Building a Quality Community
Newsletter
As part of my QE Lead job for the last few years published a quarterly newsletter for PDF, print, and in a flash pod using our products every quarter. I didn't start the quality newsletter and it started as a group testing effort. The team I joined in 2006 published it for many years. For now, finally it is not published in 2010(yet). I passed it on to someone internally in hopes that they will revive it one day. We'll see. In my dreams these things would go on forever regardless of who works at the company. When one person moves on, the bench is ready and someone is willing to step in and continue the work.
Discussions
I've also worked on getting discussions going about quality topics with the format of a short presentation with an active discussion. As the quality team became more dispersed and the time zones varied more, it evolved. It turned into guest speakers more than internal speakers as time went on.
Portal Project
Based on a series of pods created by one of the product teams, I worked on a project to create a portal, consolidating all of our quality info into a single portal to make things easy to find. The team made examples so that people could create and add custom pods! We shared info between teams. I spent a great deal of time hunting down contacts and websites, both wiki and intranet pages as well as a contact for every team we had, and there were hundreds. However, it was very hard to get participation. Not one person made a pod. Each time a change happened on the forum I'd spend time fixing our broken pod. It wasn't very resilient as things changed. I learned that even a great idea is difficult and self-updating information is more useful than counting on people to update their own information. The portal will live on, but just like test automation, community code doesn't do well without someone having dedicated paid time to work on it. An actual gardener to keep it from becoming a useless mess. When the teams change so fast, it is hard for community to flourish. How does a culture thrive when it is changing so quickly no one knows what it is?
Quality Summit
Then there was working with a wonderful small group to arrange a quality summit.That was awesome! I would do that again in a second. The reason that one was cool was we had people from all over the world. We did a smaller one locally and it wasn't nearly as helpful because it consisted of people who already knew each other, so the excitement was a bit less than when people travel and are meeting new people for the first time.
Wiffle Ball
The number one thing I've seen build community is our wiffle ball league. I didn't start this league, and in fact, there weren't a huge number of females at first. There still aren't that many women participating, but a few coaches made it clear that women were welcome, even those of us who had never played before. In the spring we set up a schedule, bases, a small amount of equipment and we play wiffle ball together. It is super fun! It has done more for community than the internal portal has! I'd totally recommend this. Play is good. It matters more than having some "tool"that is going to build community like the portal project I talk about. Lunch time board games have also been a hit.
Who Cares?
I wonder what percentage of working testers care about this stuff?I'd say no more than 20% from my experience. Building a quality community for my company is pretty much my decade's work.I've been relentless in the pursuit of it. I'd do absolutely anything to make it work. The list of things I've tried is really lengthy. The bottom line is you have to give up on the people who will never get it,and do amazing things once you find what works with trial and error.So, we know we are "giving it"? We don't. We just keep trying and spending energy where there is interest. Sometimes it just isn't the right time, the right audience, or the right context. What fails one year may take off the next year or with another group. It's partly cultural by location. The testers I meet from India have been much more willing to participate in written papers and projects that take preparation. So, how much is recruiting interesting people and ideas,and how much is asking for volunteers? In my experience, asking a few specific people to share what they know as well as working with volunteers to help them produce something cohesive is a good combination.
More Games?
I have a few other ideas that I think would be really successful. Online chess with the chat client in it would help people get to know one another across time zones. One move a day over time takes so little of the day, but it adds up to something amazing.
If you want to build a community, you have to care.Also, you can't be the only person who does care. If something fails, you have to try again in another way. Eventually, you'll find something that works.
Cultural Identity
What is the identity of a community? That is a question sort of like trying to figure out what American culture is. It is so new and changes so fast that you could say any number of things. Does a culture of quality matter within a company? I say that it comes from the top down and the bottom up. Also, it only matters if it is part of the larger quality community. What happened with me is that I am now part of the quality community that is a subgroup of the planet earth. Bringing members into that larger community so it can thrive over time is where I'm headed. I hope I'll be linking up people from any new team I join at any level they can participate for years to come.
As part of my QE Lead job for the last few years published a quarterly newsletter for PDF, print, and in a flash pod using our products every quarter. I didn't start the quality newsletter and it started as a group testing effort. The team I joined in 2006 published it for many years. For now, finally it is not published in 2010(yet). I passed it on to someone internally in hopes that they will revive it one day. We'll see. In my dreams these things would go on forever regardless of who works at the company. When one person moves on, the bench is ready and someone is willing to step in and continue the work.
Discussions
I've also worked on getting discussions going about quality topics with the format of a short presentation with an active discussion. As the quality team became more dispersed and the time zones varied more, it evolved. It turned into guest speakers more than internal speakers as time went on.
