Project Implementation Plan Pip Final: Fill & Download for Free

What are some of the best ways a manager can respond when an employee intends to resign?A bit of background: I’ve been in a professional corporate environment for 28 years and have managed personnel for at least 23 of those years. I’ve hired, fired, and accepted resignations dozens, if not hundreds, of times.The best way to respond to a resignation is to know it is coming through active management of your employees. I have never been surprised, even once, about someone resigning. No matter what, they only fall into these two categories:Those who I’m happy to see go.There have been many that are resigning and I want them to, either because they are on a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) or were on their way to being on one and their time is coming to an end. There are also those who need to spread their wings further and need a more challenging role than what is available in my organization.Either way I’m happy to wish them well and congratulate them on their new opportunity. Even if their new opportunity is full-time job hunting. I will shake their hand heartily and then get down to the business of the final days.For those who are leaving to fulfill their destiny in a bigger and better role, I will offer to write them a letter of recommendation and share the succession plan with them so they can immediately begin transitioning their responsibilities to their replacement. We’ll set the final day of their employment and move on with that business. I will setup specific 1 on 1 time so we can go through a department exit interview where I’ll be asking for a number of pieces of feedback on the department, the role they held, and my performance as their manager. I provide these questions in advance so they can have time to think about it and provide as much or as little feedback as they like.For those who were not working out, but not on a PIP, the process is essentially the same, but a reference will not be offered.For those on a PIP, our next stop is Human Resources where you will receive your final check in about an hour and be on your way. The Human Resources director will collect the badge and other company effects and will perform an exit interview based on a standard set of questions. The transition plan has already been in effect for some time as if I had to go to the point of putting someone on a PIP, I was already expecting this resignation. To be clear, I only put people on a PIP if I have a reasonable expectation that they could recover; if not, I would just terminate them.Those who I’m unhappy to see go.There have been employees that had reached the top of their career path and the organization was unable to provide them with what they needed. Sometimes the employees are ready to move up, but there is no room in the ranks for them to move up at the moment, and they become impatient. These are some of the most damaging and short-sighted moves by an organization. A top-performer with great skills is driven away by the fact that we can’t give them the opportunity they have earned and deserve. The process for these people is the same as the other employees that have outgrown their position, the only difference is we do have the roles, we just won’t make the capacity. I will fight tooth and nail to create a position at the correct level with the right responsibilities, but again, these are things I’ve done in the months before the resignation, not after.The last category is those who believe they are ready to move up before they actually are. They believe they have earned the promotion and raise, but become impatient and take a job in another company where they are getting the title and/or compensation they think they deserve. I’ve had few employees that have fallen into this category, again because of the active management role I always take. They know that I’m not putting them up for promotion and they know what they need to do to earn it, but ultimately some of they are enticed by other offerings and there is little else I can do to dissuade them. Some believe that when they resign that it will be the final push to get them the raise and promotion, but they are wrong. I wish them well and offer them the letter of reference, but the result is always the same. A few have come back looking to rejoin the organization later after they realize that the new role they went to wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I’ve also had a few others that contacted me later to share that they now understood why I was telling them they wern’t ready for the next level and that they wished they had listened.Story Time:One of the most difficult resignations for me was a mid-level Programmer/Analyst (PA), Melanie, that had been made promises by the previous manager of the group. Her and her team had been through an absolutely horrendous PeopleSoft ERP implementation. They had been pushed to the absolute limit with unreasonable demands, long hours, and draconian work environment. The previous manager, Anne, had messed up the project and had been demoted into the team (bad idea) and I was asked to take over the team. To keep her team motivated and delivering, she had made any promise she could, including promising Melanie a promotion as soon as the project implemented.I took over the team and immediately started 1 on 1 conversations