February 23 Quality Coach Newsletter

Facilitating a workshop, be it exploratory testing or risk storming, card elaboration or developing a team test strategy, is the bread and butter for quality coaches.

But how often have you held a workshop only to discover that the team is too busy or implement a new ritual or change?

This month, the premium article explores techniques to help cement the knowledge and ensure adoption by the team. I end by exploring the nuances of these techniques so you avoid pitfalls.  

Coaching quality that sticks

You've finally convinced your team to hold a coaching session on a quality-related topic. Congrats! Now, to turn this opportunity into a successful outcome.

Running a task-based, time-boxed coaching session is a great way to embed concepts and new ideas into a team. Task-based coaching sessions focus on the team performing a specific activity. By doing, rather than discussing, the team gets to experience the concept as opposed to a hypothetical discussion on the topic.

Coaching sessions help teams understand the concept, but if you want to embed them into a team's psyche, it requires a consistent application. This means follow-up sessions, tweaks to team processes, and the inclusion of tasks into backlogs. So while you might be tempted to pat yourself on the back after a successful coaching session, realise that you have only started the change journey.

Holding a coaching session on a topic is relatively simple. You could use a formula such as this:

• Agree on the topic and outcome
• Use a small bit of relevant work that can be time-boxed.
• Direct them through the task. Answer questions directly and as best you can.
• Once the task is completed, hold a short discussion session and explore the topic in more detail.  
• Agree on the next steps, such as follow-up tasks and further catchup sessions.

Sessions like these look relatively simple to run, but like most things in tech, it hides the skill required to run one successfully. Here are some of the challenges I've experienced;

Related Posts

I've written about how to run specific facilitated workshops.

Team Test Strategy Workshop for Quality Coaches

This workshop provides a systematic approach to developing a team test strategy for an epic or large feature. It provides a team with a framework within which they can consider all the factors that impact testing.

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

Quality Improvement Workshop - Quality Coach Book

Quality Coaches, run this workshop to figure out team quality tasks prioritisation using the sailboat analogy. Instructions and a miro board help structure the workshop.

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

How to define quality in diverse cross functional teams

What is quality in a cross functional team? This workshop provides you with a way of helping a team gain a shared understanding of what quality is.

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

From the Community

Read some great posts this month. Here are some highlights.

How I Contributed as a Tester to a Machine Learning System: Opportunities, Challenges and Learnings

Have you ever wondered about systems based on machine learning? In those cases, testing takes a backseat. And even if testing is done, it’s done mostly by developers itself. A tester’s role is not clearly portrayed. Testers usually struggle to understand ML-based systems and explore what contributio…

InfoQShivani Gaba

Here are some tips for handling meetings that deviate, which might be helpful if your coaching session wanders...

Cutting People Off

Impatience is a virtue. If impatience is solely your own, sorry, but you’re the asshole. But if impatience is shared, saving your colleagues from a tiresome conversation will make their day. Notice

Elizabeth Zagroba: Organizational AnarchistElizabeth Zagroba

A book review by Lisa Crispin

Another book review! _Grokking Continuous Delivery_ by Christie Wilson - Agile Testing with Lisa Crispin

Review highly recommending Grokking Continuous Delivery book by Christie Wilson

Agile Testing with Lisa CrispinLisa Crispin

Beth Marshall shared this video on how to use ChatGPT to generate test data.

And an insightful post from Lee Hawkins about being change agents, sometimes less emphasis on facts and evidence and more on compelling reasons is essential.

That's it! We've got some new guest writers joining us. I look forward to their fresh perspectives,

Until next month,

Anne-Marie
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