TLC2020 – Transforming with Scaled Agile & Importance of Test Leadership
For the past 2 years I’ve been focused on transforming quality practices across various programs and teams. On the journey of defining a quality vision and roadmap to get there I learned quite a few things which I feel are not highlighted as much in the community. This led me to designing the talk on test leadership, which I presented at the Test Leadership Congress 2020. In this article I’ll share some key points from the talk.
Our Transformation Journey
If your transformation seems like a cake walk, your doing something wrong. Our journey to culture agile practices and DevOps practices has been very exciting. I wanted to give a context about the overall transformation before specifically talking about the quality aspect. Since this was not the focus of the talk, talked about some very basic concepts around release trains and how chapters can be used to propagate need practices.
#Servant #leadership is a journey, not a concept. Practice it.@aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
@aali_khalid has started his talk on 'Transforming Scaled Agile and Importance of Test leadership' #tmatlc @TestMastersAcad pic.twitter.com/aUZG1dDJQZ
— Balu.. (@BalajiPonnada) August 10, 2020
Why Test Leadership
In the agile world often the role of testers gets confused, even more so test leadership and if that role is needed. While we had a good understanding of why this role was important, our journey taught us why it’s crucial.
For me the most important points are having a strategic direction, building synergies and upskilling engineers (devs & testers).
Very interesting story of holistic approach to testing in agile transformation: they dealt with lack of synergy, gaps in skills, firefighting over strategy, lack of test architecture @aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
Role of Test Leadership
Typically, you don’t find test leadership which is very technical and hands on. Having a leadership which is very tech savy, understand software architecture and to develop & test it well makes a big difference. It took a while to define this role and what are we to expect, the skills it would need.
For us test leadership was supposed to be advocates of quality across teams, architect systems which would support the quality transformation we wanted and help devise and develop practices. The ask from this role was complicated and was not an easy role to fill, but essential to make an agile transformation successful.
Test #architecture roles and responsibilities: technical thought #leadership, test architecture and automation frameworks, AT and testing enablers, #testability accross #tech stack, #quality vision and test #strategy, quality advocacy. @aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
Quality Transformation
With the test leadership team, we managed to design some interesting practices. There are a lot of activities this leadership team is involved in, however tried to share some key areas.
Techincal training on test automation starts with teaching #testing skills @aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
Techincal training on test automation starts with teaching #testing skills @aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
@aali_khalid shares #DevOps Health Radar @TestMastersAcad #tmatlc2020 pic.twitter.com/pARCr03xfh
— Astrid Winkler (@AstridWinkler4) August 17, 2020
Key Learnings
For an hour long session I added quite a lot of information which zipped through in some places. Here were some of the fey key areas I suggested teams looking to transform their quality practices to look out for.
Even if you have a crystal clear vision, your journey will be unexpected! Don't over-plan, iterate.
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
@aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
Self-autonomous team needs input from experts- on technical thought leadership and guidance. Get one, even for part time. @aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
Self-autonomous team needs input from experts- on technical thought leadership and guidance. Get one, even for part time. @aali_khalid #tmatlc2020 @TestMastersAcad #testing
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 17, 2020
Talk Reveiws
I’m so happy the talk was very well received. Sharing some reviews from the participants.
I will recommend your experience report for #IT managers, Ali. It's worth sharing globally.
— Anna Royzman (@QA_nna) August 18, 2020
@aali_khalid is providing a nice overview of quality and testing in SAFe environment.
— Yury Makedonov (@yurymakedonov) August 17, 2020
"Transforming with Scaled Agile and Importance of Test Leadership"#TestMastersAcad #tmatlc2020
Great talk yesterday by @aali_khalid in transforming Agile Test Leadership at scale at TestLeadership Congress virtual conference.
— Swati - Innovative QA (@swatisqa) August 18, 2020
Aligning test strategy to Business Goals gives insight into the 'Why' of testing & how to make business & customers experi…https://t.co/SVufEXr9xe