with everyone on the team. Anne had never had a 1 on 1 with any of the team and had no succession plan built. I had to go to HR to get copies of their jackets and tried my best to get a handle on everyone’s capabilities, performance, and needs. Melanie was a very accomplished PA and showed a huge amount of potential. During the 2nd or 3rd 1 on 1 with Melanie she sprung the promotion promise on me and just flatly asked me when her title and pay would be updated. I was floored as this is not how promotions are ever handled. It takes Group Vice President approval to promote someone out of the annual review cycle and even then it is generally only an in-title change until the next annual review cycle to adjust compensation. I told her I’d have to review the HR records and talk to Anne as this was the first I had heard of it.I talked to Anne and sure enough, she had made this promise. As far as HR was concerned, there were no records or requests to review Melanie for promotion and her performance record did not reflect anything that would be a basis for a promotion, much less an out of cycle one. Anne had done Melanie no favors with her reviews. Anne was censured and placed on a PIP for violating company policy and procedure. I worked with HR to develop a plan and we developed a performance plan (not to be confused with a PIP) to set the stage for evaluating Melanie at the annual review for promotion which was 6 months away.I sat down with Melanie and HR to explain why what Anne had done violated policy and why the company did not approve out of cycle promotions except in extreme circumstances. My commitment was to work with Melanie to give her the opportunity to perform on tasks that would prove that she was ready for an upper level PA position. She was a PA level III and the promotion would be to level IV. The key difference in these levels were not technical capabilities, but leadership capabilities. The PA IV position was a team lead role so I immediately placed lower level PAs and a Business Analyst under her direction and started coaching her twice a week on the roles and responsibilities.Instead of seeing this as the opportunity to earn the level IV promotion, she took it as an affront that she needed to perform in the role before being given the title and compensation. She failed to lead the team in spectacular fashion and when I would try to coach her on leading the team, she would promise to do the things I asked, but would put little effort into actually accomplishing them.At the annual review, I denied her promotion but left the team in place under her. She was very unhappy and stated that I promised her the promotion. I told her she was promised nothing and was given the opportunity to perform, but was not meeting minimum expectations of a PA IV and if she had gotten the promotion, she would have received either a Partially Meets Expectations or a Does Not Meet Expectations and a PIP for her annual review. As it stood, Melanie only received a Meets Expectations for her role as a PA III. Her retort was that she’d be happy to perform once she got the promotion.Her attitude over the next few months degraded and she completely abandoned leading her team. I started to get complaints from her team and I was preparing to remove them from under Melanie and appoint a new lead. I was not shocked in the least when she resigned. I congratulated her on finding a new position and offered a letter of recommendation. I outlined the succession plan and who I she needed to start transitioning to. She just stared at me across the desk. I asked her if she understood and she blinked and asked what I was going to do about her resignation. I asked what she expected.She said she was expecting was the promotion. I explained again the leadership requirement for the position and the fact that every week we had met since the annual review I had told her that performance had slipped and did not meet expectations. She brought back up Anne’s promise, who by this time I had terminated for not complying with the PIP, and was nearly in tears. I really believe that she couldn’t understand that she was not performing to the level required and that this was all some type of delay tactic or politics. She left at the end of two weeks.Melanie had such potential, but got blinded to the opportunity in front of her due to her perception of the injustice of not getting the promotion she had not earned, but thad been promised by a bad manager. Had she been able to see past that, she would have been an asset to the organization and I believe would have gone far.

