Transformational Leadership in Testing

Community Choice Award Winning Presentation by Last Mile Consultants @STC 2012.
Author - Diwakar Menon

Abstract:

Information access is converging. The service industry is commoditised. Agile is in. Integration of services is in. Client expectations are running sky high. The margin of error is now non-existent. Outcomes are judged by business successes.

Testing paradigms are changing and the test team is at the center of all the action. So too is the need for the tester to have a say across the entire quality chain.

Test Managers of tomorrow will now need to not just understand the business, but also the economics of the business to be able to make balanced judgements.

They will need to transform from the 'tell-us-what-you-want-done' to the 'this-is-what-I-think-you-should-do' types. Getting there requires us to change the way we have approached the services business. It means that the expectation of what the test leader has to offer is continuously evolving and getting to be higher.

The evolution of leaders doesn't happen overnight, but needs to be planned over a period of time leading to the need to build the right sets of capabilities into teams at early stages. Additionally, there is a need for individuals to take ownership of their career by moving away from the 'occupation' mindset.

Key Take Aways

Career oriented testers of tomorrow will understand increased customer demands, and what they can do to be at the fore-front of their work. They would be not just leaders of their projects, but also of the community as a whole.

Meet Diwakar Menon
Diwakar has over 22 years of work experience ranging from test consulting to delivery to pre-sales. He has been the head of service delivery for key customer contracts that encompass a variety of services from AD, AM, Infrastructure Management and Business Support Services across a multiplicity of pillars like Govt, Health, Financial Markets. He has pioneered and set up end-to-end test services across multiple lines of business, consolidating the services across the organisation. Prior to founding Last Mile, Diwakar has worked in global organisations like Tech Mahindra, Perot Systems (now Dell), Deutsche Software, Tata Unisys (now TCS) and CMC Ltd.

Transcript

1. TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN TESTING
2. Where Organisations Are Today… 2 Diverse Skills & Competencies Division Of Responsibilities Ability To Scale Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Innovation Bubbles Diverse Engagement Models Process Orientation
3. What Our Clients Demand… 3 Skin In The Game Execution Excellence – No Second Chances Solution Mindset Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Innovation in Service Delivery, Pricing Being Ahead Of The Knowledge Curve Transparency In Transactions
4. The Traps Ahead… 4 Delivering Value To The Business Commoditization Speed Of Change Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Speed Of Change Lack Of Proactive Innovation Crucibles People Skills, People Behaviour, People Growth
5. What Skills We Need… 5 Envision Strategy Inspire & Motivate Disruptive To Innovate Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Into The Skin Of The Customer Risk Taking Abilities Technical & Domain Expertise
6. The Traits We Need To Develop 6 Challenge the status quo Set Innovation goals rather than improvement goals Set Standards of excellence not standards of performance Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Set Standards of excellence not standards of performance Set Capability enhancement goals not isolated pockets of skills Advisors Not Doers
7. Final Thoughts… 7 Are you A leader whose behaviour is a role model Do you Inspire & Motivate your teams to the vision? Do you Question existing practises and set yourself new goals? Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Do you Question existing practises and set yourself new goals? Do you Support creativity and innovation, and look at new ways to make decisions? Do you Develop your team’s capabilities through mentoring and coaching?
8. What You Could Head Towards… 8 Customer Innovation Crucibles Partner Rather Than Vendor Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Incremental Positive Step Changes High Performance Teams Customer Aligned Differentiated Services
9. Thank You 9 Last Mile Consultants Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd.