[All Things Quality] We Juggle


Lately it seems as if my QA Team is doing quite a lot of juggling.


We juggle...

When we have more work than time

When we have staffed for three simultaneous projects, but we are currently testing eight

When new requirements pop up at the last minute

When planned releases to QA slip, but the ship date doesn't

When a developer casually mentions that he decided to refactor one of the core components

When it is decided that we should "fast track" an unscheduled change


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.

  • 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/.