5 Tips to Eliminate Knowledge Gaps in Dev and QA

To create and release high-quality software, the software development lifecycle (SDLC) was established using different roles and processes designed to work seamlessly together. This approach is of critical importance because it spans the initial planning phase, all the way through production release and monitoring.

Roles vary within projects but typically include designers, business analysts (BA), developers, testers, scrum masters, project managers, product owners (PO) and technical architects (TA). Each one brings different expertise and skills to a project but ultimately, they are meant to collaborate and determine how to implement different aspects of the software.

The amount of processes can also vary for projects based on team size, release schedules, availability of resources and the complexity of the software.

What is the Knowledge Gap?

Without a distinction of responsibilities or a roadmap that identifies who owns each task in the SDLC, everyone assumes someone else will complete the tasks. The result is that the majority of these important steps remain incomplete or undone.

The reason this happens is because a knowledge gap exists among the team. This is especially true when teams are a mix of entry-, mid- and expert-level individuals. Sometimes, assumptions are made regarding the skill set, experience and domain knowledge that each individual brings to the project. Knowledge gaps can also develop at a more granular level, with teams using the same tools but in different ways. As an example, developers and testers might be using a single testing platform quite differently.

As teams begin collaboration on features for the software, they may encounter the following situations:

• Each team member has a different interpretation of the project requirements
• Developers assume testers have their same level of technical expertise
• A lack of ownership and assigned responsibilities among the team
• A PO has a feature idea and each team member has different ideas for how that feature should work
• The TA explains how a feature should be implemented using technical jargon that designers, POs, BAs and testers don’t understand
• A tester is not allowed appropriate time to complete testing due to tight release schedules

Identifying Knowledge Gaps

Knowledge gaps not only negatively impact the release of high quality software, but also team morale, productivity, job satisfaction and empowerment. The first step to finding acceptable solutions is to identify exactly where a knowledge gap exists. Some questions to help teams do this include:

• What are the common problems that occur in each phase of the SDLC?
• What processes are in place during the requirements, design, development, testing, acceptance and release phases of the SDLC?
• How effective is the communication between different roles in the team?
• Are the responsibilities of each team member clearly identified?
• How visible is the status of the project at any given time?
• How often are release cycles pushed to accommodate for more development and testing?
• Are the teams aware of what kind of customers are going to use the product?
• Is the velocity of the team stable? How often does it fluctuate and by how much?

Bridging Knowledge Gaps

Finding gaps in a team’s knowledge is the first step. The next step is determining how to narrow the divide. The following key factors help bridge the knowledge gap in teams:

Training

Sufficient training and tools should be provided to help teams do their jobs better. Proper training has a domino effect on the success of the project. It helps designers understand how to design mockups so developers can effectively implement the feature; testers can attend code reviews without intimidation and use tools more effectively; developers will understand why the testability of a feature is important and understand which tools can aid the development testing effort; the scrum master can better manage project tasks; the project managers can ensure the team collaborates to meet release schedules and deadlines; and finally, stakeholders can have an overview of the project through reports that are generated using various tools.

Visibility

For teams to work seamlessly together, we need to ensure the results of everyone’s efforts are visible to the entire team. It is important to understand how each contribution maps to the overall goals of the project. To increase visibility, teams can consider using the following:

1. Checklists: a list of items to be completed during each phase of the SDLC. If the items in the list are marked as done, then there is no ambiguity about which tasks need attention.
2. Visual Dashboards: give a high-level overview of the project’s health and status. These can be created on whiteboards, easel boards or in software and during daily meetings, teams can address the dashboard to ensure everyone, including business stakeholders, are aware of the high-level project status.

Clear Definition of Roles and Responsibilities

Each person needs to understand his/her role on the team, as well as the tasks they must accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Goals, objectives and expectations for each team member should be defined and discussed with respective peers and/or managers. This eliminates confusion and increases productivity and task completion.

Empowerment

In an age where individuals are increasingly more technical and skilled, what they still lack in their job functions is empowerment and autonomy. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that a project needs a single leader, the leadership responsibility can be effectively divided within each role on the team. Having one point of contact each from the design, development and testing teams means each can help to lead their respective sub-teams and help to ensure everyone within the project is working toward the same goals and objectives. By operating within this structure, the whole team becomes empowered.

Experimentation

Once sprints are completed and knowledge gaps have been identified, the whole team should come together to discuss solutions to existing problems. Based on this discussion, the team can start experimenting with different solutions to determine what works well or doesn’t. This constant experimentation and feedback loop helps to make the team more creative and empowers them to come up with solutions that work for their organization.

In summary, the knowledge gap has been a major obstacle for development teams in reaching their fullest potential. By identifying and reducing these gaps, teams can be more efficient and achieve faster release cycles with higher quality software.

— Raj Subramanian