Page - 107 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

Distributed Testing Teams 107 contracting company, the way in which the documentation is received, the kind of documentation to be delivered and the business of the final client, among others. Let’s take into account that the main purpose of the training is to provide the teams with the general context of each project and align them into a common understandingandwayofworking. Do not forget that your onsite team has multiple opportunities to acquire information from other testers, either from their own project team or from other testingprojects,andabroadaccess to informalcommunicationmeans.Thiskindof opportunitiespracticallydisappearwhenworkingwithoffshore testing teams. So, it will be necessary to define a training plan that considers the following aspects: • Identifyand list the topics to be includedin the training. • Set datesand times inwhichsessionswill takeplace. • Definebest trainingmode: remote, face-to-face,mixedorother. • Define how sessions will be carried out, who will lead them and where will the trainingmaterialbemadeavailable. • Decide the trainingmaterial that needs to be readbefore the sessions. • Estimate trainingdurationwith asmuchprecisionaspossible. • Consider full availability of documentation, videos, reading material and any other means to complete knowledge transfer. Do not forget that teams rotate, andpeoplemoveforward. Despite the chosen trainingmode, at some point nothing replaces“face to face” trainingefficiency.So, toobtainbetter results it becomescrucial toconsidera“face to face” mode for at least part of the training. It is very difficult to get people to identifywith values,visionandmissionof a companythrougha corporatevideoor aSkypesession. Each team must be clear about what is expected from them, what are the objec- tives of each project, how management will be carried out, which communication channels will be used, who will inform tasks or results to which person, when and how.All thismust bepartof thecollaborationenvironment. 4 DefineHowCommunication Will Be It is necessary to define communication channels, officialize them and formally inform them. It is also very important to proactively verify that all members of the projectknowthese channelsandhavefull access to them. Thehealthypracticeofagilemethodologiesthatmaintaindailyhuddles isaway of improving connection between work teams. It will be important to consider the geographical location of the teams as, depending on the time zone, the end of the day for some members of the team could be the beginning of the working day for others.