As is the case with most careers, once you have been in a role quite a while you hope to progress or take a side step in the role depending on the nature of it.
As testers, some of us may want our career path to be along the route of Test Manager or Lead. Have any of you taken this step yourselves? Do you have any suggested reading material or courses for people interested in following this path?
Note: I am not the original asker of this question.
Depends on the company structure, but as someone who fell into a lead role (12 years ago) I found the following to be of some help.
At the time I stepped into my first lead role, the company i worked for was waterfall with a large program office, and I was lead for the team of testers, not the project (there is a difference) so I asked for and found a mentor in the project team to support me on budgeting, project planning and estimating.
I also did a lot of soft skill courses (term might not make sense) in communication skills, time management
Finally I recently found this book and while I am not a newbie manager, I have found it to be helpful
This is the route I am wanting to take. I went for an internal interview for a management position last year and didn’t get the job on the grounds of not having enough leadership experience. To my employer’s credit, when I asked ‘how do I get this experience without being in a management role?’ they gave me a few options, including being a buddy to any work experience/interns/graduates that we hire.
I also got access to the company’s management training programme reading materials. All new managers get sent on the course so it has been good for me to read it.
So if this is a role you’re wanting to go for then I’d speak to your manager (and HR in my case) about how you get that experience. It has definitely worked for me as I have access to quite a few resources now.
I’d also recommend Jerry Weinberg’s ‘Becoming a Technical Leader’ - https://leanpub.com/becomingatechnicalleader
I read it last year but there is a LOT of good information/exercises in there so I’m going to re-read it at some point soon.
Oh I am going to look at that book, thanks
I recommend the following books:
Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Draw to Win: A Crash Course on How to Lead, Sell, and Innovate With Your Visual Mind by Dan Roam
I once attended a course on Situational Leadership II. I’ve found it to be a useful model.
I’ll second Alistair’s recommendation of Jerry Weinberg’s book. I’ve just read it recently and would consider it invaluable!
Perfect Software and other illusions about testing - Weinberg
Turn the ship around - L David Marquet