By Juan San Martín – Senior QA Analyst at Santex
The purpose of this article is to detail the problems that arise from having a static Quality Team working on a given project for extended periods of time. To this effect, the analysis that was done was based on both practical and theoretical concepts, and on the personal experiences I’ve had regarding this issue.
Before we start, I must say that the sample taken for this study considered only people who currently work as Quality Assurance Analysts. The sample was taken at random from the populations provided both by Santex itself and from an online testing platform.
The start of this investigation was founded on one of the principles of testing called “The Pesticide Paradox,” that reads: “If the same kinds of tests are repeated again and again, eventually the same set of test cases will no longer be able to find any new bugs.” The idea has been to apply this paradox not only to test cases, but also to test teams as a whole. The first step is to understand why this could be applied, which came in the form of Burnout Syndrome, a psychological term coined by Dr. Freudenberger in 1974 that describes a disorder characterized by exhaustion, lack of enthusiasm and motivation, feelings of ineffectiveness, and diminished mental capacity while working.
As a quality engineer, I’ve sadly experienced many of those same feelings after being trapped in the routine of a project that lasted for over a year, yet didn’t change much, so the work that had to be done was a repetitive and meaningless task most of the time. This in itself is the prime cause of burnout in the workspace, considering any industry, not just our own. This experience was what led me to believe that there should be a way to keep the workers motivated, which in turn will increase the effectiveness of the quality team, and the quality of the end product that the client receives.
After speaking with several coworkers and people who work in the same area, I’ve been able to see that many other testers have gone through the same thing, or are still going through this. What must be understood is that anyone who is suffering from burnout will not give his or her all to the project and will do just enough to go through the day. This has a massive effect on the quality of any product, but worse is the effect on the person itself, forcing him or her to take medical leave or requiring treatment from a mental health professional. While this is not the normal case, it should be taken into account and seen as a prime reason for any enterprise to avoid letting the situation get out of hand to this extent.
I’m not going to discuss in depth what burnout syndrome may do to a person, so for now we’ll focus on the proposed solution to this problem: rotating quality assurance analysts over time to alleviate the symptoms.
This technique offers a few advantages to the team itself. Firstly, obviously, is preventing burnout. But it also offers a new point of view on the project that usually finds bugs that were skipped by the team because they were either minor issues or not in critical areas of the software. As ISTQB compliant testers, we know that defects tend to group themselves in certain modules of a given software, and our attention will focus on these modules. But a new person to a project is free of these vices and, given the freedom to explore the software, will most likely find things the team didn’t see, consequently bettering the quality of the product.
But as with any technique that alters the way we normally work, there are disadvantages and it would be detrimental not to mention the most important ones. First is the time lost due to the need of knowledge transfer and training. Additionally, there’s the loss of experience in the group, which occurs when a member does not perform a full rotation. Team communication will also be disrupted.
Now it’s a matter of balancing these attributes and keeping a close eye on team performance to see if the benefits outweigh the cons. As has been said before, burnout will eventually have an impact on overall product quality. It’s the main factor we are trying to avoid, and the reason it’s best to rotate teams if the client allows it.
By maintaining a healthy, confident, and happy team we benefit our clients by giving them a product of the highest possible quality.
It is my advice to any project manager reading this to look at your teams, see if they are exhibiting any of the symptoms of burnout and, if they are, consider the possibility of rotating them to new teams. By doing this, you will help both the tester and the team in general.
Please keep in mind that while this investigation was performed considering Quality Teams, it also applies to most jobs.
About the Author – Juan San Martín is a talented Software Engineer who specializes in Quality Assurance. Juan is a strategic team player capable of realizing multiple forms of Testing. Great analytical skills and quick learner.
