How Automation Affects the Business

As of writing I am managing the testing of a large enterprise IT program, where we are implementing a new commercial enterprise solution (COTS).

Over the last many months there have been requirement workshops upon requirement workshop to write down what the new system should be able to do for the various business units. We have had many representatives from the business units as part of the workshops and now have about 1000 specific business requirements that needs to be tested.

Some requirements are closed questions, others are more open-ended or similarly require some thinking. Currently the ratio is that 70% is done by test automation and 30% is for a few of the subject matter experts to test. Management was happy with this, as this made the project faster, the solution more robust and the project less reliant on taking the business people away from their “real work”.

So far so good

The other day I reached out by mail to more of the business people involved in the workshops to let them know that testing had started, and that they would be able to access the solution under test when it had been “hardened”. But so far, only a few “track leads” would be involved.

The feedback surprised me, as my message was both good and bad. Good in the sense that they would not be involved so much, but also bad that they would not be involved so much. One wrote back to me:

• There is still a risk that the solution will not be as the workshops intended, as the requirements and solution might not capture precisely, what was agreed during the workshops
• Having been part of the workshop, we are held responsible by our coworkers as to how well the new system supports the business
• Why don’t the project want our involvement on this?

... but that was “just feelings”, they wrote in the end. And indeed it is – No matter how it looks at first, it’s always a people problem and even if we have a successful test automation effort – we can still fail to appreciate the experts knowledge and by that fail to solve the business problems.

More about “Leading when the experts test” at ConTest NYC 2019.

I was out hiking in April. But city management had locked the toilet up – out in the woods. As an END user my problem was then solved by doing it in the woods. And all fancy sheds where for naught.

Read for your kids – special interest edition

If you are a parent to (early) school children you should know that it is important to read  to your kids. Reading the words out trains vocabulary, recognition, imagination, wondering etc etc. So I read subtitles from movies… because

The kids currently have Star Wars as their special interest [1], and wanted to see the “people” movies. The have played the scenes via the LEGO Video Games (GC) and have a range of the LEGO sets – so they had the basic plot already. Feature movies like Star Wars are usually subtitled in Denmark – while animation movies are dubbed [2]. So in order both to keep up with “PG” [3] and helping them read the titles – I get to watch the movies and read the subtitles…

Poor daddy, it’s almost as hard as when they has to finish the ice cream they can’t 😉

In the last months the (soon to be) 9yo have cracked the reading code and have gone from LIX11 books to the shorter subtitles. The 11yo have rest covered, but some of the longer texts are tricky (I’m looking at you – opening Scroll).

I tried reading Harry Potter (in Danish) but even if the story was very elaborate and detailed it didn’t catch their interest. Neither did classics from when I was a kid (Sorry Bjarne Reuter), so I had to rethink the acceptance criteria for “read for your kids“.

See these two kids are not as easily motivated – it has to tie into something they can see a direct interest in. Their autism makes them very picky on the choice of subject. What I try is to meet them where they are, expand their competencies and give them a lot of positive feedback until they master it on their own.

Links: People are people – despite their labels, They are just people, The yardstick of mythical normality, Acceptance is more than what can be measured

1. special interest, as in overly dedicated into the topic and cannot talk about anything else.
2. The Danish “dubbers” are usually world class, luckily.
3. Episode 3 is still to come, though.

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Motivated by LEGO, Pasta with ketchup, DR Ramasjang Rally – as other boys

Yet with autism (both, as in official  ICD-10 and DSM-IV). They could have been placed on a side track. They could be educated and trained to know that structure and predictability is the known world. But they are too curious, communicative and smart…. #methinks 🙂

We train them to be able to deal with change, unpredictability and the benefits of both direct and intrinsic motivation. Because they benefit from it and it helps them being accepted and included.

Have you noticed that uncertainty is the new normal? Adapting to this take courage, integrity and persistence. #NLDRcoach

— Ron McIntyre (@ronmci) November 1, 2013

Related: DK om at udsætte sine behov,  Weekend formula, That’s what friends are for, The 860 kcal bug, will work for LEGO, The yardstick of mythical normality acceptance is more than can be measured