Have you ever fired someone for not coming to work on time?’Yup, and she was late to her own termination.Anne was the manager of the Enterprise Resource Planning team who has screwed things up so well that she had been demoted and I parachuted in to take over the team.I’ve written about Anne in a few other areas, but it’s finally time for Anne’s story.James Smith's answer to What are some of the best ways a manager can respond when an employee intends to resign?James Smith's answer to Have you ever had an employee go behind your back and complain to senior management?Anne was hired as a purported PeopleSoft development expert and a very seasoned manager. It turned out that she was neither. Over the course of the implementation project she lead the entire project and the entire team into complete ruin. The project went live about 10 days late, which created a huge number of issues as it was supposed to go live on the first day of the 2nd quarter (yes, April Fools day). This is a problem for financial systems as you really close month-by-month and quarter-by-quarter. The project blew both.The problem is, the system didn’t work. Anne’s leadership style was to flog the minions to get more performance out of them and then keep flogging them until their morale gets better. 10 days after go-live the team mutinied, with a couple heading directly to HR and the others meeting with leadership as a group. The list of things that Anne had been accused of ranged from unprofessional behavior to personal threats to fiscal malfeasance, she was no longer the manager of the team.That’s where I came into the picture. Anne was a peer of mine and we reported to the same Director, Jon. Jon pulled me into his office late on a Wednesday afternoon and said he needed my help. I was to take over management of the ERP team during a meeting at 8am the next morning with 3 objectives:Salvage what I could of the working team - 2 were reassigned by HR due to the issues with Anne and the rest were looking for a way outStabilize the system and catch up on the missed first 10 days of the monthEnsure that the April accounting month would close on time (10th day of the following month, it was already close of business on the 20th)Thursday morning was rough to say the least. The system had gone down overnight and 1/2 of the team had been there for most of the night and considering everything else that had just happened, were not really in the best state of mind. We (Jon and I ) pulled the team into a room to announce that Anne was no longer the manager and I would be taking over. Anne had been invited, but didn’t show. I’d learn later that 8am really wasn’t Anne’s thing even when her job depended on it, which it eventually did.Anne showed up that morning about 9:30 and when she rolled into the area she didn’t appear to have a care in the world or anything on her mind. It was the first thing that Anne and I chatted about since her demotion. I manage by objectives, not by hours in the office, but I have very little tolerance for missing meetings, even if they are at 8am.Anne’s attitude following the demotion wasn’t what I’d call bad, but rather indifferent. As a technical resource she wasn’t great, but she muddled along with her assignments, but tended to work on what she felt like when she felt like it. I think it may have been her strategy to try to get a package or to get me to fire her so she could pursue a wrongful termination suit. I’m an expert at managing out people who are looking for a payday, that wasn’t going to happen.I established a weekly 1 on 1 meeting with Anne to get her back on track and settled into her new role. I was reviewing her assignments and asking why some of the assigned work wasn’t done. She became defiant and flatly told me that she didn’t work for me, so what I wanted from a priority standpoint wasn’t her concern. I must have looked like a dog that hears a strange noise as I cocked my head to one side and was completely at a loss for words by her statement. I stepped Anne through the events only a couple weeks earlier. I asked her if she remembered being removed as the manager? Yes. If she remembered being demoted? Yes. If she remembered being censured by HR? Yes. If she remembered being placed back in the ERP team as a technical resource? Yes. If she remembered who now managed the ERP team (me)? Yes. I finally had to ask her who she thought she reported to. She said she still reported to Jon, the Director.I dialed Jon on speaker phone and when he answered I tell him Anne is with me and asked him if he had ever had a conversation with Anne about her reporting to me on the team. I now imagine that Jon has the same cocked-head dog look as there is a very long silence on the phone. He says that the HR documents she signed related to the demotion outlined very clearly where she would be reporting in the organization, though I wasn’t named explicitly, but if it would clear things up “Anne, you work for James now.”Anne’s attitude now went straight into the sh!tter. Her tardiness increased and her penchant to miss meetings escalated. Her work product was poor and not timely. I put Anne on a formal Performance Improvement Plan. Unfortunately product quality can be subjective and employees can make a case that assignment deadlines are too aggressive, but it’s very hard to debate making it to work on time and showing up to scheduled meetings. I only wrote up the PIP for the attendance issues. Anne signed the PIP and was late to work the very next day. That was enough to walk her out the door, but HR was always afraid of wrongful termination suits, so they wanted me to wait until the 1st formal review with HR at the 30 day mark.On day 30, the PIP review with HR was scheduled for 9am, a time that even Anne normally made it to the office by. I was sitting in the conference room with the HR director waiting for Anne to show up. She finally comes rolling into the room about 9:20 still wearing her coat and with her backpack. She had just arrived.I told Anne that today was her last day with the company. She looks straight at the HR director and says I guess it was the wrong day to be over an hour late to work.Yup, it sure was.

