Challenges and Solutions in Test Staff Relocations within a Software Consultancy Company

Abstract

Test staff working in modern software consultancy companies often have to work in multiple customer projects that differ not only technically, but also regarding organisational, management and social aspects. The ease and speed with which the staff can adapt to new projects and environments is crucial for the success and profitability of the consultancy company. This paper presents the results of a study on how management in a Swedish software company can facilitate test staff relocation. Interviews with consultants in the testing department were conducted to elicit the differences between testing projects they have and are involved in and their views on the challenges of and learning needed when relocating between projects. Based on this we present an approach to better support such staff relocations in the future. The approach is based on a knowledge sharing structure and process and the introduction of specific templates to capture and document testing experience. An initial, static validation in the test consultancy show that the approach has merit and should be further evaluated. Keywords: Project staff relocation, test consultancy, test experience template ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank Dr. Robert Feldt most sincerely for the many constructive ideas given during this work. I am also grateful to Cybercom, more specifically to my advisor and to TestCenter management for believing in this work and for providing the best imaginable work environment.Finally my special gratitude is given to my beloved parents for their inexhaustible moral support, which has contributed more than they think. literature .................................................................................................... 67 D.1.3.2 Semi-static .................................................................................................................. 67 D.1.3.3 Dynamic ................................................................................................................ ..... 67 D.1.3.4 Best practices ............................................................................................................. Another was that the institute strived to promote the possibility to publish material from student thesis projects. Therefore the HMT format was outlined to contain two main parts; Part 1 is a paper written in IEEE/ACM format and covers the crucial thesis project contents and is also adapted towards publication. Part 2 is a series of appendixes which present and separate detailed methodology from specific results and other parts.This Master Thesis project is presented as a prototype version of the HMT format, and thus follows the previously described structure. The paper has been written in IEEE format since it was targeted for submission to the ICST 2008 conference ( http://www.cs.colostate.edu/icst2008/index.html). The function of this paper has been to summarize and connect the different parts of the thesis project work. It also contains an additional discussion about validity thr...

Especificação de Processos de Apoio Gerencial ao Processo de Testes de Software

“…O trabalho de[Larsson et al 2008] propõe sugestões de melhorias para o processo de realocação de pessoas em projetos de teste. São sugeridas: 1) adoção de um template de documentação com informações de cada projeto para minimizar o tempo de adaptação de um consultor/testador ao ser realocado para outro projeto; e 2) adoção de um template para registro das experiências de teste, a fim de que o conhecimento tácito possa ser compartilhado.…”