Defining The Role - Making It Great Being Specialrelationship Change management Consultancy competence Service management Quality management Utilizing: Assessments based on relevant

Defining The Role- Making It Great Being

Special

Lisbeth Andersen, Specialisterne

& Anne Mette Hass, Delta, DenmarkTh8

Defining the role - making it great being special

EuroSTAR 2007 – Th8

Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, SPECIALISTERNE,

[email protected]

Anne Mette Jonassen Hass, DELTA,

[email protected]

EuroSTAR 2007, © DELTA & SPECIALISTERNE, Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, [email protected] Anne Mette Jonassen Hass, [email protected] 2

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Abraham Harold Maslow was born April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York

Deficit Needs

Beeing Needs

Physiological Needs

Self-actualization

Esteem Needs

Belonging Needs

Safety Needs


Motives at work

Intellectual motives are the most important

• Most effective: Interest in the task

more motives are combined and reinforce each other

• Almost as effective: Reward and praise

reward may lead to interest

• Least effective: Punishment and blame

– punishment impede interest


De-motivators

• Lack of understanding of value

– you are just overhead

• Blame

– stop finding (read: producing) all those failures!

• Lack of career path

– what testers?


We are not all alike

Different things make different people thrive


Our idea

In many companies people are hired

because of their professional skills

– and fired because of their personalities

If people were hired more because of their

personalities

- they could use their full potential

and not get fired


Our vision

We would like your help in creating a model

that helps you match your personality to a

job where you’ll thrive

and add value to the company and

yourself

We do not have the final answer yet!


Today’s program

• DELTA

• SPECIALISTERNE

• Tester skills

• Soft skills

• Test roles

• Matching skills and roles

• Get to know yourself

– and like and use what you see


”We help ideas meet the real world”

DELTA


Facts about the knowledge centre DELTA

• Electronics, Software, Light, Optics, Acoustics

• 230 employees

(>130 with a masters degree)

• > 50 years in business

• Turnover > 33 mio. EUR

• 40% export

• > 2500 customer assignments / year

• President & CEO: Per Hartlev


IT Processer

• Det handler om effektiv

udvikling


IT Processes – this is what we do!

In the area of:

Innovation process

Development process

Test

Project management

Customer/supplier

relationship

Change management

Consultancy competence

Service management

Quality management

Utilizing:

Assessments based on relevant

International

standards and

related models

Training

Presentations

Consultancy

Books

Network

We offer to:

Do

Educate

Advice

Measure maturity

Audit

Improve

Research

Share knowledge

Standards examples:

ISO/IEC 15504, ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 12207

Models examples:

CMMI, SPICE, EFQM, PSP, PMI, ITIL, COBIT


SPECIALISTERNE

Social Innovator

• 3½ years of operational know-how

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) characteristics are turned into advantages

• Compete at market terms providing specialist services

Social Firm

• Best Large Social Firm Europe 2006

• 36 persons with ASD

• 14 persons with Neurotypical Syndrome

• 15 trainees with ASD

Social Entrepreneur

• 100+ employees with ASD in Denmark

• 1000+ employees with ASD internationally

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Services

• Tests• static• dynamic

• Data • conversion• entries• quality control

• Documentation• test • manuals• quality control• configuration

management• translation

• Programming

International known companies

• CSC• Microsoft • Oracle• LEGO

Other companies• TDC (major telecommunication

provider in DK)• KMD (largest Danish owned IT-

company)• Grundfos (global provider of

pump solutions)• Cryptomathic (leading provider

of e-security)

Customers


Mission

“WE SENSE SPECIAL SKILLS IN SPECIAL PEOPLE AND ENABLE SPECIALMANAGEMENT OF DETAILS”


Let„s go botanical for a moment

• What kind of a plant is a Dandelion?

• What are the characteristics?

• In which situation is it a herb?

• In which situation is it a weed?

Definition of weed:

• The right plant in the wrong place

SPECIALISTERNE has specialized in turning weeds into herbs


The Dandelion Model

• Everyone is special, and every one has potentials and special gifts which can be used by the company and the person him- or herself.

