WHAT DOES AN AUTOMATION TEST LEAD DO?
The Automation Test Lead oversees the recruitment and training of new team members, ensuring seamless integration into the organization. Additionally, this role sets individual goals and communicates expectations clearly to enhance team performance and meet project deadlines. Furthermore, the Automation Test Lead acts as both a technical authority and a leader, driving the evaluation of project requirements and fostering innovative process improvements within the team.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Automation Test Lead
1. Automation Test Lead Duties
- Testing Validation: Validate all changes made to business applications for accuracy.
- Test Development: Create and prepare test scenarios and test cases.
- Data Preparation: Prepare test data needed to execute test cases.
- Environment Setup: Prepare test environment and provisioning requirements to execute the test cases.
- Test Execution: Execute test cases and analyze results to identify potential defects.
- Risk Management: Assess impact and escalate risks/issues to appropriate teams/resources to ensure timely resolution.
- Backtesting: Perform Backtesting, including interfaces, database, web services.
- Collaboration: Collaborate with the System Integration Test team regarding test scenario development and defect identification.
- Quality Assurance: Ensure fixes to defects found are retested comprehensively.
- Script Maintenance: Contribute to/Maintain the test script library by reviewing existing scripts.
2. Automation Test Lead Details
- Automated Testing Strategy: Analyze, determine, and implement the best approach for automated testing and release.
- Process Improvement: Identify process improvements, and contribute to testing standards and definition of best practice.
- CI/CD Development: Help to design and improve CI/CD Framework.
- Innovation Leadership: Identify and promote the introduction and use of new techniques, methodologies, and tools.
- Quality Enhancement: Contribute towards the continual improvement of the quality and speed of delivery.
- Test Development: Develop new test cases and participate in the preparation of test plans.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitor team and automation project performance and report on metrics.
- Team Leadership: Motivate team members and oversee day-to-day operations.
- Project Leadership: Work on automation projects as a hands-on team lead.
- Automation Strategy: Envision the automation strategy for the product landscape.
3. Automation Test Lead Responsibilities
- Release Management: Coordinate and manage the release testing and sign-offs.
- Stakeholder Relations: Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders.
- Automation Delivery: Ensure that test automation efforts are delivered within the established strategy.
- Maintenance Oversight: Oversee the overall maintenance of programs/applications to verify that the program functions.
- Automation Expertise: Understand best practices in test automation processes and standards.
- Test Architecture: Architect automation tests and frameworks.
- Team Leadership: Lead a team of test automation professionals.
- Solution Design: Design automation solutions for various projects.
- Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot nonstandard environments.
- CI/CD Integration: Integrate test automation within the CI/CD flow.
- International Collaboration: Work with international teams and experts on test automation solutions
4. Test Automation Lead Responsibilities
- Documentation Review: Review project specifications, requirements, and other project-related documentation.
- Test Strategy Development: Create a test automation strategy, approach, and plans.
- Script Development: Create automated test scripts and execute these scripts with full traceability.
- Testing Execution: Execute functional, regression, and acceptance tests.
- Test Support: Assist in test environment setup/teardown, test automation strategies, and exploratory testing.
- Test Management: Oversee the creation and maintenance of test data and test documentation.
- Risk Management: Escalate issues and identify risks to be escalated for test planning.
- QA Standards Development: Assist in formulating QA standards and best practices, organizational policies, and strategic plans.
- Quality Assurance Strategy: Assist management in setting the direction for quality assurance within the organization.
- Management Support: Inform management in support of coordinated team pursuit efforts.
- Technical Authoring: Author technical components for responses as required by BD or Sales.
5. Test Automation Lead Accountabilities
- Recruitment Support: Support the manager with the hiring processes and new team member training.
- Goal Setting: Set individual goals, communicate deadlines and goals to team members.
- Estimation Management: Provide high-level estimates and refine them with team members.
- Team Coordination: Conduct team and individual meetings to update members on best practices and continuing expectations.
- Technical Expertise: Act as a technical expert on the team, assisting team members in problem-solving.
- Technical Leadership: Provide technical leadership and direction to the team.
- Process Improvement: Improve the team's processes through innovative thought leadership.
- Idea Sharing: Share ideas within the team and the organization.
- Requirements Evaluation: Drive the process of evaluating requirements.
- Project Estimation: Gather project estimates within the team.