"Leading an activity instead of doing it requires a change of mindset. Be the glue that enables things to happen, facilitate collaboration, and build trust for the people doing the testing. Focus on standing back and making others succeed."
Not a manager? Step up and lead testing activities anyway
In all of my 20-plus years of leading testing, I have never been the formal manager of anyone. Even so, I have led plenty of large and small testing activities, often with a whole team of people doing various testing activities and often for projects lasting over a year.
I’m certain there are many other testers who do the same — they lead testing without being part of the management team. They make things happen and juggle their own and other people’s testing activities. They oversee all the testing without having a formal managerial role or title. You can find plenty of advice and articles about how to manage testers, but there are limited resources about leading testing activities even though your job title doesn't reflect it.
What this article will help you do
In this article, I will share examples and the research I've collected on the following topics:
- What test leadership without management looks like
- Leading specific testing activities in today's workplaces
- How to start your leadership journey
After reading this article, you should be more familiar with how to lead testing activities, and you will know some of the key activities of leading without being a hierarchical manager.
Leadership and management are two different things
If you examine the terms "leadership" and "management", you will find that they are two different aspects. Leadership is about facilitating work and setting direction for people, while management is generally about controlling and directing organisations and artefacts.
Many people who step into a hierarchical (line) management role struggle with this balance. There are leaders who have no formal management responsibilities, and there are managers who don't lead work activities. Some organisations have one person serve in both roles, while other organisations have separate career tracks for management and individual contribution.
How I've led testing activities without a fancy job title
As an example from my experience, I often work as a “Leader of Testing,” where I manage testing and lead people who are doing a testing activity. I recently led a considerable testing activity with a range of people involved. I had an environment track with five full—time functional testers supported by some assistants in one team. I had four people working on security controls and disaster recovery in another team. I was in charge of the whole thing but never the formal manager of any of them — not even the graduate student intern I had helping craft various documents.
My current role is that of a "test manager” — the manager of the testing activities, similar to the project manager's role of leading a project or a delivery. In other settings, the “test manager” would be the manager of the testers themselves, overseeing their performance and providing career guidance. In your organisation, a “test lead” might be the title of the person who has the test leadership role without the formal line management responsibilities.
To avoid confusion, I will talk about the difference between leading a testing activity and managing a hierarchical organisation. Unfortunately, there is no global truth about job titles — not even for testers. The cultural setting we are in also determines how organisations behave.
Every organisation has its own way of doing things
Some organisations have a group of dedicated testers all of whom are on the same team. Other organisations co-locate testers with the development teams whose code they test. If you are a tester, you might report to a dedicated manager of testers, an engineering manager, a product manager, or a team lead.
For most of my years, my formal manager has either been a director or a line manager. Their job was primarily to run the hierarchical team, supervise employee performance, hire and fire, forecast resource needs, and manage the load of the team. In one case, my line manager was also responsible for all the testing we did. We ended up forming a leadership team with him formally in charge and a few selected “test leads” responsible for the details and forecasting of testing activities.
Geographical location affects organisational culture
Besides reading the trends in the testing community, I am aware that I am biassed based on what I have experienced in the local Scandinavian consultancy scene. I know that we Scandinavians are less hierarchical as a cultural trait. We tend to give responsibility away from the hierarchical managers and to the people doing the tasks. Similarly, consultancy work tends to do more projects — activities that span a duration of time to construct or maintain something.
A common organisational structure in Scandinavia is the matrix: people report both to a project manager and to a formal management hierarchy. Your experience might be different. It might be based more on hierarchies or more on building a product. That’s OK. Both approaches have quirks and benefits. Both ways work in their setting.
Leading specific testing activities
A universe of testing activities to choose from
The world of testing activities is actually a universe: huge and varied. Most testers experience the world of testing from the functional testing of an application or system being developed. However, as part of application development, there might be other types of testing going on. Developers do testing, quality engineers might be doing testing, and the end user might be doing still more types of testing.
The value of subject matter experts as testers
Over the years, I have also involved a range of subject matter experts in testing activities. For IT infrastructure projects, I have had technical system engineers do testing. For detailed testing for the public sector, I have had public service clerks do end-user testing. If we look outside the realm of system and software development, there are all kinds of tests going on.
- The design team uses A/B testing to find the best layout.
- The user experience team does end-user observations.
- The operations team performs technical recovery tests.
- The transition team does service handover trials.
- The management team does business continuity drills.
I see test leadership in all of these activities. It’s when these activities are significant in size or duration they can become a standalone job function and even a title and a career path. In my current company, you can even progress in your test leadership role from junior through to senior and principal levels, quite similar to developers, architects, project managers, and the like.
Taking your first steps toward testing leadership
The first step on your test leadership journey is to realise all the things you already do right. Most testing jobs require being the glue that makes things stick together. The first step you have to take is to call out that the things you do are actual leadership activities. Nicola Lindgren's article “Leading Test Teams When You’re Not A Manager” explains it very well:
"During my test career, I’ve found myself acting like a leader, even if I didn’t realise it at the time. These patterns of behaviour included
- Mentoring and coaching others.
- Being a sounding board for other testers when they needed someone to listen to them.
- Introducing other testers to new ideas (like exploratory testing).
- Doing presentations for other teams on how testing is done.
- Running workshops on various aspects of testing.
When I saw a need or a problem that could be solved, I did something about it. I’ve always found it pretty cool (and a bit odd) that people actually listen to me, even if they aren’t technically required to do so. They listen to me and other leaders when our ideas and actions stand on their own merits."
Recognise that you are no longer testing full-time
The second challenge is to realise that the person doing the actual testing is no longer you. In becoming a leader of an activity — any activity, really — the challenge is to let go. Other people are doing the testing while you are supporting them in doing the work. I can best describe this from my experience in being a parent to two young adults. I cannot dictate how often they shower, but I can recommend that they do it regularly.
Recognise that some things are out of your control
The staff available for a testing activity might not be yours to choose. I have had both public process clerks and technology specialists perform excellent testing. They also have no desire to be testing specialists. After all, they are already specialists in their subjects.
Don't do everything yourself: learn to delegate instead
The same thing applies to the leadership of testing activities. I’m sure most testers learn that at a certain point, they can no longer be the only ones testing everything. You have to delegate — to be able to step away from it for a bit. When you delegate, you start your leadership journey.
That goes the other way, too. If someone else is currently leading the testing activities, ask if you can fill in for them so that they can be away for a bit. The key blocker is usually the opportunity to lead, not a mindset for change or knowledge about the first steps.
You may already be a testing leader!
I have covered the first few steps for you above. Next up is for you to realise that you are probably leading testing already. And you are probably doing it without being the manager of anyone. Keep up the good work — but do dig into the resources below to learn more.
Leading an activity instead of doing it requires a change of mindset. Be the glue that enables things to happen, facilitates collaboration, and builds trust in the team. Focus on standing back and helping others to succeed.
For more information
- Leading Test Teams When You’re Not A Manager, Nicola Lindgren
- What software testing job titles have you held in your career?, Ministry of Testing Club post
- Learning resources for new test leads, Ministry of Testing Club post
- Test Management & Leadership Wiki, Ministry of Testing Club post
- QA reporting to development managers, Ministry of Testing Club post
- What do you love about software testing? Ministry of Testing Club post
- How to Coach Subject Matter Experts to Do Testing, Jesper Ottosen
