UNMOTIVATED TEAM

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Issue summary

The test automation team is not motivated.

Category

Management

Examples

1. Automation team members resist switching to a different better tool than the one they have been using
2. Team members don’t collaborate and are not willing to share their know-how by pairing with newbies
3. Testers don't want to help because they have had too many bad experiences with test automation
4. Test automation team members are frustrated because:

   - they have no time to develop new test automation and are always only tinkering with the old scripts
   - development changes the SUT-GUI all the time and they find out only when the tests fail at run time
   - they need help from specialists and nobody has time
   - due to technical problems they need too much time to implement new test automation

Questions

Are all team members unmotivated or only some?
Are the people on the test automation team by choice? Or were they ordered to it by management?
Does the test automation team get the support that it needs?

Resolving Patterns

Most recommended:

• CELEBRATE SUCCESS: to motivate the team use this pattern everytime some milestone has been reached
• GET TRAINING: use this pattern if your issue is similar to Example 1.
• WHOLE TEAM APPROACH: if the development team uses an agile process, then this pattern will help even unsatisfied people to better integrate (Example 2.)

Other useful patterns:

• PLAN SUPPORT ACTIVITIES: Apply this pattern if your team is frustrated for reasons similar to Example 4.
• SHARE INFORMATION: Apply this pattern if frustration is mainly due to poor communication
• SHORT ITERATIONS: use this pattern to get shorter feedback cycles, so you notice sooner when somebody isn't motivated
• LEARN FROM MISTAKES: use this pattern if frustration is due to bad experiences
  
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