Does your team need couple therapy?

When entering a new project or team, it is like entering a new relationship. We all need to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses to find common ground, which is essential in all relationships. Therefore, we should invest our time, effort, and commitment in our professional relationships just as we do in our personal ones.

Issues can arise whenever there is disagreement within the team. One common source of disagreement is our curiosity, which leads to questions that might be perceived as criticism of the work of developers, product owners, and others. This is where the obstacles and miscommunication begin to affect the entire team. The team may perceive us as wanting to be right, but our actual goal is to ensure and improve quality. This mismatch can lead to many misunderstandings among team members, and we are often caught in the middle.

When we find ourselves in such situations, trying to navigate these struggles and obstacles within the team, is here your skills in relationship with other people become valuable. Similar to the challenges in personal relationships, we have numerous questions about functionality, and we often also have input for potential solutions ready.

How can testers help overcome these obstacles and struggles that we encounter in professional relationships today? Is it even possible to avoid being caught in the middle?

In the agile world we believe that together we can accomplish more and together we can conquer. This is also the mindset we want to address – The Whole Team Approach. Test often end up being stuck in the middle – the famous middleman / or mediator but we believe in chipping in, where everybody takes responsibility and ensure quality in the team. Should we or the whole team be therapists? Being part of a team is like being part of a relationship that requires the understanding, full attention, and trust from all parties to succeed and sometimes relationships need therapy.

So, does your team need "couples therapy"?