Role of QA in Transformation engagement

This blog of mine is about the role of QA in a transformation engagement. I have written the same through my own experience and the experienced shared by my colleagues and seniors. Please give your feedback, correct me wherever I am wrong.

Trigger for writing this blog has been the article shared by my brother. The article is titled “Yin & Yang in Testing”.

IT projects are majorly classified as Transformational projects or Upgrade projects. Transformational project means, transforming from the current systems/practices to a newer qualified system. A project could be taken by organization due to various number of reasons. Revenue generating department could demand for systems which aid them to generate more revenue or the management could decide to bring in better systems to overcome operational challenges or to reduce cost.

Revenue generating teams, which mainly will be the Business users could have a large say in the budget for the project and what they expect in the new system. Technology team could have a say in what technology/product to invest in. They could also influence in the decision of whether to for in-house development or to purchase a product and customize to meet the requirements.

Success of such implementations dependent on the collaboration of both the teams. During the course of the project, there could be lot of clash of views, as Business would try to get the maximum out of the systems, whereas the technology team will have their challenges in implementing all the business requirements.

QA team, which reports to the head of technology team plays a crucial role and has to do a balancing act in such implementations.

In the Middle East market, from where I gained my experience, majority of such transformation engagements still continue to follow the traditional waterfall model of delivery, with certain clients attempting more modern development model. QA team, whether it is the in-house team or outsourced have to be the bridge between the technology and business team.  They have to liaise with the build team to understand the architecture of the implementation and on the other hand have to liaise with Business analyst, in their absence directly with business to understand the expectations.

The team, at least majority of them are not involved right from the conceptual stage of the project and have to rely on the documents made available to them. The team don’t have the luxury of time to ascertain whether these documents have captured the business expectations to the fullest. During the course of engagement, they have to remain unattached from the technology team and business team. However, they have to be mindful of what the technology team can deliver and how much of this meets the business expectation. The team has to bargain with IT team when they find gaps in the delivery, convince the business by explaining the limitations of the products.

Success of QA team lies in how they navigate the above challenges by continuously balancing both technology and business expectation. A successful QA team, will adhere to time tested processes, lay out clear objectives and should know to successfully YIN & YANG in the context of below points.

-Understanding a Software under test

-Designing Testing scenarios and cases

-Using the cases, to evaluate the software under test

Author of the article is titled “Yin & Yang in Testing” has clearly explained the YIN & YANG in the context of above points via a beautiful pictorial article. Please refer to the same.

Bias,Lies & Politics

After reading my previous post "Leadership Skills : an important skill for a successful manager", a good friend of mine, whastapped me to appreciate. He also put forth a question: “can a Manager be biased, indulge in office politics and Lie? “

While thinking of the answer, 2 characters from Mahabharata came to my mind. Let me reintroduce them to you.

Sri Krishna:  He played multiple roles in this epic story, he mentored, motivated, safeguarded the Pandeva’s.  He wanted to play a crucial role in this epic to retell the Bhagavad gita, which was being forgotten by the mankind. He recited the same to Arjun, when he was in the most vulnerable state of mind, which was during the Kursekthra war. Krishna had to be biased towards Arjun and Pandeva’s, do politics and lie many a times before and during the war. Pandeva’s victory in the war was not possible without Krishna’s role.

Shakuni: Prince of Kingdom of Gandhar, who couldn’t learn all warfare’s like many other princes of his time due to his physical limitations. A helpless brother had to see her sister Gandhari being forcefully married to Dhritarastra by the mighty Bheesma, who had to use pressure tactics on this small kingdom. He on the very same day, took a pledge to destroy the Kuru dynasty. He decided to stay with his sister to accomplish the same. During his stay, he could see, how the wise men’s of Hastinapur where plotting against his sister’s family and son’s. He took it upon himself to protect them using his sharp and cunning brain. This resulted in numerous clashes between Kaurava’s and Pandeva’s and the epic war.



Both Krishna and Shakuni succeeded in their objective but the action of one has had progress of mankind and the other brought an end to a dynasty.



Now coming back to my friend’s question. Yes, you can as a manager be biased, lie and play politics, if it does good for the project and the team involved, thereby having a positive impact for the company. No, you shouldn’t be biased, lie, play and allow politics if it to satisfy your ego thereby having detrimental effect on the company.



Managers or leaders are also humans, whatever be their actions, they are going to be seen as person who is biased to a set of people. Are you as manager, biased, because they are performers and future leaders or because they blindly listen to whatever you say, even if you are wrong.

