Software Testing Learning Area

Agile organizations benefit from cross-functional teams where various necessary skills that are needed to deliver a solution is contained within the same team. On the other hand, managers of such teams are not necessarily cross-functional! A team that is composed of people with product, design, user experience, programming, testing, deployment skills might have a line manager with a specific background, for example programming. In this case, the manager can most likely be a good coach and support the programmers in their professional growth.

But what about the other roles in the team? How realistic it is to expect a line manager who has never been a software tester before to support a software tester's professional growth?

The way we approach this challenge in SimCorp is by forming a dedicated "learning area". A learning area, has its own budget and focus on a unique competency. Inspired by the Product Owner role in Scrum, a Learning Owner role is responsible for the learning backlog and benefits from subject matter experts and inputs/requests from the whole organization.

The Software Testing Learning Area, analyzes the needs in the organization and helps reaching the overarching goals by providing learning offers and also guiding the line managers when it comes to software testing competencies. On one hand, if an organization has certain goals that would require certain skills, the learning area makes sure to prepare necessary learning offerings. On the other hand, if a manager needs help in coaching and growing a Software Testing professional, the learning area is there to help with growth possibilities and resources. At the same time, it is the learning area that helps the quality of the competencies are of high level with trainings and certifications, and the employees have a chance to attend world class conferences such as ATD in order to get inspired and hear about new developments in the profession. Furthermore, the learning area is not limited by short term priorities and deadlines; for example a traditional line manager may downprioritize investing in learning and growth of the employees in stressful and busy times but that is not the case with the learning area.

In this session, you will hear about the formation and evolution of the software testing learning area of SimCorp for the very first time, including the aspects of transparency and communication. You will see the whole picture with a community of practice, learning guild and a learning architect. You will also hear firsthand experience on how the learning area operates and adds value to the organization.