Testing & The Role of a Test Lead / Manager

The Role of Test Lead / Manager is to effectively lead the testing team. To fulfill this role the Lead must understand the discipline of testing and how to effectively implement a testing process while fulfilling the traditional leadership roles of a manager. What does this mean? The manager must manage and implement or maintain an effective testing process. This involves creating a test infrastructure that supports robust communication and a cost effective testing framework.
The Test Lead / Manager is responsible for:

• Defining and implementing the role testing plays within the organizational structure.
• Defining the scope of testing within the context of each release / delivery.
• Deploying and managing the appropriate testing framework to meet the testing mandate.
• Implementing and evolving appropriate measurements and metrics.
  • To be applied against the Product under test.
  • To be applied against the Testing Team.
• Planning, deploying, and managing the testing effort for any given engagement / release.
• Managing and growing Testing assets required for meeting the testing mandate:
  • Team Members
  • Testing Tools
  • Testing Process
• Retaining skilled testing personnel.

The Test Lead must understand how testing fits into the organizational structure, in other words, clearly define its role within the organization . this is often accomplished by crafting a Mission Statement or a defined Testing Mandate. For example:
"To prevent, detect, record, and manage defects within the context of a defined release."
Now it becomes the task on the Test Lead to communicate and implement effective managerial and testing techniques to support this .simple. mandate. Expectations of your team, your peers (Development Lead, Deployment Lead, and other leads) and your superior need to be set appropriately given the timeframe of the release, the maturity of the development team and testing team. These expectations are usually defined in terms of functional areas deemed to be in Scope or out of Scope. For example:
In Scope:

• Create New Customer Profile
• Update Customer Profile
• ...

Out of Scope:

• Security
• Backup and Recovery
• ...

The definition of Scope will change as you move through the various stages of testing but the key is to ensure that your testing team and the organization as a whole clearly understands what is and what is not being tested for the current release.
The Test Lead / Manager must employ the appropriate Testing Framework or Test Architecture to meet the organizations testing needs. While the Testing Framework requirements for any given organization are difficult to define there are several questions the Test Lead / Manager must ask themselves . the answers to these questions and others will define the short term and long term goals of the Testing Framework.