Both Pandeva’s and Kaurava’s were cousins to Sri Krishna, but he had a liking towards Pandeva’s and amongst them he had a special liking to Arjun. Dharmaraj Yudhishthira was not chosen but Arjun was chosen to listen to Bhagavad gita. Shakuni too had liking towards Duryodhana and Dushasanna compared to the other Kaurava’s, as their behaviour and actions perfectly suited his plan. Similarly, in work, leaders tend to pick/side with people, who will help them to meet their objectives.

Many of us would have experienced bias, politics at work. If the experience has been good, you tend to not speak about it, if the experience hasn’t been good, you tend to blow the trumpet and ensure it is spoken in cafeteria’s.

 Are you a performer who want to be recognized by a leader like Krishna or are you an obsequious person who would resort to flattery to be in good book of a leader like Shakuni. To be Arjun or Yudhishthira or Duryodhana or Dushasanna, is in your hands. Based on your character and career growing choice, a leader will pick you up. You want to be benefited or face decline in your career is solely in your hand.

Leadership Skills : An important skill for a successful Manager

Companies direct expectation on managers is to deliver a project within the scope, schedule, cost and effort. A manager is rated as good, if he/she has the knowledge and capability to deliver the project with the above said parameters. Many a times, an individual strive hard to equip themselves with knowledge either through various courses available in market or being associated with another successful manager. The person tries to emulate the learning in a project but might have limited success, as I believe obtaining/possessing of these skills doesn’t make a person good manager. Apart from the skills, you need to know how to effectively lead people.

You as a manager may or may not possess skills, time required to complete a project and hence your organization assembles a team. Most of the time, you don’t get to choose the team that you end up working with.

This post of mine, discuss certain points on how to lead a team which may or may not share the same vision as you in a project. How you get them to work within the defined boundaries of the project will determine the success of you as manager, who is fondly remembered by your team.

There is a famous saying in Tamil

“Aadura Maata, Aadi than karakonam, Paadura Maata Paadithan karakonam”

This means a restless cow must be milked by force and a gentle cow must be milked with kindness.

Similarly, in a project, you would have people with different characteristics, different skills. Knowing what is required to get the best out of them is the foremost point to be focused. There aren’t one size fits all leadership method. Knowing each associate at the early stage of the project allows you to tailor your approach.  If you are required to manage a large team, it is impossible to know each associate inside out, hence it is essential to know your direct reports thoroughly and through them get to know the team.



Plan time for familiarization: Most organization/Manager during estimation for a project don’t factor time for familiarization and later struggle to find time. It is highly important to budget for time during the planning stages. Each Manager has his/her method of knowing the team. Some use formal scientific method whereas some prefer probing talks. Based on the method, budget the time. The most important thing to remember is to utilize this time effectively and not to consume this time for other project related activity.

Context setting of Project:

“Than Ratathin Oru Pathi Paalaka Piripathu Pasumatin Vellaiyappa” – a line from song from a super hit Tamil film “Annamalai”


Similar to this the project team mates put their heart and soul into the project, spend blood, sweat and tears in delivering the project. While doing this, what frustrate them the most is the feeling of working without understanding the context of the project. As their leader, it becomes your duty to give them the better understanding of the overall project purpose and objective.

Kick-off meeting shouldn’t be done just to tick the checkbox in the project management documents, but should be effectively used to detail out the plan for the project. Whenever there is change in the project or new team member is added to the project, the objective should be reiterated. An organization takes up a project with certain overarching objectives and if you are able to connect that with the team, then your job in making the project successful is half done.



There are other wise people in Project: Most manager behave as the sole custodian of the project and end up complicating and creating burdens for themselves and others in the project. Organizations hire/train people and place them in project and it will be beneficial for managers to remember that the team given to you is not completely novice at work. They might have experience in working in similar type of engagement or bring to table experience which need to be utilized. Involving them in various stages and soliciting their feedback at regular interval could help in making things better in a project.



Don’t Micromanage the team: According to me, lack of trust in team makes you to micro manage things and making it a living hell for the team to work. Trust the team in executing the plan laid out with their own judgement could augur well for the project and the team. You shouldn’t be cut off from the team and shouldn’t be seen as someone who tracks the project in systems or excels. By just having periodic check-in meeting to be aware of progress, in which you ask questions to know the health and give valuable feedback could mushroom future leaders for your organization.

You are a LEADER:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more “– Jim Rohn

By virtue of leading/managing a project wherein the team spends considerable duration of their career, they look up to you for many things. Team members look up to for Inspiration, Motivation, Constructive feedback, guidance and some see a role model in you. Just like how your association with a successful manager shaped your career, many in your team would like to associate with you. It becomes your moral responsibility to provide them with their requirement. In course of the project, you too can be benefitted with constructive feedback which you should be glad to be receiving.



A manager’s success is dependent on the success of the team. I believe by looking and applying these points while managing a project, you could be viewed as a leader by your organization. I am in this constant endeavour to be recognized as a leader, How about you?