How to Set Up a Test Guild

Are you looking to continually mature your testing practice, stand out from other organisations and have fun building a community of like-minded members with shared interests?

If so, a Test Guild might be for you! Here's the guide of how to set up a test guild. 

For those of you who have played games and have been part of a Guild, then I have no doubt that you immediately cast your mind to the benefits of a well-run guild. The concepts of a guild go way back, and for good reason!

In my last blog post, I shared the steps I go through to understand what an organisation is trying to achieve through testing and how their current testing model is being implemented. In this, the final blog in the series on increasing test maturity, I want to discuss how I get to the end goal of a mature test model that does what it needs to do.

This blog is the third in a little series where I write about my thoughts on increasing test maturity. Previously, I went into a bit of detail on the importance of wining the hearts and minds of the various stakeholders impacted by the change in approach.

It’s easy to assume that in an organisation that has decided to take a journey of this kind, the leadership team is behind the decision and is fully supportive of the change. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case and sometimes, dark, politically motivated forces are at work whereby a senior individual’s self-interest takes priority over that of the wider organisation. 

In my last post I wrote about winning the hearts and minds of those people affected by the operational and organisational change that’s needed to increase test maturity. I discussed the emotional and psychological impact of change and how, in my experience, the behaviour of those people impacted by the change but who don’t support it, tends to follow the model proposed by Kübler-Ross. This model was originally hypothesised to recognise the series of emotions experienced by terminally ill patients after being told of their prognosis but has more recently been adopted by the change management community.

The thing I most enjoy about my job as a Test and QA consultant is delivering organisational change. This usually involves increasing test maturity and I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to do this kind of work with many clients - from multinational investment banks and utility suppliers to small software houses. Delivering organisational change allows me to be creative, operate on a macro scale, influence decisions and work with people on an emotional level. This is very different to, and is a refreshing change from the regular testing, test planning and test management that is the bread and butter of a test consultant. I find it fun, interesting and challenging.