Day in the life of a test manager

How I got into testing

I started my career in IT with a small Canberra based software company as a rule developer. Being in a small organisation, I had the opportunity to perform many different roles. One of those was to find defects in the software I was using to create solutions for our customers. As I gained more experience and understood the product, I obtained a more formal testing role. When I entered the public service, I was employed as a test analyst and continued along that career pathway.

Using the creative and intellectual side 

Testing piques my interest because it's solving a problem and using a bit of creativity to find issues with the applications you're testing. As part of the role, you try and think of things that have gone wrong or could go wrong. It's a bit of structured learning mixed with creativity which is a good combination in a career. Being able to use the creative and intellectual side has been fun. 

Promoting a high-quality culture 

As test manager, I manage a team to test our digital business applications. This team works within a development team that creates applications for our business users and the public. My role is to develop and maintain systems and processes within the development team to increase the quality delivery of digital business applications, and to promote a culture that prioritises quality within the organisation. 

Aligning developer work and business requirements with client needs 

As a test manager, I lead a team that works to provide assurance that risks associated with implementing or making changes that impact the applications are accurately quantified and addressed. I do this by: 

• identifying the needs and interests of the stakeholders to develop a risk profile
• analysing the business requirements to develop testing strategies that will fit the risk profile, ensuring that the quality requirements match the risk profile developed
• working with stakeholders, subject matter experts, clients and the development team to ensure that there is a common understanding of the changes to the digital application
• developing and maintaining the administration of testing artefacts such as test strategies, test plans, test cases, defects and summary reports. 
• integrating quality processes during the development of test cases, execution and user acceptance testing
• designing, maintaining and enforcing a federated process of how testing is to be conducted in the organisation, and the artefacts and systems following each testing activity.

The joy of play and discovery

It's quite enjoyable to be able to play and intentionally break things. As testers we get to use systems in unconventional ways and think of unusual scenarios. There is also a certain amount of experience and structured learning involved in testing. We test the system in a way that is known to yield defects, and also use methods that reduce the number of tests needed to exercise/cover more of the application. Employing both experience and known testing methods to successfully test a system brings a good amount of satisfaction. 

A balancing act 

There are almost infinite test scenarios and they can’t all be tested due to time constraints. Identifying the most critical test scenarios so you can deliver on time is a challenge. In my role, I need to tweak our testing strategies and processes to achieve the balance between quality and timely delivery. 

Testing in the future 

In the future, machine learning and artificial intelligence may be used at scale to automate testing.  As a test manager, I would need to understand the capabilities of those tools. 

There will always be a role for testing to ensure that quality is ingrained in software and business process development. 

All views expressed are personal views of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the view of the department or agency.