cross browser testing plays a very crucial role in testing the website/web-app since it helps in testing across different combinations.Based on the target market, development & product team need to chart out a plan about the various activities involved in browser compatibility testing.Python language has couple of test frameworks that ease the task of web application testing, unittest & pytest are the most widely used frameworks. unittest is a part of the standard library (in Python) and comes as a part of the Python installation. For test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver, you need to install pytest separately, it is more popular than unittest framework, below are some of the advantages of the Pytest frameworkCan be used by development teams, test teams, teams that are practising Test Driven Development(TDD), as well as in open-source projects.Can be used to simple, as well as complex functional test cases for applications & libraries.Easy to port existing test suites to pytest for performing test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver.Compatibility with other test frameworks like unittest & nose, hence switching to this framework is very easy.Supports Parameterizing, which is instrumental in executing the same tests with ‘different configurations’ using a simple marker. Hence, you can come up with more effective test cases/test suites with ‘less repetitive code implementation’.Number of Asserts that provide more detailed information about the failure scenarios.Support of Fixtures & Classes. Using Fixtures, it becomes easy to make common test objects available throughout a module/session/function/class. Fixtures & Classes would be covered in more detail in subsequent sections.Good & upto date documentation.xdist support through which test cases can be parallelized.Now that you are aware of the advantages of pytest over other test frameworks, let’s have a detailed look at the pytest framework and how it can be used with Selenium WebDriver framework in order to perform automated cross browser testing for web applications.To summarize, Pytest is software test framework which can be used to make simple, yet scalable test cases with ease.Test Automation Using Pytest – Installation and Getting startedAs mentioned earlier, pytest is not a part of the standard Python installation and needs to be installed separately. In order to install pytest, you should execute the following command on the prompt/terminal:pip install –U pytestOnce the installation is complete, you can verify whether the installation is successful, by typing the following command:pytest --versionBelow is the output when the above command is executed on Linux and Windows machinePyCharm is a popular IDE that is used for pytest development. You can install PyCharm Edu version forWindows, Linux, or macOS from here. For development, we are using PyCharm for Windows. Once PyCharm is installed, you should make sure that the default test runner is pytest. In order to change the default test runner, you should navigate to File->Settings->Tools->Python Integrated Tools and change Default test runner for performing test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver.Now that PyCharm Edu version is installed and default test runner is set to pytest, you need to install the Selenium package for Python to perform test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver. In order to install Selenium, you should invoke the command mentioned below in the Terminal of PyCharm.pip install -U selenium ( Syntax – pip install –U )Shown below is the snapshot of the command executionNow that your development environment is all set i.e. PyCharm to execute test automation using pytest with Selenium installed, we look into some of the features & aspects of pytest.Pytest – Usage, exit codes, and compilationpytest and py.test can be used interchangeably. In order to get information about the arguments that can be used with pytest, you can execute the command mentioned below on the terminalpytest --help #Command to get help about the options that can be used with pytest command# Details about fixturespytest --fixtures #Shows the available built-in function argumentsWhen pytest code is executed, it results in one of the following exit codesEXIT CODEDESCRIPTIONTest cases/test suites are executed successfully and end result was PASSTest cases/test suites were executed, but some tests FAILEDTest execution was stopped by the userUnknown error occurred when the tests were executedUsage of pytest command is incorrectNo tests were collectedIt is important that the file containing pytest code should be named as test_*.py or *_test.py. In order to compile & execute pytest source code for performing test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver, you can use the following command on the terminalpytest <test_file_name.py> --verbose --capture=noLet’s have a look at some examples of test automation using pytest. We start with a very simple example – test_pytest_example_1.py (Self-explanatory)#pytest in action – test_pytest_example_1.pydef function_1(var):return var + 1def test_success():assert function_1(4) == 5def test_failure():assert function_1(2) == 5In the above code snippet, we create a function named function_1 which takes one argument named var. There are two test cases – test_success() and test_failure(). The test cases are executed in serial order and assert is issued on an execution of the test cases. Compile the code using the command mentioned belowpytest --verbose --capture=no test_pytest_example_1.pyAs seen in the output, the result of the first test case is PASS (shown in BLUE) and a result of the second test case is FAIL (shown in RED).pytest makes use of assert available in Python for verification of results, it gives out meaningful information which can be used for verification & debugging. pytest.raises is commonly used to raise exceptions, below is an example where Factorial of a number is calculated. In one test case, negative number is passed as an input to the factorial function and AssertionError is raised.factorial_example.py – Contains the implementation that uses recursion in order to calculate factorial of the input number. Before the factorial is calculated, the input