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

Sponsor brief: manual to automatic testing programme

For: head of test. Status: draft.

The problem

  • Our testing is mostly manual. Manual regression is slow, gives different results from person to person, and cannot run on every change.
  • Our testers have UK GDaD PCF roles whose skills, including test automation, they do not yet fully use.

The proposal

A formal programme of 308 hours of protected learning time for manual testers at Bands 3 to 7: by default 7.5 hours a week (20% time), over about 41 calendar weeks.

  • Eight tuned tracks, by band and UK GDaD PCF role, sharing one schedule and set of gates, so one mixed cohort learns together.
  • Six gates, each repeating a full self-assessment against the person's band (21 dimensions), UK GDaD PCF role aspects, and every skill in the role, rated by the manager too. Pass marks rise from 60% to 90%.
  • Automation on real work from hour 155.5: each person automates tests on their own team's product in every 7.5 hours of learning.
  • A Lean Six Sigma Green Belt for everyone to finish: 40 hours, a certification that does not expire, and a Green Belt project that measurably improves the team's testing process.
  • No band changes. People grow into the roles they already hold.

Full design: spec/index.md. Reasoning: plan.md.

What it costs

For an illustrative cohort of 12, about 3,696 hours of participants' protected time (308 learning hours each) and about 1,485 hours from mentors, managers, the training lead, the Lean Six Sigma trainer, and others. Details: resource-estimate.md. Tools are open source. The spend is the Green Belt course and certification exam fees (Decision 8), and optionally a JavaScript course (Decision 3).

What we get

  • Each person's capability index measured from their Gate 0 baseline to at least 90% of their current role.
  • Each person at their track's automation target.
  • Real automated regression suites running in team CI, built during the programme.
  • Lower manual regression hours per release, and a shorter time from a defect report to a regression test.
  • A Lean Six Sigma Green Belt for every participant, and a measured improvement from every Green Belt project.
  • Measured at Gate 4 and again at Gate 5, six months later.

What we need from you

  1. Agree to sponsor the programme, and chair the Gate 4 panels for Band 7 participants.
  2. Name a training lead (about 3.75 hours per 7.5 cohort learning hours: 90 hours in all).
  3. Release mentors: at least one band above each participant, up to 3 participants each.
  4. Support the HR request in hr-briefing.md.
  5. Decide, with the training lead, the tool and CI defaults (Decision 1, Decision 2) and the Green Belt certification body (Decision 8) in decision-log.md.

Main risks

Protected time being eroded, inflated self-ratings, and too few mentors. Mitigations are in plan.md.

View this document on GitHub materials/planning/sponsor-brief.md