We all know that “Teamwork means more
work’. Teamwork is the key factor for software engineers especially for the QA
engineers. As most of us all into the agile process, there is a demand for
‘Teamwork’. Teamwork enables the teammates to work together to achieve fruitful
results under hard circumstances.
Theoretically, we can define teamwork
as ‘A group of individuals with different personality traits, who can
contribute to diverse point of views and better approach to the problems at
hand. The team members know the strengths and weaknesses and they understand
how to work with each other”. It will be always good if the theory is exactly
implemented and followed by every team member including the team head. When it
comes to the real world, obviously the deviations will take place. And
it does not mean that every team is deviated. There are many teams
who are already proven with their great teamwork. Still few teams fail because
of these deviations. Unless these deviations are identified and corrected,
there will be an apparent struggle for entire team and ultimately the key
factor that will be effected is ‘Productivity’.
I would like to discuss what should be
there and what should not be there while we are working as a team.
What
effects Teamwork:
Key
player: Well this is good to have the key
players in the team, but having a single key player often effects the team. Few
great things may be done with good quality with such kind of players. But
entire work cannot be done by a single person. Obviously every team player
should show his/her caliber to achieve that stardom, at the same time knowledge
must be shared across to bring out the key players. Team should always have the
‘Key players’ not a single or few key players.
Transparency:
As we are working in a team, each and every task should always be transparent
to the whole team. Miscommunicating or not communicating the things may disturb
the positive health of the team. As soon as this lack of transparency is
observed that must immediately intimated to the team to avoid it from next time on wards.
Dependency
on team members: All the tasks and the responsibilities
should be equally distributed among the team. So in case of any team member’s
sudden absence, the productivity will not be effected.
What
motivates Teamwork:
Recognition: As it’s a human
tendency that a simple praise can fetch
many things, praising is obvious to improve the productivity. In order to make the team members perform at
their best ‘Recognitions’ are must and they must be announced loudly to the
maximum number of audience. It builds the ownership responsibility from inside.
The team-head is responsible enough for identifying the deserved persons.
Equal
distribution of the work: At any cost the work should be
distributed across the team. Sometimes the tasks must be assigned based on the
team members interest. If the interested person is not fully familiar with the
task, at least he/she must be partially involved into that task which brings
the enthusiasm in the team member. The team-head must be more responsible in
this area and also the team member should let the team know about his/her area
of interest. Otherwise if the same kind of tasks are assigned to the same
person it leads to Monotony.
Respect:
Again it’s a human tendency that ‘Respect’ gives more
encouragement to any kind of person. As a team player everyone should value
others ideas. It is not always good to consider a single/few person’s thoughts.
Rejection of ideas should be very graceful with proper explanation.
Friendliness: As it’s a team with different personalities,
every person’s capability is different. As a team, the inabilities can be
overcome. That is the beauty of the teamwork. Every team member must be equally
friendly to the other in order to not show any discrepancies. It results in
building the best professionalism.
Criticism:
Again I am stressing on human tendency. As we are not robots there are more
chances to make mistakes. And it does not mean that we have to bear with that
mistakes. There will always be a proper way to point out on one’s own mistakes.
The criticism at open places are not always encouraged. It cause the people to
burst out at some point. So the ‘Recognition’ must be public and the
‘Criticism’ must be private.
Conclusion:
As a team our final goal is to improve ourselves and
contribute for the growth of our company. By identifying and by correcting our
own deviations, we can give our best in achieving the results.
Goal of performance testing is
not to find defects in the application, its main goal is to set benchmark and
standard behaviour for the application.
