How Good Are Your Testers? Find Out With The Gauntlet™!

Whether your software testing and QA organization has two people or 200, the quality of your software depends on the capability and proficiency of your testers.  But how do you measure that?  That’s where we come in.

How Good Are Your Testers? Find Out With The Gauntlet™!

Are we holding software testers to defined standards of proficiency—and if so, are we measuring that proficiency objectively?
I’d like to think that most of us would answer the former with a yes, but I’m less sure about the latter.

Picture this.  You’re boarding an airplane bound for a dream Caribbean vacation.  Visions of a five-star oceanfront resort dance through your head as you cross the threshold from the jetway.  Sunlight streaks across the chairs while you make your way down the narrow aisle.  You take your seat and close your eyes.  In your mind you can already feel the scorch of the warm sand and the spray of the sea.

…and then, right before you take off, you find out your pilot has never flown a commercial plane before.  Suddenly, your dream vacation has turned into a nightmare.

Obviously, this example is pretty much impossible as airlines require stringent qualifications for commercial pilots.  However, setting the implausibility of it aside, this scenario serves to raise a fundamental question for all of us in QA: are we holding software testers to defined standards of proficiency—and if so, are we measuring that proficiency objectively?

I’d like to think that most of us would answer the former with a yes, but I’m less sure about the latter.  I mean, sure, every organization has their own interview process to ensure quality personnel—but those are almost entirely subjective.  When it comes to software testing skills, objective measurement is much more challenging.

We know that problem all too well, because we were facing it head-on a few years ago.  As a software testing and quality assurance company, our reputation depends entirely upon the people we employ—and we needed a way to ensure we were recruiting only the best personnel out there.  Certifications helped us out a little, but we needed a higher standard.

After a long search, we concluded that we were better off building it ourselves—an endeavor that resulted in the Gauntlet™, a proprietary assessment designed to make sure that our testers had both the attitude and aptitude to succeed at Lighthouse.  It’s been a tremendous asset—one that has helped us deliver better by placing the right people in the right roles.

And now we want to share the Gauntlet™ with you.

Whether you have an offshore team that’s struggling to perform, a recruiting department that’s having a hard time finding qualified testers, or a boss who’s looking for a new way to assess your organization, the Gauntlet™ is an invaluable tool in evaluating the hard and soft skills of everyone on your team.  With a detailed portrait of their individual strengths and weaknesses, you can make sure that you’re putting the right person in the right role every time.

…and while that might not sound quite as good as a frosty Mai Tai on a sun-soaked Caribbean beach, it’s certainly something worth getting excited about.  Give us a call or have us call you to learn more!

Cheers,

Mike Hodge
Lighthouse Technologies, Inc.
Software Testing | Quality Assurance Consulting | Oracle EBS Consulting

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