Coaching Software Testing Using the GROW Model - Jose Lima

Talk Description

Coaching is an almost essential activity in today's software world. 18 months ago, Redgate Software, the company I work for, decided to shift the testing activities and quality responsibility from testers to software engineers.

The company didn't want to just drop those responsibilities to engineers without some help so they tasked some people to become Quality Coaches, which is my current job title.

As well as talking out about my journey as a coach, I would like to present an experience report about using the GROW model (from John Whitmore) to coach developers, and other roles including user experience designers, on software testing.

It's been one of the most interesting techniques I've heard about and studied before putting it into practice. It can be applied in any context and so far I had moderate success with it, although it wasn't all plain sailing and I still have a long way to go.

Some of the learning outcomes from this talk that I expect attendees to gain are:

• the different meanings of the word coaching
• what a quality coach does and doesn't
• the 4 GROW model stages
• report on techniques to help overcome barriers that I've found along the way
• real work situations where the GROW model helped and others where it didn't, and it shouldn't have been used
• additional resources that relate in particular to the testing context

By the end of this session, you'll be able to:

Jose

José started his professional career as a test engineer at Cambridge-based Redgate Software, and has always been an advocate of quality.

Last year he became a quality coach in the hope of spreading the lessons he’d learned to the various product teams and software engineers.

He spends his time studying software testing related topics and working with different teams and individuals around the business.