Leading an Effective Test Organization with a High Performance Test Team

(CTM #4)or (CSTP Elective) or (CSTAS Elective)

This course covers area 4 of the Test Management Body of Knowledge (TMBOK) requirements. This course also counts as an Elective towards the requirements of the Certified Software Test Professional certification and the CSTAS certification.

For costs and cities where this course might be offered, please see the right border of this page or to bring this course to your test team at your location, contact our Education and Professionals Services Group.

Concepts

A key role of all successful test managers is the building and managing a high performance test team that provides business value to the organization.  The test team plays a very central role in any software organization. Therefore, they need to have a unique combination of well-developed technical, communication, and people skills in order to be successful. This requires extensive training and experience in order to fully utilize innovative and cutting-edge tools and techniques, as well as exceptional communications and people skills.  It is imperative that the test organization be structured to provide a career ladder progression so the organization does not loose these valuable assets. 

This tutorial focuses on the unique challenges the software organizations faces in building, managing, and retaining a high performance test team. It is designed for the novice, as well as experienced, test managers and technical leaders.  It is taught by an instructor with real world experience in designing, building, and managing successful software test teams.

Participants will learn:

• The role and function of a high performance test team
• Skills to create an organization that provides retention incentives
• Unique skills a test manager should possess in order to perform their job effectively
• Understanding and insight into the differences between management and leadership
• Knowledge essentials for building and managing a successful test team

Outline

• Introduction
• Resource Management
  • Managing available resources
  • Multi-generational workforce
  • Multi-cultural workforce
• Staffing and management
  • Leadership vs. management
  • Staffing
  • Hiring
  • Contracting
  • Reviewing Performance
• Implementation
  • Equipment
  • Facilities
  • Hardware
  • Software resource management
• Politics
  • Recognizing office politics
  • Overcoming office politics
• Training and Career Development
  • Training
    • Test team
    • Business partners
    • Management
  • Career development
• Ethics
  • What is ethics
  • Sources of ethical norms
  • Types of management ethics
• Team Building and Retention
  • Types of teams
  • Stages of team development
  • Building the right team
• Compensation
  • Determining compensation package
  • Benchmarking compensation
• Budgeting
  • Budget preparation
  • Selling the budget
  • Budget implementation
• Presentation Skills Including Data Preparation
  • Oral presentation
  • Written presentations
• Wrap-up