360Logica.com

Test Team and Communication

Why is it that some software test teams succeed while others fail? Is it simply the nature of specific tasks the team is assigned? In other words, is the difference between success and failure preordained, or otherwise out of the team's control? Or is the key to success simply a matter of assembling a collection of "superstars" and then getting out of their way? Conversely, maybe success depends completely on effective team leadership. What's the answer here?

The short answer is that there is no simple solution. Any team has to balance its autonomy with the need to respond to external governing forces and inter-team responsibilities. Hiring stellar performers can obviously help in building a team, but it's not a guarantee of success.

Here we examine some specific characteristics that set high-performance test teams apart. The objective is to help software test engineers and managers understand these characteristics and how to cultivate them in their own teams.

Characteristics of good test teams

There are many clichés people use to describe what makes a team a high-performance team: "There's no 'I' in team" and "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts," for example. These recognize that a good team acts not as a collection of individuals, but as a cohesive unit. However, effective software test teams also share more subtle (and less clichéd) characteristics.

360logica Test team is built around core values, technology, domain and individual and Team growth.

We have following roles present across the team

• Test Manager
• Sr. Test Lead
• Test Lead
• Sr. Test Analyst
• Sr. Test Engineer
• Test Analyst
• Test Engineer
• Junior Test Engineer

Domain and Business Analysis Team

• Business Analyst – QA
• Domain Analyst

Configuration management and build team

• Build Engineer
• Configuration Manager
• Configuration Management Analyst