Developing an offshore context-driven testing team

1. Lee Hawkins Principal Test Architect Dell Software (Melbourne) @therockertester Developing an offshore context-driven testing team

2. Who am I? • 15 years at Quest Software / Dell Software in Melbourne, Australia. • Really testing since 2007 after attending Rapid Software Testing with Michael Bolton. • Current role is Principal Test Architect. We deliver scalable and affordable solutions that simplify IT and mitigate risk. Our offerings, when combined with Dell hardware and services, drive unmatched efficiency to accelerate business results.

3. How did I get here… and why did I bother? Because I want to share my story…

4. Why China? vs.

5. First hired Charles as a senior manager. • Hired testers and automated test developers. • “Standard” tester job spec. • Good verbal English language skills a must! • Not actively involved in the hiring decisions at this end. • After about a year, we had: • 7 testers, and • 6 automated test developers. Starting to build our test team

6. The testing team Testing experience before Dell: 0-2 years: Cindy Elfin Keven Breeze Aaron Caroline 2-5 years: 5+ years: Scott

7. Challenges • Cultural differences • Language barriers • Traditional testing status quo

8. Dealing with cultural differences

9. Cultural differences (1) - training • Stereotypical / too traditional • No substitute for real interactions • Better than nothing! • Stopped us making basic mistakes • Chinese cultural training sessions in Melbourne

10. Cultural differences (2) - the big tickets Hierarchy • Belief in rigid hierarchy, from Confucius • Elders are respected • Seniority is valued & respected • Criticizing or questioning seniority is just not the done thing. Group harmony is very important.

11. Cultural differences (3) - the big tickets Face • Politeness, respect, harmony • Pride, social position • Gaining face • Losing face "Saving Face in China" (Anne-Laure Monfret, French Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong)

12. Cultural differences (4) - practicalities • Too scared to email, Lync or call the “architect”. • Visiting them and making personal connections helped build trust and more open communication. • “Tell us how to become a testing expert like you” • Give them permission to disagree with me. • Encourage them to question everything, don’t just follow me. Tell me I’m wrong. • Constant reinforcement that it’s OK to disagree.

13. Cultural differences (5) - tips • There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings to build trust relationships, so visit the team and visit often. • Small gifts for the team work well (gain face). • Demonstrate your interest in learning the culture and show respect for it. Take the team for dinner. • Treat the offshore team as part of the team. • Learn some basic phrases in their language. • Keep abreast of the news headlines in their country. • Did I mention visiting the team? Do it. And do it again.

14. The language barrier

15. Language barrier (1) - learning • Our Melbourne cultural training also included a basic introduction to Mandarin. • We devote a few hours per week (within work time) for them to improve their English, both in office study groups and through online learning. • They are enthusiastic and strongly motivated to improve their English, so take advantage of that. • On-going process on both sides.

16. Language barrier (2) - written vs. verbal Written • BA to write user stories • Provide feedback on session sheets • Use simple and consistent language Verbal • Talk better than listen • Don’t ask yes/no questions • Use simple and consistent language

17. Language barrier (3) - cultural influences • China - primarily concerned with maintaining face and group harmony. • Western culture - find and convey information, these individualistic societies thrive on debate and disagreement is OK. • The way Chinese express yes or no is not straightforward… • Yes – more like “maybe” • No - evasiveness over explicit disagreement • Maybe – often equivalent to “no”

18. Language barrier (4) - tips • Hire people with some English skills and provide opportunities for them to improve (within work time). • Leverage their strong motivation to learn English. • Use consistent language and terminology. • Simple is good. Repetition helps. • Learn to understand cultural nuances. • Learn some simple greetings and phrases. • Help out with English classes during visits (remember, you’re visiting often). • Simple is good. Repetition helps.

19. Challenging the testing status quo

20. Testing (1) - background • All of our testers had only been in factory testing environments before. • Original expectations were pretty low. • Decided to try exploratory testing under supervision from day one! • Young and inexperienced team, but very enthusiastic and eager to please. • Encouraged them to take risks, be critical, and think creatively. “The only thing more difficult than starting something new in an organization is stopping something old” (Russell Ackoff)

21. Testing (2) - mechanics • Communication • Daily standups • Phone and Lync • Regular visits (have I mentioned this before?) • Tools • Wiki • User stories • Session sheets • Reference materials • JIRA • Story and task management • Defect tracking • XMind • Mind maps in session sheets

22. Testing (3) - reality checks • Reinforcement that we want them to question. • Some still see ET as risky and struggle to know when to stop testing. • Local leadership is critical. • Regularly make priorities very clear. • Learning via books, blogs, etc. is slow. • Learning during face-to-face sessions is much faster. • Communication infrastructure needs improvement.

23. Testing (4) - tips • Believe in your people. Always be available for them. • Create an environment where it’s safe to fail - and they feel supported and rewarded. • Be patient and recognize the need for very close support in the early stages (including frequent visits). • Acknowledge their contributions and successes – helps them be even more motivated, gains face for them. • Make it easy to find good quality product information to help with testing. • Make it easy to record testing notes. • Look for leadership potential to create local leaders.

24. Success?

25. Measuring success (1) • Comments from Development Manager: Finding the right defects - defects that cause workflow breakages or would cause annoyance to a customer. I really do feel that I can trust any of the testers to do the same quality job as any local resource. Although in a remote location, they are an active part of development and often don’t feel remote.

26. Measuring success (2) • Completing feature testing within sprints (most of the time). • Satisfied customers - no significant production defects. • Our team champions the adoption of Exploratory Testing in other teams. • Zero staff attrition (so far). • Team morale is good (anecdotally). • Able to work independently of Melbourne leadership.

27. Thanks! So concludes the trailer, now for the main event! lee.hawkins@software.dell.com @therockertester