive and encouraging and in essence allowed individuals to experiment, to try different things, expand and explore. And because these positive team attributes were in place, the opportunity to collaborate, share and test greatly increased. Whereas in the hierachial team i was in, knowledge was gold and he/she who had the most gold won, the supportive team wasn’t worried about which individual had the most gold but how much gold the team had collectively. Testing thrived because it was allowed to!
I have felt the value of a good teamwork. It goes along way to helping you get up in the morning and enjoying your day rather than dreading it.Testing is a human approach and its not just our interaction with the software but also with those we work with that helps us become better testers!
Brian Osman 