In testing, there are often complaints about not being able to retain or attract skilled resource, or losing skilled resource to other roles such as programming or technical writing. These days we do have trouble attracting and keeping skilled people in testing and there are lot of reasons and hidden factors to address this particular issue. One major factor would be motivation. Proper motivation can save a company time, money and resources. It is more cost effective to keep existing resources through proper training and motivation than it is to constantly recruit and train new ones. “There is an old saying – you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink, it will drink only if it’s thirsty”. So with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Whether it is to excel either at the work place or in the personal front. They must be motivated or driven to it, either by them self or through external stimulus. Tuckman’s model. Unique Motivation Technique to Testing team: Dooming or Winning? The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing is a model of group development, first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results.

Here are few tips from my end – What you can do?

# Tip 1:  Start with thanking them when they help the developer to fix the critical anomalies. It sounds impossibly obvious, but it’s surprising how many QA managers neglect this simple action.

# Tip 2: Bring innovative problem-solving and team building techniques to help people become more create and productive

# Tip 3: Test lead and QA manager need to communicate and give detailed instructions and provide specific instructions to test team to work better.

#Tip 4: Test lead should avoid asking people to do the same boring tasks all the time. A stimulating environment creates enthusiasm and the opportunity for “big picture” thinking.

#Tip 5: Arrange some testing events, quiz for team. Start appreciating the team for their achievements.

The main objective is here to share the practical experiences gained while working for different teams and explains why motivation is required? Where motivation plays a key role? And how motivation makes a team successful? So please share/post your tips with us.