Problem with setting Testing Targets keeping testing case count in mind

In my 5 years of experience , i observed a very common problem when test plan is written and the application is tested with the plan . ie "Managers seeing only the Testcase count and setting the time frame for testing"

Testing Targets are normally set based on various factors . They differ based on the application under test . If it is client based urgent requirement , we will have some factors which mainly depend on the delivery date and quality . But for a product that can be released with some time delay , the factors vary . Being a product based company , we have the liberty to take more time . But the main problem i see in many managers here(even outside) is that they calculate everything based on the count of the cases . Planning based on count is good , but planning everything only on the basis of count is damn wrong . There are variety of factors that come in to picture here and some of the disadvantages are below

1. All the cases are not same . Some cases take more time to validate and some take less . So when setting a time frame , it is always better to have a bit extra time

2. Time for some extensive testing . Testing plans written exactly based on the test case count with tight schedule will not give the tester a free hand in testing . For example if a tester is asked to test an application having some 500 cases in 5 days . He will test only the testcases . He wont be thinking to crack the application . He will only try to finish of the cases and submit the reports . Although that would be suffice , it will no way enhance his skills or the product .It is always better to give some extra time and freedom to test .

3. A tight schedule might force the tester to skip the cases . If not credited or not planned well , the tester might end up being under pressure which will make him to skip some cases and hence resulting in breakages .

An easy way to reach the top?

Copied but a good one

Narayana Murthy (NRN), at old Infosys campus in 1990s. Since most of them know about the story of Infosys and NRN, let me narrate some interesting and rare facts which many might not know.

If Indian engineering students have taken job placements for granted, it is because of visionaries like Narayana Murthy. He is the Sultan of Indian IT but the journey was not as smooth as that of Tipu Sultan or other kings who were born in royal families.

Coming from a middle class family, like any other Indian, he had a dream of getting into IIT. He had managed to clear the IIT-JEE exams but his father could not afford IIT hostel and tution fees, due to which he made up his mind and joined a local engineering college (NIE, Mysore). He said to himself "All students from the IITs study well and do big things in life. But it is not the institution, ultimately it is you and you alone who can change your life by hard work" and he went on to prove his statement!! After engineering, he received Master's degree from IIT Kanpur.
Not many know that his first job was at IIM-A as systems engineer (also, he had 5 job offers including HMT, Air India, Telco after graduation but took up IIM-A which was the least paying).

He was initially a firm believer of communism but an interesting incident changed his life which led him to become a capitalist & an entrepreneur. During a foreign visit, for having talked against the Bulgarian govt with somebody in train, NRN was jailed for 4 days without food but later released because he was from India (which was a friendly country to them). This changed his life, he gave up the idea of communism and decided to create jobs in India. Thats how the story of his entrepreneurship started.

Infosys was his second attempt as an entrepreneur. The first one being Softronics, which was targetted to domestic market. Since India was not mature for IT yet, it turned out to be a big flop. So he started InfoSys (yes, the S was capital) and the rest is history.

Here is an interesting 3 min clip from a BBC documentary showing Infosys, Indian IT in general and the impact on India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6-2hIImXok

The journey of Infosys was certainly not smooth and had seen lots of obstacles. Getting a computer took them 24 months, thanks to our govt red tape. Getting a loan was almost impossible. And at some point of time, the company was even at the verge of a sell-out. How they overcame all those troubles and became such a successful company is another story which I will be narrating using a different photo later :)

As usual, our next question. What is thought provoking in this story and what can we learn from it?
NRN has demonstrated that even if you are from a middle class family, inspite of studying in a local college, and being without any money to start a company & inspite of license raj of 1980s, you can go on to succeed in life and build a great empire by creating millions of jobs. He has shown that you need not have a surname called Tata/Birla to be successful. You dont have to be only from IIT to succeed. All it takes is hard work, determination & self confidence!! Hoping to see many more Narayana Murthys in future :)

Good Animation - Thought of You - by Ryan Woodward

Why do Managers/Team Leads judgement on people goes wrong

Many a times managers misjudge the people working under them .Managers are also humans who go as per there nature .Each one will have there own expectations .Some managers see the actual stuff of a person and some see if the person has reached the expectation kept my them. But ever the nature of the manager is , assuming he sticks to it , then he should be able to judge his total team in the same way.But here are some reasons why this wont happen and one team mate is rated above other.

