SO YOU WANT TO BE A QA MANAGER…

Part 1



For purposes of brevity, I’m just going to use the term “QA” or “QC” interchangeably. Terminology issues aren’t particularly interesting – at least not to me. In 98% of the shops for which I’ve worked, “QA” means “a testing organization with whatever standards work we want done thrown in”.

So you want to be a QA Manager. Are you sure? Why? Are you qualified? Do you know? Let’s take a look and see…..

Maybe it would be best to start out with considering what it is you’d like to manage. Managing QA staff is more difficult than managing other types of IT staff. Why is that? Because QA people are trained specifically to look for discrepancies and report them. That means that if you make a typo in an Email, you won’t get one comment, you’ll get 30 comments. Not fazed by that? Consider that everything you say and do will be evaluated by highly critical and vocal individuals. Consider also that they will be equally critical and vocal of everything and everyone, including your executive management. A good part of your job will be spent trying to teach them not to shoot themselves – or you – in the foot. A QA Analyst is likely to be the only person you know that would tell a CEO his pet project sucks. While a good CEO will appreciate the honesty, they will NOT appreciate the wording, the tone, or the fact that the statement was made in a meeting with 40 people present.

The next item to consider is your own career. What are your aspirations? Do you want to be a CIO? CEO? VP? Sit on the Board? If so, going the route of QA Manager is unlikely to get you where you want to go. There are very few career choices out there where you are paid to tell the truth. QA is one of them. This does not necessarily make you popular, nor does the training required to be good, really good, in the QA field help you develop the type of political acumen you’ll need to succeed at top executive levels. Further, the more adept you become at politics, the less your highly analytical and critical staff are going to trust you. Fortunately for them, it’s unlikely you will get the type of mentoring and training necessary to survive at the top levels of an organization.

This does not mean you won’t find some kind of sexy title out there, like VP. Small companies will often give you whatever title you like in order to retain top talent for little pay. But does that really sound appealing? And it will NOT give you a leg-up for a VP position elsewhere.
Acting as the VP for 2-4 people is not particularly impressive on a resume.

So let’s assume you want to become a QA Manager because you care about the field, are talented in the field, and want to make a difference and run the show in your chosen field.

That’s a pretty good start.

Now let’s explode some myths about being a manager. Many non-management people, including your potential staff, think being a manager is easy. Do you? Do you envision telling people what to do, implementing your own vision, and being stroked/appreciated by your own management?

Pardon me whilst I chortle aloud.

Middle management means you’ll be bombarded with flying excrement from every side. If you’re energized by problems, middle management is for you. If you can’t juggle 10 conflicting issues at once and negotiate workable solutions from people who aren’t necessarily Your Very Best Friends, you’re out of luck. Management is handling one issue after another. Forever. The issues range from personal, to technical, to procedural. Much of your time will be spent in meetings and producing paperwork.

It’s a bad idea to tell people what to do; if you have to tell each person on your staff how to do their job you’ve hired (or inherited) the wrong people. You need to get the best people you can afford and trust them to do their job. Otherwise, when your group grows to over 12, your head will explode. Your job will be to guide your group in a direction that improves and motivates the group while still fulfilling the vision of your own management. Autocratic managers don’t make it long in QA. Good managers rarely have to play the “Because I’m the Manager” card. When required, however, a manager has to take decisive action. Do you enjoy tightrope walking? Then middle management will certainly give you the excitement you’re looking for…

As far as implementing your vision goes, the constraints are significant. You’ll need to move forward in a way that supports the vision of your superiors as well. You’ll need to keep the needs of other organizations that interface with yours in mind. You’ll have to be willing to compromise on some of your ideas for the good of your group. Many beginning managers fail because of their inability to give up their own desires and opinions of “what is right”. There is no “right” or “wrong” (except for legal issues). There is “right for your organization” and that might not mean “right for you”.

You’ll be lucky if you work for executive management that remembers you’d like to be told you’re doing a good job now and then. The higher you go up the ladder, the less personal recognition you normally receive. It will be your job to ensure your people get recognized instead. Their careers will be in your hands and if you don’t enjoy helping people progress or get irked when others are promoted or recognized, management is not for you. There are plenty of bad managers out there; I’m offering this advice so you don’t add to that situation. There are other ways to make big money, if that’s your primary motivator.

You’ll need to assume that if your boss isn’t critiquing you, you’re doing a good job. If you’re the type of person that requires a lot of stroking in order to feel fulfilled, ANY kind of middle management is probably not going to be for you; particularly not in QA. Have you ever been called “high maintenance”? Then you need to look elsewhere in terms of career. Your manager will likely not have time to feed your needs and will start to avoid you.

So why does ANYONE become a QA manager? Some just “fall into it”. Some actively move in that direction because that is their career of choice. Some have idealized concepts of what the job involves; whether those involve money, respect, or “being in charge”.

But not everything is difficult or bad. Wait. I’ll have to take that back. Everything IS difficult. But everything is not bad.

First of all, the money is excellent once you have demonstrable experience and have managed a staff of over 12. Secondly, if you’re a QA resource now, you’ll be managing and working with people that do work you care about, understand, and can help them accomplish efficiently.

If you do have a vision AND you have executive management support, you can directly impact the credibility, quality, and effectiveness of the products your company produces. You can also positively influence and train staff that will someday be even better than you are. There are special rewards and gratification involved with those types of efforts.

So let’s assume you haven’t been scared away yet and you’ve definitely decided that QA Management is the direction in which you’d like to move.

Now the conversation is all about you. My next blog will be some “been there, done that” suggestions about moving ahead….