After many years leading and coaching testers, for the past 6 months I’ve been working with developers as a quality coach. I’m keen to share lessons learned from my experience so far and to learn from others working in Quality Assistance and Quality Coaching roles.
What’s different?
Enthusiasm
Testers are eager to learn more about testing, it’s their passion. The “pull method” of providing coaching and training on demand worked very well, where I made it known that I’m available to the team and they approached me to arrange sessions. Testers reached out to ask for advice, and I was invited to meetings, asked to consult or collaborate, or asked to review work. In some cases my reputation in the testing community has preceded me to a new role, and testers were keen to collaborate from the moment I joined the company.
Great developers are also open to learning more about testing, but the word ‘enthusiastic’ doesn’t spring to mind. If I was to rely solely on the pull method of waiting to be asked for coaching, I would have a lot of spare time on my hands. Instead I attend standup meetings, planning sessions and retros, and I look for opportunities to propose coaching and pairing sessions. It requires me to be more confident and assertive, and somewhat persistent. It’s fair to say that my reputation doesn’t precede me with developers!
Arranging the first session with each developer is the biggest hurdle. The quality assistance/coaching model is relatively new for most people, and there’s uncertainty around what will be involved. As with most things, it gets easier each time.
Training method
For a team of testers, I could present three new concepts in three weeks. For example: mind-mapping test scenarios, focus/defocus exploratory testing technique, and consistency heuristics. Testers love learning these techniques, and incorporating them into their regular work. I picture them adding new tools to their toolbox, to help them find quality issues more efficiently and effectively. The value and usage of each new tool is self-apparent, meaning it’s obvious to the testers where and when each new concept will be useful.
Working with developers, any coaching on testing methods will be more successful if demonstrated and proven in the context of the code/feature/product they’re currently working on. I’ve found that I’m not able to update and reuse my existing presentations and materials which are theory-based and use practise testing websites. It’s almost as though the method you’re demonstrating needs to find a bug in your own product during the training session, to be considered a technique worth learning. I picture developers with a small extra toolbox for testing that’s already full, and they’re not convinced yet they need to purchase a larger toolbox!
My own expertise
When doing one-on-one coaching I learn new things every single time, such as domain knowledge, keyboard shortcuts, useful browser extensions, etc. Even so, I’m typically guiding more than I am learning.
While coaching developers it feels more like a two-way learning process. While asking leading questions about quality, scope, and risk, I’m also learning about the operating environment, debugging methods, code structure, in-house test tools, and more. Importantly, I’m seeing how many bugs can be traced back to code patterns and structure, and can therefore be prevented at that level during development. It’s exciting to learn new ways of preventing issues rather than detecting them later.
Which is better?
When I’m working with testers I automatically assume the role of mentor, trainer, leader. For years this has been my comfort zone – testers are my tribe, my people, my community. Personally and professionally, I thrive when I’m just outside my comfort zone. In the past that has lead me to pursue consulting, contracting, senior management roles, public speaking, organising meetups, hosting training courses… Now taking on this new role has allowed me to use my experience in the software industry with quality and coaching, while pushing me to learn about development more deeply.
I’m hopeful that by coaching developers I can have a greater impact on preventing/reducing product quality issues and therefore help to produce quality software faster. It’s still early days.
Please reach out if you’re also in a Quality Coach role and would like to share notes.
Part 1 in a short series of posts about Quality Coaching.
Is it good enough yet? 