A Day in My Life as a QA Manager
A question I am asked when talking to engineers who want to move into QA Management is, ‘What do you spend your day doing?’. It is something I wondered about before I moved into QA Management myself. Some people have the impression that we talk to people in 1:1’s all day and that’s about it. This is far from the true picture.
My intention with this article is to show what I do as a QA Manager on a typical day. Additionally, it may make things clearer if a move into QA Management is something you are looking to do.
One of the reasons I enjoy my job is that each day is different. Yes, there are tasks I will be doing every day, but no two days are the same. It can range from working with line reports or delivery teams or working on one of several projects. There is a lot to keep you busy!
I wanted to give you a peek behind the scenes of the QA Management role, so I’ve written ‘A Day in my Life as a QA Manager’. It’s worth pointing out here that this is a fictional day that consists of the typical tasks I would do in a day.
Welcome to a day in the life of a QA Manager…
6 am
I wake up around 6 and go for a 2-mile walk before anyone else gets up. This gets me some exercise and an opportunity to listen to music. The choice today was The Man Who by Travis.
7 am
My day starts to get a lot busier as my 5-year-old wakes up at this time. This is a busy time as my wife and I need to prepare for our days while ensuring our son is getting himself ready. He is good at this, though. Then it’s downstairs to get our one meal of the day when we can all eat together. Then around 7:45, my wife will leave for work and drop our son at nursery. This gives me time to tidy up the kitchen before starting work for the day.
8 am
I get logged into my laptop for 8, and today I have no meetings until 9:30, so I have time to get on with some work. The first thing I do is to check for any messages I have received since logging off the night before. I also keep an eye out for any direct reports who may have sickness or something to make me aware of at the start of the day. I also fill in my timesheet for the day before and check what is coming up for the day. I keep a to-do list on Todoist, which integrates with my work calendar to plan tasks in the time between meetings. This keeps me productive and stops me from having to pick a task when I have the time.
9:30 am
This is when the other QA Managers and I meet for the day. We cover what our days are looking like and see if there is any help we can provide for each other at the same time. This is also a good time to discuss some larger work we are working on as a group.
10 am
Next up is a 1:1 with a line report. Before I go on, though, it’s worth saying that we have both line and delivery reports in our business. Wherever possible, we will not have a crossover between the two. In a line report 1:1, we cover general well-being and look for signs of poor mental health. We also discuss their performance and any feedback the report has received recently. We then chat about their own growth goals and what help they may need with these.
Once the 1:1 finishes, I will take some notes and take note of any actions assigned to me. One thing I may do after the call would be to speak to the person’s project team. Another may be to look for some training materials that my line report has asked about.
11 am
My next meeting is a delivery 1:1. These differ from line reports 1:1’s as these meetings focus on the project the person works on instead. The agenda for this would be what has gone well recently and what pain points there have been on the project. Again after these meetings, I would take some notes and write down any tasks I need to action.
12 pm
The quickest part of the day! Lunchtime is next up, I have something easy to make, like a chicken sandwich. I also check a couple of things in the house, such as needing to put laundry on or emptying the dishwasher.
1 pm
After lunch, I have a call with our QA Learning group. We are currently discussing what pages we can add to our internal confluence space. We then move on to what else we can do as a group. Some great ideas come from here, it’s a strong group.
2 pm
I have some time with no meetings now and can concentrate on a task. I am preparing for a presentation I will be doing about the ISTQB Test Manager certification. This is the start of my prep today, so I am taking notes of what points I want to make. I am also reviewing the learning outcomes to bring them back into my mind.
3 pm
My next meeting is a monthly catchup with an Engineering Manager from one of the projects I am assigned to. We discuss how QA has gone in the last month and how the specific QA engineers have been getting on. We also touch on upcoming QA maturity initiatives we will be introducing, so they know what is to come.
3:30 pm
A bit of a break from my desk for me now as I need to go and pick my son up from nursery. We chat in the car on the way home about his day. He has been learning about recycling today and is pretty good at recalling what he has learnt. Once we get home, we have a 5-minute game of football in the garden before heading into the house. He heads to his bedroom to play, and I return to my laptop.
4 pm
We have a QA Leadership call today. This is between the QA Managers and the Head of QA where we discuss any updates we need to be aware of. We then move on to general discussion points which can cover a range of topics. These are great for ensuring we are all aware of what is going on and what we want to focus on in the next little while.
5 pm
I shut down my laptop at the end of my day. I like tidying my desk at the end of the day as a replacement for tidying up my desk in an actual office. I don’t get to relax immediately, though, as my son will need his dinner soon. Tonight is pizza for him, so I get the oven on and then head off and play dinosaurs with him while his dinner is cooking. Once he has finished, we do some puzzles for a while, and when he gets a bit more tired, we put on some Octonouts on Netflix.
6:30 pm
My wife gets home around this time, and we will eat while my son has his supper. Tonight is chicken and rice for us, so pretty easy to make, perfect for midweek. We will then spend some time as a family and read a bedtime book to our son, we have an animal book tonight.
8 pm
My son goes to bed at about 8. After that, it is time to relax for a couple of hours. Tonight I spend some time on Duolingo learning French before a family holiday. I also play my PS5 as a bit of escapism from daily life.
10 pm
We start getting ready for bed around this time. I enjoy having a mug of nighttime tea to relax a bit and try to read a book for a short while before heading off to sleep.
As mentioned, this is a fictional day. Other things I do could be preparing for presentations or working on my development. I am also trying to be more active in QA communities, whether on Twitter or the Ministry of Testing Club.
