Hard Lessons About Soft Skills Marlena Compton & Gordon Shippey - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Hard Lessons About Soft Skills Marlena Compton & Gordon Shippey _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 1 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

The Writers Gordon Shippey Marlena Compton Tester at Mozilla, formerly Licensed Counselor Atlassian & Equifax Formerly a tech writer at @marlenac Equifax marlenacompton.com vastandinfinite.com _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 2 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

The Abstract The psyche of a software tester The tester’s paradox Crucial conversations for testers _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 3 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

_______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 4 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

What I learned about myself when the walls came down... _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 5 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Where did this tester come from ? Teammates told me it was me vs. them Everything I know about negotiating I learned from my dad, a successful attorney...who will cut you. Popular testing culture insists the tester persona is a force of destruction and the test cycle is judgment day _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 6 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Some asshole behaviors... Threats and intimidation Flame-y emails Public shaming Interruptions Nasty Looks Personal Insults Sarcastic jokes and teasing as an insult delivery system _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 7 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Where does this happen? Stand up meetings Reviewing specifications Software demos Bugs, especially bug comments Email, Irc, twitter _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 8 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

How do you know if you’re a testing asshole? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 9 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Take the A.R.S.E test and replace the plural nouns with “developers” _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 10 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Wait...are you saying testers are assholes? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 11 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

The Tester’s Paradox Many testers are solo testers or a small Easy to feel ostracized and ignored band because money is not allocated for testing When testers finally get to work, the Often, testing occurs when a team is late team’s nerves are frayed and tempers are and over budget short Participation on a software team is Testers are supposed to expose problems/ limited to dispensing negative critique an application information. Easy for critique to be misconstrued as blame. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 12 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

It takes 5 positive interactions to counter one bad one. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 13 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Testers are set up to fail at communication. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 14 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

um...so what? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 15 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Developing software happens at a creative edge If people don’t feel safe talking to each other, problem solving will occur in personal silos More time is spent finger-pointing than problem solving Developers are more likely to hide problems from testers than to be upfront about them. An unsafe work environment can result in heightened anxiety, depression and trouble concentrating _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 16 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Testers care. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 17 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

Let’s acknowledge our challenges and move on Understand our own stress reactions Control what we can control Set the communication example Work on improving our “crucial conversations” _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 18 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

The conclusion from 25 years of research The best companies rely on skillful face to face discussion over procedures and forms to solve problems Individuals and interactions over processes and tools _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 19 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use

_______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 Excerpt from PNSQC 2011 PNSQC.ORG PNSQC.ORG 20 Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use Copies may not be made or distributed for commercial use