As we face increased demands or speed, change and technical excellence, the pressure, and the need, for tool support for testing increases. Organizations want to automate aspects of testing. Is this possible? What effect does it have on the work and on the people doing the work? Success is not just about selecting and implementing tools and technical infrastructure. People ensure the success or failure of testing and of tool use; they must drive the project. 

Isabel is midway through a research project to explore testers’ experiences with tools and automation. So far, she’s uncovered some illusions about tool usability, some attempts at magic, and many new questions.

Interviews, workshops, and survey responses from nearly 200 testers revealed people found tools and automation to be problematic in many ways, leading to people expressing high levels of emotion, stress and distress. Over 30% of the respondents to the anonymous survey answered questions about their experiences with test tools in a way that indicated emotional responses. People talked about tools leaving them “stuck in limbo” and unable to do their work, expressed their frustration that tools are treated as “magical solutions for all of the test problems” and expressed their fears, and the demotivation they felt: “I think I should leave my job.”

Part of the problem was the usability of the tools. This was the attribute most often discussed by testers when describing both their aspirations for tool, and their frustrations with tools. It is not just that some tools have been built without usability in mind, but that where usability had been part of the design criteria, it merely offered an illusion of usability, with a superficial veneer to the UI that didn’t address workflow, differing needs among testers, and their changing requirements. 

In this reflection on her research and industry experiences, Isabel talks about learning new ways of working after decades in the industry, her findings so far, what she’s discovered that will help your testing now, and her plans for the rest of the research. She’ll be asking you to contribute to a survey to discover who is doing testing, and how they are doing it. This will feed into a model for designing test tools that support people, and make test tool design a people-centred activity.

In today's business environment, the user experience and the commercial imperatives have become overwhelmingly important. As testers, it is vital that we understand quality in use and the user experience, in order that we focus our tests correctly.

"Quality in Use" measures human, business, and societal impacts of products (usability, accessibility, flexibility, commercial, safety). This builds to a User Experience (UX) and are underpinned by technical and engineering qualities. For the people selling, supporting, or using the products, this is the beating heart of the customer experience. Without these "big picture" attributes, delivered software will not be acceptable, may result in reduced profits, and may not be legal. In the tutorial, Isabel will use examples from real projects to discuss how to design tests derived from the user personas, contexts of use, and acceptance criteria.

We work in teams. Teams that have goals, that work together to solve problems, that sometimes squabble and make up. How people in the group behave depends on the styles of leadership, management and followership adopted in the group, and on each of our individual behaviours.

Do we have a mentoring, coaching, managing or leadership role towards others? Are we following or learning from others? Do we influence our colleagues and organisations in public or behind the scenes? Are these interactions built into a formal hierarchy in our group? Have we informally adopted an interaction role? Or have we even been forced into a particular interaction role?

In order that we work together as efficiently and effectively as possible, we need to understand the range of approaches or styles for leadership and management, what styles we feel most comfortable with, and how we react to both being leaders and being led.

It’s not just humans who work in groups. Other animals can tell us about how we interact with individuals, teams, and groups both as leaders and followers. Isabel discusses animal behaviour, predators, animal groups, parasites and epiphytes, and the richness of symbiotic partnership.

Regardless of the project model/software life cycle model you use, you’ll need to understand these interactions, and when to adopt a leadership, mentoring, coaching, following or learning attitude in order to help your group thrive.