Managing Testing around furloughs and layoffs
Ideas to help with QA Furloughs and Layoffs
Many companies are cutting expenses and implementing short term furloughs and layoffs. This means that QA has to balance testing with smaller teams.
Some ideas to make this process less impacting to the team
- Documentation - make sure that everyone update their smoke testing and regression test steps.
- Schedule - if the team is going on furlough on different weeks make sure that everyone knows who going to be out and when.
- Regression Testing Test - make sure that the test case repository is updated with the latest test. Particularly make sure the test steps are up to date.
- Ticket Testing - Make sure testing steps are clear if tickets are being released while the tester is out. If there were any new discovery while testing a ticket - it's critical to make sure that it's well documented.
- Wiki Page Update - Make sure that project base QA Reference pages are updated with the current contact and release plan. (More information on QA Reference Page in a different post. )
- Product Review Meeting - After layoffs occur it's a good idea to meet up with the Product team and go over regression planning. With a smaller team, it's time to rethink testing priorities. The product can help lay the groundwork on what areas should get the most focus. In some businesses, it might be good to include customer support as they may have ideas on areas of the product that gets the most attention.