Test Architect Role:
The Test Architect (TA) role is a senior position in the organization and is treated on par with equivalent Management positions in terms of rewards, recognition, visibility and influence. However, one basic factor that distinguishes a TA from a Manager is the absence of direct-responsibility for managing people. While Management tends to have people management as a core feature of the job, the TA does not directly manage people. However, this in no way lets the TA off the hook, so to speak, from influencing, mentoring, coaching and providing direction to members of the Testing Organization - all very important responsibilities of the TA.
Responsibilities of Test Architect:
· Provides Technical Leadership and Strategic Direction to the Testing Organization (TO)
· Is responsible for Test Strategy formulation
· Helps Formulate and Develop effective Test Architecture per organizational needs
· Is Technically responsible for all the Testing performed by the TO
· Is the foremost Technical Authority and is responsible for the overall Quality of deliverables across all parameters, both functional and non-functional including performance, security, usability, etc.
· Is expected to pro-actively analyze current processes and practices and suggest/ drive improvements. Also, defines processes as needed
· Has wide-reaching scope, impact and influence extending beyond the confines of the TO and spans across the entire product organization
· Is the counter part to the development architect
· Is involved in driving organization-wide Quality Process initiatives and their implementation to ensure Quality of deliverables
· Maintains a "big and complete" picture view of the product, its dependencies, organizational goals, technology arena, etc. and helps guide and direct the functioning of the TO appropriately
· Collaborates effectively and on an on-going basis with all constituents involved in product development and release
· Helps with Test plan development
· Is responsible for design and development of the TO's Test Automation framework / harness and any in-house tools required.
· Is involved in understanding Business requirements and works with the development architect to translate requirements into solution architecture designs. Reviews requirements and seeks clarity as required, participates in product design reviews and works with the development architect and development team to make any design improvements and refinement as needed. Also helps incorporate Testability requirements into design
· Analyzes competitive products and technologies and makes appropriate suggestions (may use demos, POCs) to influence product / technology direction
· Has overall product knowledge and is able to guide both junior and senior team members
· Involved in hiring activities for the TO and mentoring of TO team members
· Pro-actively seeks to make continuous improvements to Test coverage, execution and automation
· Is results oriented and has a high degree of accountability, commitment and responsibility. The expectation is that involving a TA in a project is a guarantee of obtaining positive outcomes
· Improvement of the organization testing process and growth
· Must be focused on defining the testing process and setting the test team up for continued success.
· Acts as subject matter expect for Software testing standards, processes, methodology and tools.
Attributes expected from a Test Architect:
· Comfortable with creating test cases for highly complex systems to ensure full test coverage(for a given definition of full)
· In depth knowledge of several/lots of test techniques/methodologies
· In depth experience of working across all (ok lots) of development methodologies
· Ability to specify and setup test environments
· Ability to produce technical strategy for a project/product
· Comfortable perform role outside of their comfort zone (so pick up a new technology, on a new project quickly and become the expert)
· Ability to improve testing processes and techniques on a project
· Ability to do test tool evaluation
Probably an expert in many test tools