9 Best Ideas for Testers to Utilize Their Bench Time Effectively

Does adherence to your daily project routine guarantee success?

Achieving success is a universal ambition, and we’re familiar with the steps it takes. The problem is in actually applying these steps, as we mostly prefer not to step outside our safe space. We find solace in our everyday routine and are reluctant to switch things up.

There exists a common belief in the IT world that to demonstrate your skills, you need to be assigned to a project. This misconception often results in us spending months or even years wrapped up in our day-to-day routine, leaving little room to shine.

The essence of bench time – distinguishing yourself:

In the IT field, bench time, i.e., the interval between two projects, offers an excellent chance to utilize effectively. This time is ordinarily non-billable. Today, let’s investigate how to get the most out of this time.

You should learn to think unconventionally and adjust your outlook. Irrespective of whether you’re assigned to a project, you have the potential to excel. Act as though your organization, team, and processes were your own enterprise, and see yourself as the one accountable for lifting them to another level.

Being an average or good employee involves sticking to your project routine. However, stand out as someone extraordinary by employing your free time as a valuable resource. Make the most of your bench time, using it more effectively than your project time. It’s the key to shining if used wisely.

That’s not to say bench time is crucial for career advancement. Nevertheless, it can certainly contribute to becoming an indispensable asset to the company even when not actively working on a project.

How can you seize this opportunity?

Once you grasp the significance of exploiting your bench time, you’ve found the path to success. After squandering a significant year of my career, I learned this. I used to exclusively concentrate on my projects or follow my manager’s instructions to keep busy during bench time. Active thought about using my time for productive tasks never crossed my mind.

Despite my consistent good performance and punctual project deliveries, average appraisal results began to suppress my patience and interest in work. I started looking into different methods and proactively using my bench time following fresh concepts, and this transformed everything. These ideas not only won praises from executive management, clients, and fellow coworkers but also had a positive impact on my career as well as personal life.

There are countless ways to capitalize on bench time, including tasks advantageous to you, your peers, your clients, and your organization.

Here are 9 Outstanding Insights for Maximizing Your Bench Time:

Here are several ideas that I’ve implemented during my career, all of which proved beneficial.

#1) Focus on documenting processes:

Typically, organizations have established standards and procedures. However, many of them are either not documented or routinely updated. In teams such as QA, there are frequently methods and procedures that are adhered to without proper documentation. If you have spare time, devote it to documenting the practices followed by your team.

Assess the QA processes that are yet to be documented, discuss these subjects with your manager, and dedicate time to documenting them. Be comprehensive, covering all relevant sectors, and store the document in a shared location while keeping a log of all changes. Ensure that everyone has access to this document and can benefit from it.

You can also design a set of example test cases/scripts encompassing all the standards and store them in a shared location for team members to reference when testing similar modules.

Also read => Why Documentation is Important in Software Testing

#2) Maintain or update the project wiki:

A project wiki should contain frequently applied test documents, templates, spreadsheets, and other resources used by your team. Scrutinize these documents and talk with your seniors regarding whether they need modifications based on current scenarios. Update outdated documents or incorporate relevant data based on the latest team standards.

Avoid confusing this point with the previous one. The former is about generating documents from scratch, whereas this one deals with maintaining an existing wiki.

Contributing to the team in this manner can be significant, as the wiki can be an invaluable resource. However, ensure that the information is relevant and useful. You can request approval before updating or conducting a review by a manager or authorized individuals.

#3) Maintain a skill matrix document:

This is a concise task that can be highly advantageous for your team. Craft a skill matrix template or discover one online and modify it to suit your needs. Then, collect skills data from your team members and update the skill matrix.

Share the skill matrix with your team and motivate everyone to keep it up-to-date with their enhanced skills, such as manual testing abilities or mastery in any automation tool. This skill matrix can be incredibly helpful for managers or team leads when assigning resources.

#4) Explore the root cause of ordinary problems:

QA teams typically encounter challenges in their everyday work, such as an excessive number of defects during sanity testing, defects arising during UAT, lack of testing time, shortage of input data, and problems with test environments, among others.

Although most projects encounter these issues, we frequently don’t have the time to address them while we’re planning to test new builds. However, when a team member is on the bench, it forms a convenient opportunity to perform a root cause analysis on these common problems.

Start the process by noting down the issues your team faced in the last month. Discuss them with your team, conduct root cause analysis, and devise solutions to hinder their recurrence in the future. Involve your team lead or manager if necessary.

#5) Produce or update knowledge transfer material:

Knowledge Transfer (KT) material consists of documents and study material that might be used by new joiners or as a source of reference by experienced team members.

Invest time in generating these KT documents or update existing ones if they lack crucial or current information.

Once, my manager asked me to learn about QC, CMS, Putty, JDA, and other tools from the help section of a project. The topics were extensive and the online documentation merely duplicated other resources without extracting the necessary information for our team. I pointed out this issue to my manager and volunteered to produce concise documents based on our project’s needs. I also created short guides with screenshots for the project modules I tested.

This KT material gained popularity, and even seasoned team members began to refer to it before testing new versions of functionalities.

#6) Generate ideas to attract more clients:

Although this task diverts slightly from your usual responsibilities, share your knowledge and ideas. Any input that can assist management in drawing more clients and establishing robust business relationships should be appreciated.

During your leisure time, you can research your project competitors and document or present new technology ideas or business concepts. This could be a significant contribution from your side to your team.

#7) Master automation tools used by your organization:

While many might already be doing this, dedicate time to learn about the existing automation tools used by your team. Or discover new functional testing or load testing tools.

You could also apply for testing certifications and spend time preparing for them. If your organization reimburses certification expenses, you can use your bench time to acquire new skills and complete the certification.

#8) Undertake an automation feasibility analysis:

If your team isn’t using any automation tool, consider this an opportunity to perform an automation feasibility analysis. Set aside time to evaluate the possibility of integrating automated testing and provide feedback on tools and areas where automation can begin. You can also design and present an automation feasibility checklist.

Compile a list of appropriate tools and weigh their merits and demerits against your project’s requirements. If you’re already using a functional testing tool, consider other areas, such as load and performance testing, for your analysis.

#9) Support the organization in CMMI appraisals:

CMMI levels, ISO standards, and certifications require ongoing updates in any organization. Being a part of these CMMI appraisals as an Appraisal Team Member (ATM) is an opportunity for testers to contribute.

During your free time, familiarize yourself with these certifications, help by updating case studies or documents as per certification guidelines, finishing assessments, partaking in audits, assisting others in the process, and attending or conducting meetings to deal with any obstacles faced during the process.

Wrapping Up:

These ideas were always the basis of my strategy during my bench time, not just for better evaluations but to build my reputation and recognition.

Additionally, countless other insights can be tailored to your project and skills range. With the right attitude, bench time can be utilized effectively, forming the basis of your success.

About the author: Nidhi K., a QA Leader with more than 7 years of experience in software testing, is the guest author of this post. She has managed entire project life cycles, from business evolution to final delivery, across multiple projects.

We welcome your thoughts on this. Do you have any further ideas? Share with us how you utilize your bench or spare time!