QA Challenge #5: Communication Breakdown

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Here’s yet another common pitfall for QA testing teams: communication. Inadequate and ineffective communication can sometimes lead to bigger problems – not meeting expectations (of both management and the customer), misinterpretations, and lower productivity.

Over time, I have seen peer-to-peer communication actually improve between the QA team and development teams (particularly in agile environment), but I still find it rare to see QA teams communicate effectively at an executive level and to their customer (whom they most closely associate with).

Open communication is extremely important at all levels, and I think QA teams should try to expand out of their comfort zone (typically peer-to-peer communication). Quality is a serious agenda item for almost all IT and business executives. They want to hear your views:

- How can we improve (striving for excellence)?

- What are the lesson learned from past?

- What are the project risks and what are ideas to minimize these risks (to increase the chances of success)?

 - How can we build quality into our product (or process)?

A timely and a repeatable process can break down communications barriers. For communication at the executive and customer level, we rely on scorecards (production readiness, business process). This works very well. It isn’t too much “tool” and it offers a quick snapshot at a very high level (with the details and numbers to back it up).

For internal communication, to avoid chaos and create an environment of leaning, I encourage teams to use the After Action Review (AAR, originally developed by the U.S. Army). It’s a simple approach to analyze “what happened, why it happened and how it can be done better.” The end result is a list of 2-3 actionable items. I’ve found that implementing those in the next phase or project has yielded better results and improved confidence within teams.

So what is your communication strategy? As part of your QA team, are you creating only test reports or are you really helping your organization leap forward to the next level?