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Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager - Introduction
April 1, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Lifecycle Phases, Project Management Best Practices
Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager - Introduction (#1 in the series Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager)
By Cem Kaner and Johanna Rothman
Many project managers don’t know what to expect from a testing organization. They don’t know what the group does, how the product is going to be tested, when things will be done, what deliverables to expect, or how to find this information out. Complicating matters, some test managers want to keep things this way.
We’ve been successful at managing both development projects and testing groups, mainly for companies that develop and publish packaged software. We see the testing effort as an integral part of the overall process of developing an appropriate quality product on time and within budget. To succeed at this, though, the project manager must be able to see schedules, to receive meaningful deliverables, and to recognize genuine problems, which test groups–like all other software groups–have in plenty.
This article is written for project managers, with suggestions on how to work with a test group and hold them accountable for their work on your project. In particular, we recommend that you:
- assess the risks for your project as a whole;
- assess the risks associated with the testing sub-project;
- lay out criteria for important milestones, and stick to them;
- develop a project plan for the testing sub-project; and
- track testing progress against the plan.
We are NOT suggesting that you manage the test group. We are not suggesting that you eliminate the intellectual independence of the test group. And we are definitely not suggesting that you should develop these assessments and project plans yourself. What we’re saying is that the test group provides services to your project, just like the programming groups do (you track their progress, don’t you?), just like the documentation group does, just like the other groups that make pieces of the product that you have to release. You have a responsibility, as the manager of the overall project, to ensure that the services provided to you are effective and timely. To do that, you need to understand what will be done, when it will be done, what can derail it, and how those inevitable problems are to be managed.
Original article can be found at: http://www.jrothman.com/Papers/Managingtestingresources.html
Johanna Rothman consults, speaks, and writes on managing high-technology product development. Johanna is the author of Manage It!’Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management’. She is the coauthor of the pragmatic Behind Closed Doors, Secrets of Great Management, and author of the highly acclaimed Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People. And, Johanna is a host and session leader at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE) conference (http://www.ayeconference.com). You can see Johanna’s other writings at http://www.jrothman.com.
Related Articles
- Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager - Conclusion
- Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager - Assessing the Risks Associated with the Testing
- Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager - Track Testing Progress
- Managing Testing Resources: Five Suggestions for the Project Manager - Assessing the Risks for your Project as a Whole
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