Manual testing to automatic testing A formal training programme for testers at Bands 3 to 7

Gates

Gates are the backbone of the programme.

What happens at every gate

Every gate:

  1. repeats the full capability self-assessment (Parts A, B, and C) for the person's track, using the track's file in instruments/, such as instruments/band-5-quality-assurance-test-analyst.tsv (see instruments/README.md)
  2. calibrates the ratings: the person rates first, the line manager rates independently, and they agree each rating with evidence (see the calibration guide)
  3. adds the Part D practical from Gate 1 (see Part D practicals)
  4. reviews the module evidence for that gate
  5. updates the individual learning plan
  6. is recorded on the gate review form.

Gate results are developmental only. They never start a capability, performance, or conduct procedure by themselves (spec Principle 14).

Schedule

Gate Programme hour Module evidence Part D practical Reviewers
Gate 0 88 Evidence 1–6 — (unscored diagnostic only) Person, line manager, mentor, training lead
Gate 1 133 Evidence 7–9 Fix a failing unit test and open a pull request Line manager, mentor
Gate 2 178 Evidence 10–11 Automate one given manual test case on the fixture site (Band 3: write it as Given-When-Then and pair) Line manager, mentor, a developer
Gate 3 215.5 Evidence 12–13 Triage and fix a failing CI run (Band 6 and Band 7 test engineering: plus an API test; Band 7 test management: plus reading and explaining an API test failure) Line manager, mentor, training lead
Gate 4 268 Evidence 14–16 Live run and explanation of the capstone Gate 4 panel
Certification By 308 Evidence 17 The Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification exam, set by the certification body (Decision 8) Certification body; the training lead and mentor review the Green Belt project
Gate 5 About six months after Gate 4, outside the 368 hours Six months of work Demonstrate a recent automated change Line manager, training lead

With the optional extension to 368 hours for Band 3 and Band 4, the gates move to hours 88, 148, 208, 260.5, and 328, Module 17 runs in hours 328–368, and Gate 5 follows about six months after Gate 4.

Thresholds

Using agreed ratings and the capability index:

Gate Parts A, B, C (each) Part D Other conditions
Gate 0 Baseline, no threshold — Individual learning plan agreed and signed
Gate 1 At least 60% Partly or better No item lower than at Gate 0 without an agreed reason
Gate 2 At least 70% Partly or better Clinical risk management and information governance meet expectations
Gate 3 At least 80% Meets Test engineering at least one level below the automation target, or at it
Gate 4 At least 90% Meets No skill more than one level below expected; test engineering at the automation target; capstone accepted by the product owner
Gate 5 At least 90%, sustained Meets Plan agreed for any remaining gaps, aiming for 100% by the next annual appraisal

Capability index

For each part, the capability index is the percentage of items rated Meets, using agreed ratings. Partly counts as half. The overall index is the mean of Parts A, B, and C. Part D is reported separately.

Worked example: Part B has 16 items. 9 are Meets, 4 are Partly, and 3 are Not yet. The index is (9 + 4 × 0.5) ÷ 16 = 68.75%.

For Part C, a skill meets when the gap (expected level minus agreed rating) is 0 or less, is Partly when the gap is 1, and is Not yet when the gap is 2 or more.

scripts/capability_index.py calculates the index from a completed instrument file.

If a gate is not met

  1. The person gets up to 22.5 extra learning hours on the items below threshold, with a written plan and extra mentor time, and the gate is repeated once.
  2. If the repeated gate is still not met, the person, line manager, and training lead agree a next step. That may be the extension to 368 hours, a different automation target, more Role foundations support, or pausing the programme.
  3. None of these is a capability or performance procedure.

Completion

A person completes the programme when every threshold for Gate 4 is met, and they hold the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification with an accepted Green Belt project (Evidence 17, module Module 17). If the exam is not passed, there is one resit, within three months. Gate 5 confirms that the capability holds in normal work.

Materials

View this document on GitHub materials/gates/index.md