Moneyball is an analytical, metrics-based approach to assembling a competitive baseball team. It is based on breaking down accepted preconceptions and finding new ways to look at individual skills and how they mesh as a team. Sometimes the characteristics that we believe the team needs aren’t that important in improving quality. In fact, some accepted practices may have less impact on quality than we might have predicted. Peter Varhol examines how to use data about applications and quality to tell the right story about our state of quality and our success in shipping high quality applications. Looking at some of our preconceptions about testing and individual skills, Peter identifies characteristics for building and running a high-performance testing team.

Want to be a great test manager for your team? A leader your company values highly? Too many test managers do what their organization asks-rather than what their organization needs-and hope for good things to happen. Great test managers are leaders who don’t accept the status quo. They continuously seek ways to improve testing processes and practices. Instead of whining about needing more resources, they set priorities and get things done. They know who or what they need, why and when they need it, and persevere to obtain that person, lab, or tool. They say, “No” when that’s the right answer. So, are these people mythical creatures, or do they really exist? They exist, all right! Johanna Rothman shares stories from her test manager past and tales from the great test managers she knows.

Don’t let anyone tell you differently: agile testing is hard! First, we have to get over the misconception that you don’t need testers within agile teams. Then, we have to integrate testers with the developers and engender a holistic quality approach. And those are only the challenges when the going is easy! In more difficult contexts, testing in agile environments is-well, even more difficult. Bob Galen explores how to handle testing in difficult contexts-lack of test automation capabilities, agile in highly regulated environments, testing when your team is spread globally and real-time interactions are nearly impossible, and more. He describes contexts and approaches for blending existing, traditional testing techniques with their agile counterparts. With real-world examples, Bob describes how teams have achieved a good working balance between the two-for example, in test planning and quality metrics reporting.

Would you like to chart a better course for your test team but don’t know where to begin? Before you can plan for a better future and take your team to the next level, you first must know where you are. George Viegas has developed a quick and easy checklist you can use to evaluate the testing function in your organization. The checklist identifies more than thirty items in major areas such as test automation, team maturity, and process. For example, the team maturity area identifies whether a team is in regression test mode only or actually has the capacity to perform performance and load testing. This checklist is a powerful tool not only to analyze your team but also to establish forward looking goals and the plans for achieving them. Take back tools to help you move beyond just managing test-start managing the plan for your team’s future.