Are Your Test Reports a Death Sentence?

rent Session

Presented by:
Nancy Kelln
F

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite Orange Park, FL 32073
888‐2
T5
Concur
4/8/2014
12:45 PM

“Are Your Test Reports a Death Sentence?”

GL Sports, Ltd

300,
68‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

Nancy Kelln
FGL Sports, Ltd

A test manager at FGL Sports, Ltd., Nancy Kelln enjoys working with teams that are
implementing or enhancing their testing practices and provides adaptive testing
approaches to both agile and traditional testing teams. With sixteen years of diverse
IT experience, Nancy has coached test teams in various environments and facilitated
numerous local and international workshops and presentations. From small-scale to
multimillion dollar projects, she has played many testing roles—project test manager,
test manager, test lead, tester—and co-founded the POST (Perspectives on Software
Testing) peer conference. Nancy and her family live in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada.
Connect with Nancy on Twitter @nkelln.

1
Copyright ©2014 Nancy Kelln
StarCanada2014
Toronto, Ontario
NANCY KELLN
FGL Sports Ltd.
Are Your Test Reports a Death
Sentence?
@nkelln
#testing #qa

2
Check In
 Please introduce yourself and answer the following
questions:
 Who you are.
 Why are you here?
 What do you hope to get out of this session or this conference?

3
Two Disciplines Collide!
Psychology
Testing

4
About this Session
 This session focuses more on psychology and
impacts to testing, rather than on testing.
 Interpersonal relationships and communication on
project are extremely impactful on team and project
success.

5
People Matter
 Sometimes testing
software is more about
people than it is about
software.
 “No matter what the
problem is, it is a people
problem.” – Jerry
Weinberg

6
Exercise 1 - Project Problems
 What was your last project problem?
 Work with your group to identify and share you last
project problem.

7
Exercise 1 - Continued
 How is this project problem a people problem?

8
Exercise 1 - Continued
 Share the problems your group identified.
 How does thinking about problems as people
problems change your perception of them?
 Does thinking of them as people problems give you
more options for resolving them?

9
Laying the Communication Foundation
 How do testers lay the foundation to improve
communication with stakeholders?
 Define areas of communication early in the project.
 Set expectations on what will be communicated, when it will be
communicated, and how it will be communicated.
 As the project progresses, reassess the timing, frequency,
format, audience, etc.
 Gaining consensus on the communication plan and re-evaluate
the plan in the hopes of limiting the surprises and potential
concerns.

10
So why does it still go wrong?

11
Reporting Testing
 Testing is at a difficult
place in a software
development project.
 We come last, typically in
a time of high stakes,
high emotions, and
concerns for schedule
and budget.

12
Delivering the Results

13
Delivering Good News
 When we have a quality product and testing is going
well it is easy to deliver good news.
 Our tests are passing.
 Our results are good.
 The product is stable and performing well.
 We have found no significant concerns during our testing.
 Testing is running on time and is able to test the product as
planned.

14
Delivering Bad News
 Sometimes the information we provide about the
product is not good.
 We sometimes deliver news that people do not want
to hear.
 The product is of poor quality and is significantly not meeting
expectations.
 Many of our tests are not passing.
 We are unable to test.
 Often times stakeholders receiving our ‘bad news’
message react poorly.

15
The (Over) Reaction!

16
And now for something serious…

17
5 Stages of Grief
 Within the study of Psychology Elisabeth Kubler-
Ross proposed that individuals go through 5 stages
of grief when faced with the reality that they are
going to die.

18
Denial in Death
 Denial is a conscious or unconscious refusal to
accept facts, information, reality, etc., relating to the
situation concerned.
 It’s a defense mechanism and perfectly natural.
 Some people can become locked in this stage when
dealing with a traumatic change that can be ignored.
 Death of course is not particularly easy to avoid or
evade indefinitely.
 Test results can be a bit like this for some people.

19
Denial in Testing
 Testing can provide
clarity to the reality of a
situation.
 If individuals are not
aware of this reality they
may start by denying its
existence.

20
Anger in Death
 Anger can manifest in
different ways.
 People dealing with
emotional upset can be
angry with themselves,
and/or with others,
especially those close to
them.