Portal Project
Based on a series of pods created by one of the product teams, I worked on a project to create a portal, consolidating all of our quality info into a single portal to make things easy to find. The team made examples so that people could create and add custom pods! We shared info between teams. I spent a great deal of time hunting down contacts and websites, both wiki and intranet pages as well as a contact for every team we had, and there were hundreds. However, it was very hard to get participation. Not one person made a pod. Each time a change happened on the forum I'd spend time fixing our broken pod. It wasn't very resilient as things changed. I learned that even a great idea is difficult and self-updating information is more useful than counting on people to update their own information. The portal will live on, but just like test automation, community code doesn't do well without someone having dedicated paid time to work on it. An actual gardener to keep it from becoming a useless mess. When the teams change so fast, it is hard for community to flourish. How does a culture thrive when it is changing so quickly no one knows what it is?
Quality Summit
Then there was working with a wonderful small group to arrange a quality summit.That was awesome! I would do that again in a second. The reason that one was cool was we had people from all over the world. We did a smaller one locally and it wasn't nearly as helpful because it consisted of people who already knew each other, so the excitement was a bit less than when people travel and are meeting new people for the first time.
Wiffle Ball
The number one thing I've seen build community is our wiffle ball league. I didn't start this league, and in fact, there weren't a huge number of females at first. There still aren't that many women participating, but a few coaches made it clear that women were welcome, even those of us who had never played before. In the spring we set up a schedule, bases, a small amount of equipment and we play wiffle ball together. It is super fun! It has done more for community than the internal portal has! I'd totally recommend this. Play is good. It matters more than having some "tool"that is going to build community like the portal project I talk about. Lunch time board games have also been a hit.
Who Cares?
I wonder what percentage of working testers care about this stuff?I'd say no more than 20% from my experience. Building a quality community for my company is pretty much my decade's work.I've been relentless in the pursuit of it. I'd do absolutely anything to make it work. The list of things I've tried is really lengthy. The bottom line is you have to give up on the people who will never get it,and do amazing things once you find what works with trial and error.So, we know we are "giving it"? We don't. We just keep trying and spending energy where there is interest. Sometimes it just isn't the right time, the right audience, or the right context. What fails one year may take off the next year or with another group. It's partly cultural by location. The testers I meet from India have been much more willing to participate in written papers and projects that take preparation. So, how much is recruiting interesting people and ideas,and how much is asking for volunteers? In my experience, asking a few specific people to share what they know as well as working with volunteers to help them produce something cohesive is a good combination.
More Games?
I have a few other ideas that I think would be really successful. Online chess with the chat client in it would help people get to know one another across time zones. One move a day over time takes so little of the day, but it adds up to something amazing.
If you want to build a community, you have to care.Also, you can't be the only person who does care. If something fails, you have to try again in another way. Eventually, you'll find something that works.
Cultural Identity
What is the identity of a community? That is a question sort of like trying to figure out what American culture is. It is so new and changes so fast that you could say any number of things. Does a culture of quality matter within a company? I say that it comes from the top down and the bottom up. Also, it only matters if it is part of the larger quality community. What happened with me is that I am now part of the quality community that is a subgroup of the planet earth. Bringing members into that larger community so it can thrive over time is where I'm headed. I hope I'll be linking up people from any new team I join at any level they can participate for years to come.
Posted by Testy Redhead at 3 Apr 2010 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: career pairing games conferences communication writing speaking collaboration
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: career pairing games conferences communication writing speaking collaboration
Great ideas. Thank you! Keep going!
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Thank you Laura! I'm reading the Starlight book right now as well as listening to the audio book on CD. Hearing the author read the book verbally is pretty awesome. I love doing both formats at once because the material is sinking in. I'll let you know which format I prefer once I have a better feel for how it is working. Thanks for the suggestion!
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During my 6 months at a much larger s/w co, I worked hard to build a testing community of practice. I started a wiki, I started monthly meetings where a volunteer would teach or demo something testing-related they were doing. Attendance at the meetings was super, including remote people. The wiki didn't really seem to catch on - it wasn't a wiki culture, for sure. I have a feeling that when I left, it all died. But, it was good while it lasted. If I had to do it again I'd try some of your ideas, for sure!
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Without yeast, the bread doesn't rise.
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Two other ways to get rolling with a culture:
1) Link into an existing one: QASIG, SASQAG, and SeaSPIN, are all local groups that meet (free) and with food (usually).
2) Borrow one for an hour or two... for example, Lanette brought me into Adobe for an hour to do a testing talk at lunch hour. Local, onsite talks usually provoke a buzz about testing that continues before and after the talk. Even though testing consulting geeks like me make our living on this, we'll do a talk for free to try out new material, meet new colleagues, or leave a good impression about what value we could add someday, so it doesn't hurt to ask.
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Great point! I appreciate user groups too and forgot to mention that in this blog. I should update and point that out as a great way to join a community that already exists around your product if you are a QE.
Thank you for the chance to speak at QASIG. I have loved the talks and hope to be a normal attendee. What a wonderful chance to meet people. Also, thank you so much for your talk at Adobe. I got great feedback and appreciation from people who watched the recording as well who were in different time zones. I really hope that when the economy improves that someone who watched your presentation will bring you in to do some training for QEs at Adobe. You have so much experience to offer and anyone who is lucky enough to have the chance should attend your training.
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