Skilled testing work can be challenging to perform, assess, describe, and manage.
The misson
When your group is developing a complex, rapidly changing technical product, and everyone on the project is actively hoping and wishing for the best, it can be appealing to assume that the product is in good shape. But technology is tricky, and everyone is in a hurry. and we’re all human. No matter how competent your team might be, people make mistakes, so there is risk of problems lurking in the product. And product risk leads to business risk.
The overarching mission of testing is to reduce cost and risk for the business by finding important product problems efficiently before it’s too late.
As a consultant, I offer help to managers and groups who want the fastest, least expensive, most powerful, and most informative testing that completely fulfills that mission.
As a coach I offer help to individuals: solo testers, test leads, test managers, developers, development leads, and project managers — and to students aspiring to those roles. Read more about that here.
The overarching mission of testing is to reduce cost and risk for the business by finding important product problems efficiently before it’s too late.
Michael Bolton
How I Can Help
If you’re a project manager, product owner, or development manager, I can help when you want…
- developers to make progress at maximum speed—and you don’t want testing to interrupt them or slow them down
- testers to perform fast, efficient testing when risk is low, and appropriately deep testing when risk is high
- to help defend your team when it’s under overwhelming pressure
- to sort out how testing fits in with continuous integration and continuous deployment
- your team and your testers to apply powerful tools that accelerate and enable testing without displacing it
- to avoid being ripped off by tool vendors selling magic wands and snake oil
- to evaluate the skills of the testers you have, or the skills of testers that you might hire, whether they in-house or offshore; full-time employees or contractors
- testers to be an extension of your senses, the eyes and ears (and nose, and fingertips, and taste buds) of the project
- to get the information you need from testing
- personal coaching to focus on your own goals and skills
If you’re a test manager, a test lead, or a solo tester, I can help when you want…
- to discover and report on the state of the product, and to do it quickly, credibly, and accountably, with a minimum of worry and fuss
- to help management understand testing and its role: lighting the way of the project
- strategies for choosing, building, and applying tools to enable, accelerate, and extend your testing
- to provide answers when managers ask you to supply metrics, measurement, or assessments about the product or about the testing
- personal coaching to focus on your own goals and skills
My Qualifications
I have over 30 years of experience in software development, program management, programming, testing, documentation work, technical support. In the last 20 years, I’ve been to more than 35 countries, helping people learn how to test and how to manage testing groups.
How It Works
Typically we meet for a free introductory session, either online on in person, and identify the issues you want to address. After that, we set up and engagement that works for both of us.
It starts with you contacting me. That’s easy!
How Long It Takes
That depends on the issue at hand, of course. I often help people get things sorted out within that first (free!) session, after which there’s no obligation to continue. We work together until you feel you’ve got what you need, and then we stop.
What It Costs
That also depends on the issues at hand. If you’d like to proceed after that first session (which is always free), we’ll discuss and agree on terms.