What factors do you consider when putting together a dept training plan?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I'm currently putting together a more formal training syllabus/plan for the testers on our team. Whilst on-the-job coaching has served us pretty well so far (helped by the fact that everyone on the team is a really motivated self-learner, and yes, this does make for an amazing work environment, thanks), I'd like to make sure we don't miss out on opportunities for external training that might bring in new ideas, and I'd also like to be able to use it as a resource that might be helpful to other roles who might still need to develop some degree of testing skill.

I'm not looking for a laundry list of courses, or course recommendations (I already have many more great courses than we could ever afford to send people on), but more of an idea of:

a) How you went about putting together the dept training plan. Consulting my colleagues about what they'd like to see is an no brainer - but any other advice?

b) How you broke down the skills list involved - what areas did you cover? What wasn't on your list, and why? What factors did you consider? What kind of mix of hard and soft skills did you go for, and how was that influenced by the makeup of your team? Did you mainly focus on skills to develop, or knowledge to gain?

c) What really really hasn't worked for you in the past?