A Test Manager / QA Manager should be proficient in communication. They should be able to communicate professionally with internal and external teams, customers, stakeholders and users. A Test Manager should be skilled in sharing details crisply, stating facts and persuasive when required.

Members of a testing team mainly communicate through:

• Test product documentation – Examples of documents include master test plan, test strategy, scenarios, defect reports, summary reports etc.
• Document review and feedback – Feedback may be provided for requirements document, testing use cases, functional specs, documentation of component testing etc.
• All hands meetings – This includes interaction between team members, with development team, management etc.

When testers communicate with other stakeholders, they should be professional, effective and stick to facts, so that a respect is built and maintained.

• When giving feedback on work products generated by others, care must be taken that it is constructive and delivered diplomatically and objectively.
• All communication must lead to accomplishing testing objectives, enhancing product quality and optimizing software product development processes.
• Test Managers need to communicate with plethora of people, like end users, customers, members of the project team, management, external testers etc.
• So the communication needs to be relevant for all of them.

Say a defect report has been created by the test team for development team. This report will have detailed information about trends, severity, areas prone to defects etc. However, when the same report is being presented to the management, it must be brief and to the point, without going into much details.

As the Test Manager usually gives the presentation, it is essential for him or her to decide upon the level of detailing required by the audience. So a manager might want to know the number and severity of defects but executive management may appreciate defect trends presented in graphical format.

Efficient and crisp communication holds audience’s attention while giving out correct information. Test Managers must consider each presentation to be an occasion to encourage quality as well as quality processes.

• Communicating with those who are outside the test team is called outward communication
• Communication within the test group is called inward communication
• Test Manager needs to carry out inward communication efficiently to share latest updates, instruction, priority modifications and other necessary information.
• The Manager also needs to perform upward communication with those higher up the chain of management and downward communication with those below him/her in the chain.
• Whatever the direction, same rules of communication must be followed, like appropriate, effective and easy to understand.

Test Managers / QA Managers use several methods for communication like e-mail, formal meeting, informal meeting, verbal interactions, formal reports, informal reports, defect management tools etc .

QA Managers must be adept at using all these means to have professional and factual communication. They must proofread each communication content for both content and quality before sending, even under most pressing deadlines.

Written communication has a life much longer than the project itself, so it is essential to create professional content that boosts the organization’s image as being quality conscious.

Test Managers must be persuasive in their communication when required for example, when justifying the cost of quality, test effort estimation etc., to senior management.

They should be able to persuade not only senior management but also influence peers and subordinates when steering decisions regarding the master test plan, test strategy to be used or arriving at consensus on test metrics with development team.

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