1. Hire observant testers, and then see that they are well trained on not only the platforms that they are going to be working on, but also on other platforms.  Knowledge of platform strengths and weaknesses can help an observant testers hypothesize where errors will be located.  Also have them test your competitor’s games.  Find the errors that they made and let slip through so you won’t have the same problems in your games.

2. Be sure that your testers have all of the equipment and testing tools that they need, and that they know how to use those tools.  Every platform has a wide array of testing tools available.  Your PC testers need to know how to use Process Explorer and Process Monitor at a minimum.  Both Microsoft and Sony provide a large range of testing tools for their platforms, although the documentation leaves a lot to be desired.  Learn them yourself and then train your testers on their use.

3. Help them plan their work to make the most effective use of their time.  As a lead, you should know about the architecture of the program and should be able to help them ensure that not only are they testing the entire feature, but that they are minimizing their efforts at retesting portions that have already been tested either by themselves or others during that test pass.  As a manager, you should be able to pick up on patterns in how a tester works that could be inefficient or scattershot and help them improve their testing abilities.

4. Stay in close touch with every tester.  Know what each one is doing.  Work with them.  Because testing is such a high turnover profession, we have very little in the realm of legacy knowledge.  Work with them not only to pass on the knowledge that you have, but to harvest the knowledge that they have gleaned themselves so that if they leave you can pass it on to the next generation of tester.

5. Keep up their enthusiasm.  Encourage every tester every day.  Very few jobs are harder on the psyche than being the bearer of bad news.  Not only that, but testers work long hours for little pay and often have little chance of career advancement or permanence.  It’s hard to keep them motivated, but recognizing accomplishments can go a long way.  Calling out when someone tracks down a difficult severity 1 bug, noticing when someone passes a major bug milestone on a project, celebrating team bug milestones, all of these are simple, effective ways of maintaining morale in a department that isn’t usually known for it.

But please, if you want to keep their morale up, don’t show them “Manos: The Hands of Fate.”

As Michael Russell notes on Rom’s Rants, I’m looking for both guest and regular writers. If you or anyone you know has any information regarding this case, please, contact your local authorities.

Updated: to note that the first actual guest post is up, again, much respect and many thanks to Michael Russell.

I should also note that bylines are now on. All posts attributed to admin are actually mine (zachary’s), until I take the time to repair the bits that say admin instead of zachary.

While you’re reading that, you should also read the of his blog for a straight look at the life of a software developer/tester.

Just to remind everyone of how things used to be, a friend of mine worked at Atari (the real one, not infogrames). At Atari in times of yore, programmers were required to get 5-10 testers (who were full time employees) to test their game for a ridiculous number of hours before the game could be released. Any code change required a reset in the testing.

Every time I close a bug in Bugzilla, I am a little happier. So you do basically have to be some kind of nut dedicated to the end quality of the product. I also enjoy having possibilities open for where I can go in the future. Every year I work at QA is another year of experience that will directly translate into some future job. Some day, I won’t be doing this anymore, then this blog will either get renamed, or I’ll move on to another. Right now I am in crunch time at work on what I think is a great project. In any case, you should read Michael’s rant. It is a good one.