Having a powerful software test team can make all the difference when you’re trying to build a business. After all, building something is easy; creating something that works is harder!
On top of that, it takes a certain set of skills to search for flaws in a piece of software proactively. The people who are the best at building software aren’t always the ones who are the best at finding and removing bugs.
And so with all of that in mind, let’s go ahead and take a look at just a few of the different things you’ll need to do if you want to build a powerful software team.
Improve Tester’s Knowledge Base
The first and most important thing you’ll need to do if you want to build a decent software test team is to ensure that everyone is creating and sharing knowledge. This means providing them with a platform that they can use to share knowledge. It also means providing any training that they might need to make sure they’re fully up-to-date with the industry.
Your testers are going to need a solid understanding of the latest technologies and best practices if they’re going to make sure that your software is bug-free and ready for consumers. Ideally, they’ll also be forward-thinkers who can help you to future-proof your software too.
Develop Interpersonal Skills
No software development company can grow without spending some time working on their interpersonal skills. The same is true for software testers. They need to be good at explaining things and guiding their colleagues in the right direction for a fix, even if they themselves don’t have the technical skills to implement one.
Independent Testing
Independent testing is essential because your internal testers are too close to the project to capture absolutely everything. Even if they’ve not been involved with the project during its development, they’ll know how your developers usually like to work and therefore, where problems are most likely to arise.
The problem with this is that it can lead to both developers and testers getting lazy. On top of that, if you’re rushing to meet deadlines, then there’s a risk that internal testers will hurry through the job. Independent testers will take as long as it takes, but they’ll do a more thorough job because of it.
Your Team Motivation
If you have all of the other steps that we’ve suggested in place but fail to motivate your team actually to do their jobs and to act in the best interests of the company, then they’re not going to put these techniques to good use. Whether it’s through laziness or inertia, an unmotivated team will fail to communicate effectively and won’t display empathy and appreciation for co-workers.
Build Communication
If there’s one thing that the tips we’ve shared today all boil down to, it’s the importance of communication. You need to build that into your team from the ground up and find new ways of facilitating it, whether that means providing tools like Slack or whether it’s by setting up social events to bring people together. If your team is still struggling to communicate, you can also look at running events like corporate day-away. Hiring a coach to help your team improve the communication process might be a good idea as well.
Team Building
Working on team building is essential across your entire company, but it’s particularly important when it comes to your software test team. It’s a good idea to carry out some team building activities with both your test team and your development team intermingling so that they feel like part of the same team. Otherwise, there’s a real risk that they’ll start to see each other as antagonists instead of being a fellow team.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to build a powerful software test team, it’s up to you to put what you’ve learned today into practice. The good news is that you should have everything you need to get started, so now it’s just a case of putting in the time and effort. Good luck.
