Amplify your relationship with testers this valentine’s day!

Amplify your relationship with testers this valentine’s day!

Valentine’s day is a day to express your love to the other person 💞. You need not explicitly do this through words. Showing gratitude, care or making them comfortable all are signs of expressing love.

But is it the same with people doing jobs together?

Relationships other than romantic ones often overlook this aspect of work that keeps people happy and make them stay for long – just like what happens in a relationship. 

One such relationship is of testers with their reporting managers. A happy tester-manager relationship shows a direct positive effect on work quality. A happy tester stays in the company for long and provides valuable contributions constantly.

On a similar note, this valentine’s day, I have drafted a few points to strengthen your relationship and analyze areas to give special attention to.

Eliminate the nervousness

The initial part of any relationship begins with nervous individuals (like a newly joined tester). Unlike a romantic date, here one person – the manager, has a higher position and might have spent years dealing with new joiners. In any case, it is a new environment for the tester while the manager is already in his comfortable space. The nervousness, therefore, is only associated with the tester who just joined the organization and everyone is new to him. 

Here is the chance to eliminate a tester’s nervousness. Ask questions that allows him to open up and be comfortable around you. These questions can be either of his past work for which he can speak freely or just general questions. Once the tester gets comfortable, you’d be able to sense the confidence in his inputs.

Make tester comfortable in the team

The next phase of your relationship kicks in when the tester is all settled and is ready to contribute to the software quality work. This is an important part of your relationship as an initial impression of the work culture can impact his contribution and output directly.

The best way to make your tester feel comfortable is to start by asking your development team to have a unified working mindset. If there are bugs, consider them legitimate and appreciate the work. Sometimes development team do not get along with testers due to their opposite approach towards software development.

One thinks that the software is working and when bugs arise, a lot of the time developers are quick to say, “Well, it works on my machine!”.

A tester should also be given ample time to perform his responsibilities. Bombarding the project a day before the release for testing and delivering is not a good approach to make your tester feel important and loved with your team.

On the contrary, it can make him stressed affecting the quality of work. A better way is to ask your tester how much time does he need to complete XYZ? Or in 2 days, how much can you complete? Consider all the phases of testing before setting any deadline such as verifying the bugs etc. Changing your approach with a small variation starting this valentine’s day can mean a lot to the tester. 

Involve testers as much as possible

Involvement directly shows how much you care about the person you are involving. The same feeling is experienced by the other side also. Unfortunately, sometimes testers might be left out in some areas where the manager thinks their work is different from what the discussion is about. 

Involving the tester in sprints for better in-sprint testing will make them understand the current release-ready product. It will involve them in the development process that is always considered a good practice. Making them work on a version that has already been released can bring their morale down.

To strengthen your relationship, ask the tester to give as much input as possible. What do you think about this? Do you see any flaws in the planning? etc. This can make him feel important to the team and loved by the teammates.

Respect their way of working

Each person has a different way of working things and I’m sure your tester will have his/her way too. Unless he is a fresher, he might have failed repeatedly and settled on a methodology that he would have found successful and efficient. This may or may not be the way in which you or your team works. Let’s start by respecting the methodology rather than imposing our own on the tester.

In addition, you should not only let him work his way but understand what his methodologies are. Maybe it is better and more efficient than how you currently work and you may like it. Even if you don’t, it will help in planning for future activities with respect to the way of work. 

Provide support

A good relationship always expects that people support each other in hardships and acknowledge prosperity. The same implies to a tester and manager relationship. There cannot be defined parameters for this section though. For instance, support may extend when the tester has delayed in delivering the tasks on time. Or answering a small (or silly) question patiently and in detail just like answering any other question.

A new tester may need more support from his manager as he is constantly figuring out different things about the organisation. Being readily available over chat or email (especially in work from home arrangements) is the best thing you could start doing from this day!

Surprise with rewards 🎁

The final thing you need to keep in mind to always maintain your relationship strong is surprising your tester frequently. Acknowledging someone for their work motivates people to do more. Not only this, they feel more comfortable and friendlier around you which is a sign of a growing relationship. Just like in a romantic relationship, surprising with gifts also keeps your relationship healthier and the tester (or any employee) would feel valuable in the company. This increases retention and gives a bond with the employee for life.

What’s your story!

With the end of this small discussion on amplifying your relationship with your tester, I am sure you would have recalled your instances too. From making your tester comfortable in the new environment to providing him support in every hurdle he faces, there is always something unique about each relationship. In the comment section, let’s hear out your relationship with your tester and how you make sure that he is always appreciated.


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