Topics & Abstracts

Lines of Motivation in Software Testing

Myth: Performance-related bonuses increase employee motivation. Fact: Although it may surprise some managers, the reality is performance-related bonuses can actually decrease motivation, especially for cognitive tasks like test analysis and design.

So what does motivate testers? In this presentation you will learn practical strategies for igniting the spark of motivation in your testers based on state-of-the-art theory and a multi-national survey on tester motivation. Knowing how to motivate your testers (and yourself!) can increase the quality of work delivered and create happier and more productive workplaces.

Three factors that drive motivation are autonomy, purpose and mastery. ‘Autonomy’ can be seen in some of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations like Google and Atlassian where employees are given ‘free time’ to work on tasks of their choice. Aside from increasing profit for their employers, such initiatives allow workers to contribute to the community, providing a greater ‘purpose’ to their work. ‘Mastery’ allows employees to identify fulfilling goals that continually challenge them to grow their own capabilities and potential.

You will see how these three factors can be applied to the roles of tester and test manager, providing insight into how we can improve our own jobs and create motivating jobs for our testers. And, perhaps most importantly, you will see what motivational strategies practicing testers and test managers think works best for them.

 
Key Points

• Learn why performance-related bonuses can actually decrease motivation rather than enhance it
• Learn how “carrot & stick” motivators have been superseded by autonomy, mastery & purpose
• Hear practical strategies for applying the latest in motivation theory to today’s roles of the tester   & test manager
• Discover whether the tester motivation survey results truly match the latest theories on   employee motivation
• Hear practical motivational strategies from testers and test managers from around the world


  Biography
  Tafline Murnane is a Principal Consultant at K. J. Ross & Associates in Australia, is a co-editor of ISO/IEC 29119 Software Testing and holds a PhD in Software Testing. Tafline is an experienced test manager and works primarily in the areas of test management, test process improvement, mentoring and training. She is also secretary of the international software testing working group (WG26) at ISO and is chair of the national working group at Standards Australia.
Tafline is a regular presenter at national and international conferences on software testing.