21
Anger in Testing
 Testing can provide
information that
stakeholders are not
prepared to hear.
 Individuals may panic
and become upset when
the reality of the product
does not meet their
expectations.

22
Bargaining in Death
 Thoughts about “what
could have been done
differently”.
 “If only…”
 Promising to do anything
to avoid the situation.

23
Bargaining in Testing
 Testing may present information that may seem easy
to fix with more people, more time, more money.
 Stakeholders may present both reasonable and
unreasonable options.
 Bargaining can keep us focused in the past when we
wish to go back in time and change things.
 Bargaining can also move us forward when there is
hope for change or a plan of action to get somewhere
else.

24
Depression in Death
 What are some signs of depression?
 Sadness, regret, worry, concern, stress, anxiety, fear,
uncertainty, hopelessness, frustration, bitterness,
self pity, lack of control, feeling numb, suicidal.
 In death, the grieving person begins to understand
the certainty of death. This process allows for
disconnection from things of love and affection.

25
Depression in Testing
 Testing may present
information that results
in feelings of
hopelessness and
despair.
 Stakeholders may be
unable to see alternatives
and become stuck.
 Due to the nature of
projects we cannot just
disconnect and move on.

26
3 Components of Emotions
 Physical Reaction
 How our body physically reacts.
 Cognitive Experience
 What is going on in our brain.
 Behaviour
 The observable signs someone else could see.

27
Exercise 4 – The Emotional Response
 Pick 1 of the 4 emotions and discuss with your group
how this may manifest on a project.
 It may be helpful to pick a particular stakeholder, give an
example of the type of bad news that person may receive.
 Using one of the 4 stages, provide examples of the
physical reaction, cognitive experience, and
behaviour you may see on a project.
 If you have a real life experience you wish to share
please do.

28
The 5th Emotion

29
Acceptance in Death
 Individuals come to
terms with their own
mortality.
 The time to reach this
stage varies from person
to person.
 For some people it
happens early on;
however for others it may
never happen.

30
Acceptance in Testing
 No matter what the
message testing brings,
the ideal goal is to gain
acceptance from
stakeholders.
 Acceptance enables the
movement forward and
onto the next steps.

31
Order Doesn’t Matter
 Even in death, people do
not progress thru the
stages in order.
 People may only
experience one or two or
may go between one and
another.
 The key is to
understanding what you
may face and being able
to label it in the hopes of
being able to deal with it.

32
How to Get to Acceptance
 Individuals need time to
process what they have
heard.
 Similar to acceptance in
death, the stakeholders
of the test reports may
also not get to
acceptance.
 Finally it isn’t our job to
necessarily bring people
to acceptance.
“I wish it need not have happened in
my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all
who live to see such times. But that is
not for them to decide. All we have to
decide is what to do with the time
that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of
the Ring

33
What’s Next?
 Understanding the psychological theory behind the
emotional reaction that individuals may exhibit
helps to:
 Label the emotions so you can better deal with the situation.
 Learn about how to deliver bad news, increasing your
emotional intelligence, and skills for these types of reactions.
 Leveraging already learned skills for dealing with emotions of
denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.
 Prepare for situations where these emotions may arise.

34
The Benefits of the Emotional Response
 Although emotional
responses to bad news
can present a challenge
to deal with, there is at
least one benefit.
 An emotional response to
bad news may mean your
message was heard.

35
Questions?
Nancy Kelln
FGL Sports Ltd.
Calgary, AB Canada
nancy.kelln@fglsports.com

36
References Page – Websites & Books
 Websites
 Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model
 The Five Stages of Grief, http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/
 Five Stages of Grief, http://www.ekrfoundation.org/five-stages-of-grief/
 Denial, http://www.businessballs.com/elisabeth_kubler_ross_five_stages_of_grief.htm
 Anger, http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/anger/what-anger
 Bargaining, http://www.drchristinahibbert.com/dealing-with-grief/5-stages-of-grief/

Are Your Test Reports a Death Sentence?

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Destaque

Destaque (10)

Semelhante a Are Your Test Reports a Death Sentence?

Semelhante a Are Your Test Reports a Death Sentence? (20)

Mais de TechWell

Mais de TechWell (20)

Último

Último (20)

Are Your Test Reports a Death Sentence?