Building a software test organization

This paper is based on experience generated building test organizations in a large international software company spanning several technologies and market segments. Additionally, this paper provides general recommendations for each of these decisions and the information required to tailor those decisions to the specific needs of the reader's organization. Article :. The structure of testing must resemble the associated system development approach, be it Agile, waterfall or a hybrid form.

Where there is frequent re testing, especially in combination with scarce test knowledge and experience, testing can also be organized in a line or staff function, the so called permanent test organization. Of course, in general everyone is involved in the test organization. In general, the definition of the test organization is decided by a large part by management within an organization. The success of a test organization lies in timely and effectively assigning test resources and tools.

Well educated testers, be it full time professional testers that pursue a career in testing or part timers with testing as a second or third competence. This phase is divided into following 3 stages. In this step, Test Manager forecasts the overall human resource requirements in accordance with the different project plans. The team composition and size base on the characteristic and functionality of the project.

If you understand what type of team you need, you will know how to shortlist the team position and their roles. Because the characteristic of project Guru99 Bank is testing , you should create a Testing Team to do this project. The size of the team the number of members in the project team is based on the volume of the project activities and the complexity of the project.

Normally, a Testing Team is composed of following members:. Execute the tests, Log results, Report the defect. As per this human resource plan, you need at least 5 members for your project team. Each member will take a different role in the project team, and they must have competencies corresponding to the role assigned to them. If the project is complex and has a high volume, the project teams should grow in size and scale to meet the complexity.

In such case, more than one person may take one role and fulfill their responsibility. You have to match members with different competencies to the right task.

It means to choose the suitable person for the job. Suppose you assign a member a developer as a tester in the project Team. His task is to execute the test cases and report the defects to the Test Manager. This task must be completed in one week. But the result is:. You assigned him to the wrong task.

He is a developer, his skill is programming, not testing. Matching member to wrong skill can cause the task to fail, and delay the project. To avoid this mistake, before assigning members to any task, the Test Manager has to consider many factors:. For example, in the above case, Manager needs to evaluate the training progress of the developer. If the developer is finding it difficult to pick up testing, the manager could consider an alternative training method or consider replacing him.

How can I build a successful team? The first thing, which the Test Manager has to do, is sharing the team mission with the other members.