SYSTEM TEST TEAM HIERARCHY
16.3 SYSTEM TEST TEAM HIERARCHY
Five kinds of subgroups within the system test group of an organization have been identified in Section 16.1.2. Each subgroup is organized in a hierarchical fashion headed by a test manager. The size of a test subgroup can grow to a maximum of
12 test engineers. A subgroup with more than 12 members may be divided into two subgroups for better management. Members of a subgroup include technical leaders, principal engineers, senior engineers , and junior engineers as depicted in Figure 16.3.
The duties of the team members are different from subgroup to subgroup. The role and responsibilities of each team member must be clearly defined. In the following, we give a brief description of the role and responsibilities for each kind of team member that are common to most organizations:
• Test Managers: The manager of a test subgroup is a key person in charge of all aspects of the assigned testing task. The manager leads the group by working with other test subgroups to perform testing functions to ensure that high-quality products are released. The administrative responsibilities
Test manager
Technical leader 1 Technical leader 2, ...
Principal engineer 1 Principal engineer 2, ...
Senior engineer 1 Senior engineer 2, ...
Junior engineer 1 Junior engineer 2, ...
Figure 16.3 System test team hierarchy.
501 of a manager include managing the budget, hiring personnel, assigning
16.4 EFFECTIVE STAFFING OF TEST ENGINEERS
tasks, training personnel, developing their career, and reviewing their per- formance. The technical responsibilities of a test manager include (i) devel- oping a test plan, executing a test plan, and handling crises; (ii) developing, following, and improving test processes; and (iii) defining, collecting, and analyzing metrics. The manager is proactive in improving people, produc- tivity, and processes. The manager is expected to be able to work with other test groups within the company as well as the customer test organi- zation. A particular test group may be located in different places and even different countries. The test manager acts as a nodal point between upper management, project management, quality management, and the marketing people.
• Junior Engineers: New, inexperienced test engineers are put at a junior level. They gain experience by assisting the senior and principal engineers in charge of test execution, setting up of test beds, and developing scripts for test automation. They may also be asked to test the user manual, the on-line help feature, and the graphical user interface.
• Senior Engineers: The senior engineers design, develop, and execute test cases. They design and set up test laboratories and environments. Senior engineers assist software developers in reproducing known defects. They participate in test plan review meetings and support maintenance of test laboratories, automated test suites, and test tools. Test tools include a defect tracking system and a test factory.
• Principal Engineers: The principal engineers are test specialists respon- sible for test planning, test automation, test environment planning, test tool development, procurement of test equipment, performance modeling, reliability engineering, and business acceptance testing. In addition, the principal engineers execute test cases and mentor junior engineers within the group.
• Technical Leaders:
A technical leader often needs to coordinate the tasks of many engineers working on complex projects. At this level the engi- neer should have technical testing skills of a principal engineer as well as negotiation skills, process and project management skills, and communica- tion skills. The technical leader provides the strategic direction for software testing, assists test managers in collecting test metrics, coordinates test plan review meetings, attends entry/exit criteria review meetings, and partici- pates in cross-functional review meetings such as for requirements review, functional specification review, and entry/exit criteria selection.