How to keep Motivation Alive in Software Testers?

Our previous tutorial on “How to keep Good Testers in Testing Position” has a pointer which mentions to appreciate the testers for their good work.

“Reward Testers for finding good quality Bugs. Conduct weekly or monthly competitions like ‘Bug of the week’ to reward them.  This will help to build a successful QA team”.

The same concept is used by Eric Jacobson, a Software Tester, to keep the motivation alive in his testing team. Eric found an interesting idea to reward good testers. The idea of holding a Bug contest. He decided to award the ‘Mercury’ cap to the tester who could log the most bugs in a given week. See the Winner of this Contest.

A small tweak that we would rather suggest to make this technique more effective is to award the testers who will find the Quality Bug, may be called “Bug of the week”. This way quality bugs will be the main focus of software testers rather than running behind the quantity. Obviously, you should not ignore those small UI bugs as well.

I am really a fan of awarding testers for their good work. It may be any kind of appreciation. Maybe a small gift or just a few kind words of appreciation from the lead or manager. This will keep the spirit alive in testers to find new and quality bugs.

If you are a Team Leader, Manager or even a team member, what do you think is the best way to keep the motivation alive in Software Testers?