Getting to know, the unknown, unknowns of Quality Coaching

Although I was extremely motivated while moving from a test lead to a quality coach role, I thought that my experience in testing and my skills as facilitator, and mentor were sufficient to embark into this role, but it was much more challenging than I had expected.As a quality coach for many teams, I find myself dealing with agile related problems, testing issues, devops obstacles that were not visible to me when I was a member of one team. I failed for example to clarify and challenge management expectations while improving test coverage for the products under test. I learned that understanding the desired level of details and making it clear to the team I’m supporting is essential before starting coaching. Besides that I found it hard to master my new role and was it hard to provide visible results in a short period of time. Although I learnt how to make team members aware of why we need these quality improvement actions and I helped them prioritize their backlog ..). In a few months I learned a lot in my new role. In this session, I want to share what I am doing as a quality coach, the struggles that I faced and what I will do differently next time.I will inform you about my strategies to avoid those difficulties before they occur. Besides that, I still see new challenges in my role coming up such as dealing with remote teams that have different backgrounds, coaching in the age of AI, etc.. all kinds of topics that could be a trigger for more discussion while leaving the room.

Transcript

1. Getting to know, the unknown, unknowns of Quality Coaching Emna Ayadi Sogeti France
2. 2 Quality Coaching 2023 Introduction My transition into Quality Coaching Test Leader Agile Transformation in progress… Quality Coach We don’t know what to do next sprint ! There are many bugs after the release Developers don’t like to test Tests start too late in the sprint Testers don’t find their place in agile teams February 2022 March 2023
3. 3 Quality Coaching 2023 Hello, I’m Emna Introduction #ExploreWithEmna ▪ Testing consultant at Sogeti ▪ Blogger : emnaayadi.com ▪ Linkedin Learning Instructor
4. 5 Quality Coaching 2023 Agenda Introduction ▪ The Quality Coach Role ▪ Being a Quality Coach: Challenges and benefits ▪ Quality Coaching Exercises to do with your team ▪ Quality Coaching in the Future ?
5. Why “Quality Coaching” ? « Quality is a value to some person » -- Jerry Weinberg
6. 7 Quality Coaching 2023 Coaching unlocks a person’s potential to maximise their performance. Coaching Directive Non Directive Teaching Vs. Coaching • Instructing • Giving advice • Telling what to do • Reflecting • Listening • Questionning “Coaching unlocks a person’s potential to maximize their performance.”
7. 8 Quality Coaching 2023 From Testing to Quality Engineering Quality Coaching Picture: Marianne Duijst
8. 9 Quality Coaching 2023 What is an (Agile) Quality Coach? Quality Coaching An (agile) quality coach is a role that challenges and actively supports a team or organization to build a collaborative approach toward quality, through ▪ Coaching (individual or collective) ▪ Facilitating (workshops, rituals, visuals, graphic recording...) ▪ Training (or raising awareness) ▪ Mentoring (especially with beginners or those in difficulty)
9. 10 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits Quality Coaching Benefits Remove Silos Get a Fast Feedback Have a Quality Product at an adapted Pace #QualityMatters Create Learning Opportunities #TestAndLearn Involving instead of directing Move Towards Continuous Testing #ContinuousImprovement Become Happier at Work
10. Quality Coaching Challenges
11. 12 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits Agenda : Empty or Exploding ? Lesson Learned #1 Tip : Create your own agenda and be intellectually and physically available
12. 13 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits What is my SCOPE of Coaching ? Tip : Understand and challenge the expectations of management but especially of the teams you support Lesson Learned #2
13. 14 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits BUT who are you ? And what you are doing ? Tip : Raise awareness in your communities within the organization about the importance and challenges of this role, you need to involve them! Lesson Learned #3
14. 15 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits Agile Coach Vs. Quality Coach Tip : Collaborate and synchronize actively with all change actors (Coach, HR, Transformation Team, managers …) Lesson Learned #4 Impose ➔ propose
15. 16 Quality Coaching 2023 Lesson Learned #5 I didn’t notice any change, we still have the same problems  Tips : • Capture the initial status • Start small and monitor progress • Create a backlog of actions and prioritize • Be patient it’s not magic ! ☺ « It’s hard for organizations to accept that change takes time ! » #Visualize #Measure #Prioritize #Adapt
16. Conclusion Involve the Entire Ecosystem in Quality Enable Collective Problem Solving #OneTeam #DevTestOps Encourage Good Design for Test Cases Demonstrate that Testing is not a Phase it’s an Activity Integrate Quality Earlier and Keep Improving Encourage Small Experiments Quality Coach Adapt your Coaching #MaturityMatters
17. Quality Coaching ToolBox
18. 19 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits Make QUESTIONS your new ANSWER ! Challenges Reference – Anne Marie Charrett How will you know you have successfully tested this US ? What’s preventing you from doing the testing you want ? What testing have you already done ? What’s the first step we need to take ? “Asking the right questions is as important as answering them” Tip : Ask open-ended questions ➔ Lead to awareness and reflection Practice !!
19. 20 Quality Coaching 2023 Practice !! Team Health Check Tip : Encourage teams to regularly auto-evaluate on different themes within a process of continuous improvement
20. 21 Quality Coaching 2023 Practice !! Verwondering I WONDER ... - why testers are not present in the refinement session - why testers are not invited in the sprint review - why dependent teams don’t communicate regularly with each others Reference - Anne Colder Good starting point! Tip : • List 3 possible reasons that might create this behaviour • What can you do to change that ? • ‘how to: open questions’
21. 22 Quality Coaching 2023 Practice !! Active Listening Reference – Center for Creative Leadership
22. 23 Quality Coaching 2023 Practice !! Ask Great Open Questions Ask open-ended questions leading to awareness and reflection • How will you measure success ? -> What is the most important aspect in terms of quality? Avoid the “WHY..." Because it leads to justification and can “point out” people • Why did you fail ? -> How could we have done better ?
23. The Future of Quality Coaching
24. 26 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits Quality Coaching in the Age of AI Level up your Quality Coaching with AI : • Would you welcome a robot as a new team member ? (adopted AI Robots will not switch to another project) • Would you use AI robot as your coaching partner ? (ask better questions, personalize your coaching strategies, provide the right reference, automate repetitive tasks, neutral emotions) “Embrace coaching to thrive in the age of AI” Future Challenges
25. 28 Quality Coaching 2023 Main Benefits Quality Coaching: Empowering Multicultural Teams for Success Think about : • How are you going to address multicultural differences ? • Establish a Cross-Cultural Communication Guidelines Future Challenges “Embrace quality coaching to foster unity within your diverse team” Reference: istock @rawpixel
26. Questions ?
27. About Sogeti Learn more about us at www.sogeti.com This message contains information that may be privileged or confidential and is the property of the Capgemini Group. Copyright© 2023 Sogeti. All rights reserved. Sogeti is a leading provider of technology and engineering services. Sogeti delivers solutions that enable digital transformation and offers cutting-edge expertise in Cloud, Cybersecurity, Digital Manufacturing, Digital Assurance & Testing, and emerging technologies. Sogeti combines agility and speed of implementation with strong technology supplier partnerships, world class methodologies and its global delivery model, Rightshore®. Sogeti brings together more than 25,000 professionals in 15 countries, based in over 100 locations in Europe, USA and India. Sogeti is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capgemini SE, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. Thank You for your attention ☺ !!