Why I Lost My Job As a Test Manager and What I Learnt As a Result

My career followed the typical path of someone in technology. Tester, Test Lead, Test Manager, Senior Test Manager. It started in 1999, back when we lived in a world of scripted tests and large, separate test teams who designed and ran the tests. A world of silos and walls, a world where communication-by-bug-report was common.

Agile came and, fortunately, disrupted things. Teams became cross-functional, and yet management did not change. Management became harder; there were more stakeholders to manage and more areas to cover. Task switching came as standard. Eventually, the penny dropped with senior management, and the management team was re-organised. A change had to come, and that meant no more Test Managers…

This presentation aims to present a view of test management that I think fits with the software development methodologies and team structures that we typically see in IT today. It will use my personal experiences to explain why I think discipline-based management is no longer relevant or required and how Test Managers need to adapt to the new world of cross-functional, agile teams and continuous delivery. Change is coming; how will we all adapt?