[All Things Quality] We Juggle
Lately it seems as if my QA Team is doing quite a lot of juggling.
We juggle...
We can't staff for the worst case, and have people on the bench. So if we are temporarily understaffed, we have to continually decide "Who gets to be unhappy this time?".
It gets complicated, since testers are not fungible.
The worst part about it - when you juggle, sometimes things get dropped! When things get crazy and we can't get additional help, we:
- Just because Suzy has an hour of free time on Tuesday, doesn't mean that she can jump in and contribute an hour's worth of testing on Project X (which she has never before even seen).
- Just because new hire Brian comes free for 1 day sometime next month doesn't mean he can contribute a day's worth of testing on Advanced Project Z.
- Just because Ted is expected to be out for a few days with back problems, doesn't mean that Jake can drop what he's doing and fill in - Jake has other commitments.
The worst part about it - when you juggle, sometimes things get dropped! When things get crazy and we can't get additional help, we:
- Try to re-order tasks so that we are not a bottleneck
- Try to remove obstacles and distractions early
- Allow people to work from home if they can be more productive
- Run interference for the busy testers
- Deflect requests until later, when possible
And we juggle!
| My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/. |