• There is a role for every one in the labour market – you just have to look at the right places (or maybe you have to invent it)

• A large part of you is personality – that‟s what makes you special


CASE: SPECIALISTERNE (1)

Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder have impairments within:

• Social interactions

• Communication

• Cognition – (imagination)

The impairments have caused a barrier toward the labour market (the weed view)

The Dandelion Model approach

SPECIALISTERNE assess the motivation of the individual and supply with education and work situations that enable persons with ASD to use their full potential providing high quality specialist services (the herb view)


CASE SPECIALISTERNE (2)

First we assess the strengths of ASD

1. Details2. Language3. Very precise4. New ways of thinking5. Finding inconsistencies6. Concentrated7. Persevering8. Honesty9. Courage10. Focusing11.Unbribable12.And so forth….


Then we add the personality of our candidates by

• Talking/asking

• Challenging (LEGO Mindstorms Robots, assignments, exercises, games etc.)

• Watching/observing

…For about five months



After that we search for the perfect role

… and finally the perfect tasks at our customers premises

•Tester?•Translator?•Programmer?•Configuration management?•Inventor?•Varying tasks?•Repeating tasks?•?



Outcome

• 2 out of 3 are offered a job after the candidate period

• Despite the fact that many never had a job before

• … or got fired

• … or got victimized

• … or got a depression

• Now they are valuable testers etc. for customers like Microsoft, CSC.



Tester skills - overview

Soft skills

Domain

knowledge

IT skills

Testing

skills


‘Hard’ skills

• Testing skills

– certification, experience, mentoring

• IT skills

– analysis, coding (knowing the trenches)

• Domain knowledge

– banking, nursing, ….

All this can be learned


Soft skills – human characteristics

A tester should be

• ?

These are difficult to change

once we reach adulthood!


Is there more to the story?

Which characteristics are we (perhaps) not all that

proud of?

• ?


There are many tasks in testing

Test process for all test levels

Mo

nit

ori

ng

an

d c

on

tro

l

Test

planning

Analysis and

design

Test closure activities

Implementation

and

execution

Evaluating

exit criteria

and reporting

Test process for all test levels

Mo

nit

ori

ng

an

d c

on

tro

l

Test

planning

Analysis and

design

Test closure activities

Implementation

and

execution

Evaluating

exit criteria

and reporting


and there are many test roles

At least these roles must be filled for a test

assignment:

• Test manager

• Test analyst / designer

• Test environment responsible, incl. tools and data

• Test executer


Test manager

A test manager’s tasks are

• ?


Test analyst / designer

A test analyst / designer’s tasks are

• ?


Test environment responsible

A test environment responsible’s tasks are

• ?


Test executer

A test executor’s tasks are

• ?


Matching roles and characteristics

Role / tasks Suitable characteristics


Get to know yourself

There are many ‘tools’ for getting more knowledge

about who you are:

• The Greek philosophers

• Jung in the beginning of the 20th century

• Myers Briggs in the early 1940’s

• Enneagram, modern version in the 1960’s

• Belbin in the 1980’s

Just to mention a few


The four temperaments

The old Greek philosophers defined 4 temperaments:

• phlegmatic

• sanguine

• choleric

• melancholic

and said:

We all have our share of each – in different mixtures


Myers-Briggs’ four dimensions

• How do you get energy

• Extraversion (E) / Introversion (I)

• How do you get information and knowledge

• Sensing (S) / Intuition (N)

• How do you decide

• Thinking (T) / Feeling (F)

• How do you act

• Judging (J) / Perceptive (P)


The Enneagram

THE NINE TYPES1 The Perfectionist2 The Helper3 The Achiever4 The Individualist5 The Observer6 The Loyalist7 The Enthusiast8 The Leader9 The Mediator


Belbin’s team roles

A team role is: "A tendency to behave, contribute

and interrelate with others in a particular way."

Belbin defines 9 roles in 3 categories

• action-oriented roles– Shaper

– Implementer

– Completer/Finisher

• people-oriented roles– Coordinator

– Team-worker

– Resource Investigator

• cerebral roles– Plant

– Monitor/Evaluator

– Specialist


Your comments

• What did you like?

• What did you not like?

• What did we forget?

• What could be better?

• Anything else…. Keep in contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

The Dandelion Model

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Remember

• Test is difficult

• Test requires overview

• Test requires creativity

• Test requires systematic work

• Test requires imagination

• Test requires courage

• Test is fun