virtually speaking: leading distributed test teams

W13 Test Management 10/5/16 15:00

Virtually Speaking: Leading Distributed Test Teams

Presented by:

Willie Smith

UPS

Brought to you by:

350 Corporate Way, Suite 400, Orange Park, FL 32073 888-‐-‐-‐268-‐-‐-‐8770 ·∙·∙ 904-‐-‐-‐278-‐-‐-‐0524 -‐ [email protected] -‐ http://www.starwest.techwell.com/

Willie Smith Willie Smith, CTAL-‐TM, PMP, has more than twenty years of IT experience in software development, web testing, risk-‐based testing, automated testing, and project management. A quality assurance (QA) manager at UPS in the information systems division, Willie is a highly efficient, methodical, and talented leader in developing and implementing effective QA processes. He currently leads a team of several programmers and manual and automation QA specialists, testing a company-‐critical web service application that is used more than 50 million times a day on UPS.com. Before joining UPS, Willie worked as an eBusiness consultant for IBM, helping Fortune 500 companies develop and implement their eBusiness strategies.

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Virtually Speaking: Successfully Leading Dispersed Teams

October 6, 2016

Willie Smith, CTAL-TM, PMP

Proprietary and Confidential: This presentation may not be used or disclosed to any person other than employees or customer, unless expressly authorized by UPS.

© 2016 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. UPS, the UPS brandmark, the color brown and photos are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved.

Agenda • Building a Team • Communicating Steps For Success • Building Trust • Assessing Performance • Using Technology

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© 2016 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. UPS, the UPS brandmark, the color brown and photos are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved. 3

Building A team • Key Qualities Of A Team Member

•  Exercise independent thought with a dependable work ethic

•  Communicate well •  How they interact with each other •  Socialize in groups

•  Avoid negative personality types •  The Downer, the Gossiper, the Antagonist

•  Process skills needed on the team



Building A team • Kick-off Meeting

•  Ice breakers •  Personal/professional interests •  Introductions are very important

•  Name •  Job title •  Some fun facts such as favorite hobby or vacation

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Communicating Steps for Success •  Team Meetings

•  Hold One Weekly All Team member meeting •  Plan routine one on one (manager to employee; peer to peer) •  Plan to meet often using different meeting times. Keep an

employee time schedule log. •  Schedule meeting in advance •  Be firm but fair

•  Let team members know the importance of attending meeting

•  Have alternatives in place if attendance is not possible




•  Plan and prepare agenda to include team feedback, when possible

•  Disseminate agenda prior to meeting •  Display agenda during conference calls •  Review agenda at start of meeting •  Ask for additional agenda meeting items before starting the

planned meeting. These items should be shared with the team before meeting, if possible

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•  Reserve meeting time for strategy discussions not status reports

•  Status updates/reports can be done via emails •  Encourage questions •  Take notes •  Share best practices and lessons learned



Communicating Steps for Success •  Team Meetings Rules

•  Speak slowly •  Speak as if team members are in the room •  Identify yourself (name and job title) when contributing to

virtual conversation •  Don’t interrupt •  Listen to understand •  Don’t use computers or text message during meetings •  Leave time for relationship building

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Communicating Steps for Success • Effective Communication

•  Early and Often •  Right format •  Do not wait for problems

•  Tips

•  Send a daily team email •  Create a regular schedule to check-in •  Find best method for each team member •  Track problems and resolutions to share with the team




•  Rules of responsiveness •  Appropriate response format •  Speed of response •  What format they need to response

•  Face to Face may be essential •  Travel to meet team members if possible •  Skype or other video conferences

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•  Informal communication •  Emails, IM or phone calls •  Short quick questions or response •  End of day email status updates

•  Formal communication •  Presentations, proposals, & reviews •  Information is lengthy and require explanation •  Allow for questions and answers session




•  Be honest and upfront •  Speak firmly and be straightforward •  Ask team members how you can assist them •  Use repeat back method with team members •  Be available, especially with employees that need more

assistance •  Empower team members to make decisions when you are not

available

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Building Trust •  Trust is key component of any relationship,

personal or professional • Build a Team Culture • Create an open and honest workplace

•  Keep team members informed •  Remain open and up front with team members •  Show you trust them to complete their assignments •  Provide timely feedback



Building Trust • Do not create an us against them mentality

•  Management only cares about management •  Management does not consider our opinions

•  Resentment •  Impact on productivity

•  Share best practices with team •  Process or procedures that have worked before •  Provide a dedicated QA knowledge repository •  Follow-up with team members to ensure consistency with

practice

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Building Trust

• Create a sense of ownership •  Ask for team insight to accomplish a goal or task •  Encourage new ideas •  Make plans and put them into action



Building Trust • Embrace cultural issues

•  Respect and embrace differences •  Acknowledge cultural activities, such as holidays and

rituals •  Respect different work styles

•  Be flexible and adjust how you approach each team members

•  Allow for each team members time to adjust to each other work styles

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Building Trust • Deal with Stereotypes

•  Denounce stereotyping as a practice



Building Trust •  Set Clear Goals

•  Determine what you want the team to achieve •  Define a path that can help you get there •  Decide what you will do when you reach the goal •  Align team and individual team members goals

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Building Trust • Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

•  Share with team as guideline and resource •  Use as training tool for new team members

•  Four Steps to an SOP Template 1.  Create an SOP Template 2.  Define the SOP Template 3.  Add Common SOP Elements 4.  Finalize and Share with Team



Assessing • Create a viewable central repository for test

cases and test results •  Put test strategies and test plan in central

repository

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Assessing •  Provide positive and constructive feedback

•  Manage results, not activities •  Manage expectations •  Create an Environment of trust and freedom to boost

confidence and productivity •  Monitor work to avoid/identify late or poor deliverables before

due dates •  Check in often

•  Email/IM •  Phone calls •  Video chat



Assessing •  Intervene when team members need

improvement •  Monitor more closely •  Develop performance improvement plans •  Identify when it is not a good fit

•  Do everything to help individuals to succeed •  Follow all company guidelines •  Terminate as the last resort

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Selecting Right Tools •  Share common software platforms with all

team members

Thank you

virtually speaking: leading distributed test teams

Software