Software Testers Survival Guide: How to get through an economic downturn as a tester . . .

They are stressful, usually unnecessary, and IME always the fault of bad leadership, but from a quick read of the news and what’s happening in the tech sector it, it looks like layoffs are back on the menu. In my over 25 years of managing software testing in enterprise tech, I’ve experienced layoffs in every single one of them. For some folks in tech companies, this may be your first time living through this, and testers are usually the first to go, so here are my quick tips for increasing your value to your business to avoid the cut.

1) Be able to demonstrate your test approach ALIGNMENT to business risk…

Testing that is aligned to business risk (not just project risk) supports more than just technology delivery and is much more valuable and can drive innovation or identify opportunities for investment. Do you know your business strategy? (Have you read it or even know where it is?) Does your test approach address systemic BUSINESS risk, or does it INJECT risk into our business by only focusing on project delivery? Repurposing test management into a strategic role beyond just functional management of testers should answer questions from your CFO about the cost of quality or defects in production. “Managers of managers” are the first thing I look for when optimizing a test team and in a reduction of force, are usually the first to go.

2) Tie efficiencies you’ve made DIRECTLY to operational savings…

Operational budgets are being squeezed right now and testing investment decisions need to be targeted around gaps in coverage related to usage, monitoring, and risk. Headcount is the only currency that management trade in, so look for duplication of effort or redundancy in the test pipelines and be able to show actual savings (not the usual test automation ROI metrics). Non-prioritized test coverage, large regressive test automation, and process inefficiency (meetings, reporting, automation, test management) are target rich environments to cut the delta between what we need and what we are getting and show real cost improvement.

3) Report on INSIGHTS not just data…

The information gathered during testing can and should be focused on business intelligence that can be used beyond release decisions, but too many testers still just regurgitate test case centric reporting. Testing reveals loads of detailed, in-depth information about delivery processes, waste, your business operations, and how you allocate capital, and all you have to do is OBSERVE this information and report on it! Unironically in a downturn, disruptive management and business decisions get made with “out of focus” views on an organization’s delivery capabilities and expectations – testing can help fix that! Test reporting that includes operational insights/intelligence as part of an overall approach to risk management greatly increases the value of your test team as well as reducing mismanagement of expectations.

Unfortunately, in the testing business, we are still subjected to a lot of bad ideas about our craft, its value, and the operational costs of managing quality. I empathize with the people impacted during this industry-wide series of layoffs, but hopefully these tips can help you articulate your value to your organization.

One thought on “Software Testers Survival Guide: How to get through an economic downturn as a tester . . .

  1. Pingback: Software Testers Survival Guide: Interview tips . . . | Quality Remarks

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