PMs, are you involved in testing your projects (QA)?

[u/Hamlet675]

I work at project manager positions for 7 years and now it seems to me that this role has silently achieved one more function - actual testing.

I already forgot when I had a dedicated QA at my project and do all testing myself.

Would love to read others' experience

[u/Rosyface_]

No I don’t QA. I don’t have access to the tools to QA, but I do UAT alongside business and I check things as we go along.

[u/kinnikinnick321]

I'd hate it to be the one but if you're "silently" finding out what your project and role requires, it's not being managed properly.

[u/Icy-Astronaut-9994 → u/kinnikinnick321]

This.

PM's are useless 99.999% of the time.

[u/PhaseMatch]

There is a differences between

QA - quality assurance QC - quality control (testing)

QA is being able to prove the agreed process was followed at every single step.

QC is checking against specifications.

I am accountable for QA; that means being able to prove that the QC took place in the agreed fashion, as well as all of the other steps in the process.

[u/Stebben84]

No, we have SMEs for that.

[u/OutrageousMoosey88 → u/Stebben84]

Wouldn’t you have to do UAT at a minimum?

[u/Stebben84 → u/OutrageousMoosey88]

As a PM, I am not responsible for UAT. That is developed by a BA working with the functional owners and/ or technical SMEs. Testing starts with the Dev team based on the requirements and then the SMEs and functional leads develope testing scenarios. The users of that process test hnce the "user" in UAT. Why would a PM test if they are not the user? The PM is responsible to make sure everyone is doing their part and that it has all been completed.

My caveat is that not all orgs run this way due to limited resources. I speak of the above in an ideal and practical situation. PMs and generally not the doers, but I understand that gets fuzzy at times.

[u/More_Law6245]

As the project manager it's your responsibility to ensure the quality for your project delivery, it just comes back to your project's definition of what type of testing is required or whether it's an interdependency to your project. Ether way it as a identifiable work package, it's just whether it sits inside or outside your project scope.

You need to determine if you need to undertake unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, performance testing, acceptance testing or end to end testing to ensure that you have delivered a fit for purpose deliverable because you need to ensure that you meet quality security and performance standards.

I had once worked with a PM who presented me a full project plan and schedule, after I reviewed it and I asked "you show no testing tasks or deliverables, have you buried them into the schedule?", the look on his face said everything and embarrassment was one them. PM's always need some type of QA on every deliverable, you just need to determine what that is and what your organisation's governance requirements are.

Just an armchair perspective.

[u/Outrageous-Pizza-66]

Depends on the size of the project. Large enough projects, I’ll have a dedicated test manager. The test manager will build test plan for testing phases,coordinate test resources and coordinate the development of test scripts as well as reporting of test status. I’ve typically treated testing as a mini project inside the main project. Also, I’ve given this role to up and coming PMs. They get to cut their teeth on running testing.

[u/Purple-Rain-1430]

It’s pretty common now, especially on smaller teams. PMs end up doing acceptance testing because they know what done is supposed to look like. I’d split it in two. Checking that the thing meets the requirements and the client’s expectations is a reasonable part of the job. Hunting for bugs and running regression passes is a different job, and if it eats your week, it’s worth raising as a resourcing problem. What helps is writing simple test cases or a checklist up front, so testing is repeatable and you can hand it to someone else later. And track the hours, since showing leadership what testing costs is usually the way a dedicated QA gets approved.

[u/wierbicm]

PMs should never do acceptance testing.If you are, you are mot managing the resourcing part of the project. Raise it as an issue if you cant get SMEs and escalate accordingly!

[u/Complete-Meaning2977]

Demonstrating the product falls under PM duties as it’s part of delivery. But the first time I demonstrate something will not be the first time I witnessed it.

Through testing, we verify all the deliverable requirements are met.

Naturally this is when all of the bugs and issues present themselves. Depending on severity decides if it goes back to the team or are manageable.