Let us consider 2 people who work under a lead . Both of them are equally talented and both of them work hard.

Reason 1: One of them is a smart ass who informs everything to the manager , even the smaller things like a dog eats biscuit .The other person is cool person who solves all the problems which he gets by himself and wont say to the manager the smaller things .But here the first one gets a good appraisal. Here the manager is blindfolded by the stupid smartness of the first guy and he is actually a bad manager

Reason 2: The one who talks more to the lead is the good guy and the other is the bad guy.So being non-talkative is a bad virtue of the poor second guy who always remain second

Reason 3: Third reason is not being a show off . The first guy sends reports to the team all the time .I say sending a report means the report can have any thing. The report can be a manipulated one , half baked one or even can be a total failure report .But where as the second guy who works hard to get the work done correctly is the bad guy.As he took a bit of extra time to send a report , he is the bad guy.

Reason 4 : Very few managers do cast there vote based on the region/caste basis although this percentage is very less. These sort of managers could just be shot out of sight.

Reason5 : The final one is the tough one. Each person is allocated some work by the manager. Let us assume 2 persons are given some x and y works which can be rated of the same level. Person 1 does work x with full concentration , this guy digs his work really well and does it perfectly . On the other hand person 2 does work y to some extent and he also sees work z which was not allocated to him , but has some value . Output wise , the amount of benefit the company would have got will be same . Now comes the appraisal time when a manager have to calculate the appraisal .Many managers do things wrongly here . Some managers feel the work a person1 as bigger and rate him above the other , where as some managers feel that the person2 is taking care of other works too and his doing good work . But this is totally wrong . Both the persons should be rated same here .

Note : Words Manager and Lead are both used here . Replace them as per ur convenience who ever gives an appraisal for you.

What will/can a good bonus do to a person

Bonus and Appraisal are 2 big words which a Software Employee breathes on .And what can a good appraisal or a bonus do to a person who works well.

There are many reasons for which a person normally works. Majority of us work for a living, some work for personal happiness, some work to achieve challenges which may or may not have a good return and some work to pass time. Let us take the mindset of the majority of the people who work for a living.

The people who work for a living can be

1. People who are satisfied with normal life and the facilities they have .

2. People who work to have a better comfortable life

3. People who have big dreams

How does a bonus affect each of them. A good bonus might not have a great affect on the first type of persons. These people will be happy with or with out a good bonus. Being satisfied with there lifestyle, they wont get hurt much if a comparatively less appraisal or a bonus is given. They continue to work well all through the year

The second set of people are the majority. They always plan well .It might be office work or personal life. A good bonus will have a great impact on this people. They feel proud, happy and continue to work well to achieve and reach there comfort life levels. They will become the backbone of the company . The immediate output levels will be drastically high after the bonus. On the other side, a bad bonus will have a great impact on this people and the organization. While some continue to work well expecting for a better bonus or appraisal next time , a majority of them will be in a disappointed state. As this people are the majority, it will have a great impact on the productivity levels of the organization. As there nature is to work well , they continue work with half hearted ness and bit of dull atmosphere.

The third set of people are the great ones. A great bonus will not have much affect on them. While some of them feel happy that they have got a good bonus, a majority of them will not be happy as there aims are higher. They expect an even better pay than what they got. A bad bonus will be real bad for this set of people. Many of them will quit the organization and continue to go where they feel there work will get them achieve there big dreams. While a few people reduce there work and change their life style to a sedate state. And a few people will become 200% workaholics thinking that they need to get superb appraisals next. As these people are less in number, the organization will not have much impact what ever the bonus is.

While there people who work for Appreciation and Recognition and not for a money sake , but these 2 wont make any sense if not backed by a good pay .

So what ever a person is , a good bonus will act like a catalyst and will increase his productivity. And hope all managers , organization realize it and also hope my manager is too listening

Note : I am talking about people who work well, only because of the fact that a bad working person will always be happy with a bonus and the bonus can either be good or a bad one.

PS : Thoughts of a immature blogger