Testers Career Development Vaidyanathan Ramalingam

1. Systematic Competency Development Approach
for IT Professionals
An implementation experience sharing
Key Note Speech
Vaidyanathan Ramalingam (Vaidya)
Director Engineering (Test)
Huawei Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, INDIA

2. Key Note Coverage
• Competency Development - Problems & Challenges
• Competency Development Model - Concept & Big Picture
• Implementation Experience Sharing
• Key Note Conclusion
Huawei is a global telecommunications solutions provider with long-term partnerships with operators around the world.
Huawei actively participates in 91 international standardization organization including ITU, 3GPP, 3GPP2, ETSI, IETF, OMA and
IEEE. Huawei holds the world’s #1 position in PCT Patent applications (WIPO 2008) and is ranked among the top 3 in LTE
essential patents. Huawei’s products and solutions have been deployed in over 100 countries and have served 45 of the
world's top 50 telecom operators, as well as one third of the world's population.
Mr. Vaidyanathan Ramalingam (Vaidya) has >20 Years of experience, primarily in Software Testing with Fortune 100 companies,
www.huawei.com such as Motorola, Nortel Networks ODC, Siemens, Indus EDC, Intel, HP and Huawei (Present).
He is Director Engineering (Test) in Central Research & Development Business Line @ Huawei R&D. He is Honorary Member in
Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI), established on 1916 by Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya,
which has representation in several Boards & Advisory Committees in Government and Institutions. He is also a member of IEEE,
USA; Holds honorary editorial position in ISQT Newsletter‫ -‏‬Software Testing and Technical Committee Member in STEP-AUTO
Y2011 International Conference on Software Testing. Vaidya is qualified with M.Tech - IT and B.S. - Information Systems. He is
interested to write a software testing book and do research in Competency Development & Software Testing.
The content of this conference presentation is non commercial and based on self experience, interpretations/view points. The data
provided may not be full, accurate and latest. The intention is knowledge sharing & to promote the software testing.

3. Competency Development - Problems & Challenges (1 of 2)
 No Systematic Competency Development Model / Approach
 No single & uniform/consistent approach (across teams/organization; Y-o-Y)
 Often assessment score/methodology/scope leads to subjectivity / dis-agreement
 Individual development plans are not dynamic, multi-dimensional
and has no support framework to achieve
 Poor adoption of relevant industry standards & best practices benchmarking
 Often considered as short term / tactical instead of long-term & strategic!
 Not Standardized Competency Assessment & Individual Development Framework
Poorly defined individual competency assessment & individual development focus
Non availability of single employees repository (system / database):
competency score
development plans
Knowledge management repository
Synchronization between individual career aspirations & Org. requirements
Missing hierarchical & secured employee data base for workflow approach

4. Competency Development – Problems & Challenges (2 of 2)
 Comprehensive, Sustainable & Evolving Competency Development Eco System
 Competency profile (show case your competencies, experience & domain)
 Skill inventory, Certifications, Awards & Patents/Ideas (show case your achievements)
 Functional groups / Professional internal networking
(connections, skill search, info. exchange, posting questions/resolutions)
 Collaboration framework (web 2.0):
 Blogs, Forums/Threads
 Wiki (internal – organization specific encyclopedia that anyone can edit with moderation)
 Artifacts repository (documents, audio, video files, Ref URL, and books)
 Communication channel (chat, files upload, integrated email framework)
 Potential Implementation Challenges
Management support
budget
formal organization development focus (business plan)
Long term (strategic) & continuous focus on employees development
Participation from engineers/internal professional community
Sincere attempt
Real interest for their own development (not only the company wants it)
Partial automation & many manual / Ad-hoc process
no end to end & conceptually integrated framework
External vendor’s solutions does not cover all aspects
Internal solutions not scalable, comprehensive & consistent

5. Competency Development Model – Concept & Big Picture
Competency Employee
Leadership
Assessment Networking
Development
Framework Framework
Framework
Proof based objective Enable employee credibility
assessment questions Mentorship & Grooming
Co-ownership assignment showcasing for Professional &
Individual Score Authentic internal networking:
(role/designation & goal) Career aspiration based
•Profile, Skill Inventory
Theoretical (academic) & Succession plan
•Certification
Practical capabilities Target & Potential based
•Awards, Patents, Ideas, Papers
(business scope/results) (leadership pipeline) •FPG Connections
Score by Self & Retention Management •Recommendations/Appreciations
SME’s authentication Recruitment (rare skills) •Communication channel
Individual Training Knowledge
Development Management Management
Framework Framework Framework
Individual Development by:
(I) Self: study, hands-on, Training requirements Collaboration tools (web 2.0):
certification, higher studies Training administration - Blogs
(II) Org: work assignments,
Feedback and continuous - Forums/Threads,
mentorship, training, research - Artifacts
Improvement
(III) Industry: forums, conf, - WIKI
standard bodies, university Results Analysis &
- Websites / KM Portals
Short/medium/long term Strategy refinement
Knowledge Management Office
dev. plans & measurement
Drive: Individual & Drive: Drive: Individual &
SME (Subject Matter Expert) / Reporting Individual &Organization Internal Community
Supervisor

6. Implementation Experience Sharing
 Systematic Competency Development Model / Approach
 Idea demonstration with Excel (Macro) based PoC, Pilot.
 Web based platform implementation
 Research & Industry References/Benchmark
 Continuous research & conceptualization (self patent pending)
 Ref: People CMM Level 3 Process Area Threads (Comp. Analysis & Comp. Dev), SEI, USA
 Ref: Swedish Standard, SS 62 40 70 (Comp. Management & System Requirements), Swedish Standards Institute
 >2.5 years of implementation exp. & For different teams (test, dev, quality, info. dev etc)
 Individual Competency Assessment (example: software test engineers)
 Skill Areas: Domain, Test Techniques, Test Automation, Scripting/Programming, Process
 Sample Skills -per- Skill Area (as per project need);
 Test Techniques: applicable test techniques (example: boundary value analysis)
 Hypothesis Based Testing (HBT); (Ref: STAG software)
 Test Automation: QTP (GUI automation, HP) / RFT (GUI automation, IBM)
 Model Based Testing - MBT (Ref: Conformiq / Ideabytes)
 Script-less automation (Ref: Qualitia from Zensoft)
 Assessment Question Framing:
 Fixed Alternative Questions, fact/result based, answer to have less ambiguity
 Individual Competency Development Plan
 Type: Self driven, Org. based & Industry based; Objective/fact based Measurement
 Duration: Short term (6 months); Medium term (1 year) & long term (> 1year)
 Recommended Cycle of Competency Assessment: every 6 months
* Note: Product names, logos, brands, standard body/institute’s names & other trademarks referred within the presentation are the property of their respective trademark holders.

7. Key Note Conclusion
 Business Values:
 Strategic organization development
 Individual competency development
 Employee retention
 Efficiency improvement (S/w saves time and helps with data)
 Knowledge retention
 Competency development is a long journey
 It is complex. Proper plan & execution will fetch results in phases
 Needs dedicated focus, management support & employees’ interest
 Concept / approach is important, not only the tools / software
 Always stick to the core principles & never compromise
 Start with simple approach (excel/macro)
The key is actual competency development
Every company do have one or other model
Learn industry practices from conferences like STEP-AUTO and contribute/share
in your company – Thanks in advance for your Test Community Service!

8. Knowledge Is Power
Thank You!
Share your feedback & suggestions to: rvaidya67@hotmail.com
http://in.linkedin.com/in/rvaidya67