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

Line manager briefing

For: line managers of programme participants. Status: draft. Run as a 60-minute session before Gate 0, with the calibration guide.

Your part in one line

Protect your person's learning time, rate them honestly and independently at each gate, and agree their ratings with them using evidence.

1. What the programme is

  • 308 hours of protected learning time, by default 7.5 hours a week, so about 41 calendar weeks. Gates at hours 88, 133, 178, 215.5, and 268, then the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (Module 17) in hours 268–308, and a follow-up about six months after Gate 4. Use scripts/gate_calendar.py for the dates.
  • Your person joins the track for their band and UK GDaD PCF role. Their band and role do not change.
  • Their guide is in materials/tracks/<track>/index.md. Read it.

2. Protected time

Every track has the same protected time: 308 learning hours, by default 7.5 hours a week, 20% of a 37.5-hour week. Band 3 and Band 4 may extend to 368 hours. Agree the pace in the learning agreement.

  • Put it in both calendars before Gate 0, at fixed times each week.
  • Reduce their delivery work to match. Agree this with their product owner.
  • If you must take back time, agree it with the training lead first. If more than 7.5 hours are lost in a gate period, the training lead escalates.

3. Rating at a gate

  1. Your person completes the self-assessment before the gate.
  2. You rate independently, without looking at their ratings. Use the instrument for their track in instruments/.
  3. Rate what they do regularly, not what they did once or could do.
  4. You meet and agree each rating. Where you differ by more than one level, the evidence decides. If you still disagree, the mentor or training lead moderates.
  5. The training lead samples 1 in 5 assessments across the cohort for consistency.

4. Talking about the baseline

Gate 0 sets an evidenced baseline against the person's whole role, so most people will see gaps. How you talk about them decides whether people self-assess honestly.

Say:

  • "A gap is where development is most useful. It's not a failing."
  • "The gates are for planning your development. They don't start any HR process."
  • "Most people meet the expectation in some areas and are below it in others. That's normal."
  • "Let's agree the two or three gaps that matter most until the next gate."

Avoid:

  • Comparing people with each other.
  • Treating a gate result as a performance rating.
  • Rating up to be kind, or down to make a point. Both make the plan wrong.

5. Between gates

  • A 1-hour check-in every 15 learning hours: progress on the individual learning plan, blockers, protected time.
  • Help find real work to automate: from hour 155.5, part of every 7.5 hours of learning is real automation on the team's product.
  • Recognise progress publicly, for example at team show-and-tells.

6. If a gate is not met

The person gets up to 22.5 extra learning hours on the items below threshold, with a written plan, and the gate is repeated once. If it is still not met, you, the person, and the training lead agree a next step. None of this is a capability procedure.

Time you'll need

About 1 hour every 15 learning hours, plus about 2 hours for each gate: around 33 hours over the programme for each person you manage. See the line manager page.

View this document on GitHub materials/planning/manager-briefing.md