parameter check is performed. Assert would be raised in case the input number is negative.def factorial_function(number):# Perform a check whether the input number is positive or not, if it is not# positive, raise an assertassert number >= 0. and type(number) is int, "The input is not recognized"if number == 0:return 1else:# recursive function to calculate factorialreturn number * factorial_function(number – 1)test_factorial_example.py – pytest implementation which use factorial functionality. Three test cases are implemented – test_standard_library (output from factorial_function is compared with output obtained from math.factorial module), test_negative_number (assertion is raised when the input number is negative), and(results of output from factorial_function are compared with specific values)# Import the necessary modules/packages required for implementationimport pytestimport mathfrom factorial_example import factorial_functiondef test_factorial_functionality():print("Inside test_factorial_functionality")assert factorial_function(0) == 1assert factorial_function(4)== 24def test_standard_library():print("Inside test_standard_library")for i in range(5):# verify whether factorial is calculated correctly# by checking against result against standard# library - math.factorial()assert math.factorial(i) == factorial_function(i)def test_negative_number():print("Inside test_negative_number")# This test case would pass if Assertion Error# is raised. In this case, the input number is negative# hence, the test case passeswith pytest.raises(AssertionError):factorial_function(-10)You can execute the code using the command py.test –capture=no test_factorial_example.py either on the command prompt or on the Terminal of PyCharm IDE. As seen in the snapshot, all the test cases have passed and logs under ‘print statement’ are outputted on the consoleTest Automation Using Pytest – Fixtures (Usage and Implementation)Consider an example where you have to execute certain MySQL queries on a database that contains employee information within an organization. The time taken to execute a query would depend on the number of records (i.e. employees) in the database. Before queries are executed, required operations (w.r.t database connectivity) have to be performed and the ‘returned handle’ would be used in a subsequent implementation involving the database. Database operations can be CPU intensive (as the number of records increase) hence, repetitive implementation & execution should be avoided. There are two ways in which this issue can be solvedWith the help of classic xunit style setup along with teardown methods.By using fixtures (recommended)xunit style of fixtures is already supported in unittest but pytest has a much better way of dealing with fixtures. Fixtures are a set of resources that have to set up before the test starts and have to be cleaned up after the execution of tests is complete. It contains a lot of improvements over the classic implementation of setup & teardown functions. The main advantages of using fixtures areA developer can set the lifetime & scope of the fixture. The scope of the implemented fixture could be modules, functions, classes, or the entire project.Fixtures are implemented in a modular manner; hence there is no learning curve involved.Function-scoped fixtures bring the necessary readability & consistency in your test code. This makes the maintainability easy & lesser daunting task.Fixture functions leverage the Object-oriented programming design concept termed ‘Dependency Injection’ where fixture functions take up the role of the injector & the test functions are considered as consumers of the fixture objects.Each fixture has a name (similar to a function name), which in turn can call other fixture functions.Fixtures can be reused and it can be used for simple unit testing to testing complex use cases.Ever since the launch of version 3.5, the fixtures of higher scope are prioritized above the lower scope fixtures in terms of instantiating. Higher scope fixture includes sessions, lower scope fixture would include classes, functions etc. You can even ‘‘parameterize’ these fixture functions in order to execute them multiple times along with the execution of dependent tests. Fixture parameterization has been widely used to write exhaustive test functions. Below is a simple code for test automation using pytest where setup() and teardown() of ‘resource 1’ is called, even when the test_2 is executed. Since this is a simple implementation (with fewer computations), there are not many overheads even when ‘unnecessary setup & module calls are invoked’, but it could hamper the overall code performance in case any ‘CPU intensive’ operations (like database connectivity) are involved#Import all the necessary modulesimport pytestdef resource_1_setup():print('Setup for resource 1 called')def resource_1_teardown():print('Teardown for resource 1 called')def setup_module(module):print('\nSetup of module is called')resource_1_setup()def teardown_module(module):print('\nTeardown of module is called')resource_1_teardown()def test_1_using_resource_1():print('Test 1 that uses Resource 1')def test_2_not_using_resource_1():print('\nTest 2 does not need Resource 1')Execute the test case ‘test_2_not_using_resource_1’ by invoking the following command on the terminalpytest --capture=no --verbose test_fixtures.py::test_2_not_using_resource_1As observed from the output [Filename – Pytest-Fixtures-problem.png], even though ‘test_2’ is executed, the fixture functions for ‘resource 1’ are unnecessarily invoked. This problem can be fixed by using fixtures; we would have a look at the same in the upcoming example.As seen in the example below, we define a fixture function resource_1_setup() (similar to setup in xunit style implementation) and resource_1_teardown() (similar to teardown in xunit style implementation). The fixture function has ‘module scope’ using @pytest.fixture(scope=’module’).#Import all the necessary modulesimport pytest#Implement the fixture that has module [email protected](scope='module')def resource_1_setup(request):print('\nSetup for resource 1 called')def resource_1_teardown():print('\nTeardown for resource 1 called')# An alternative option for executing teardown code is to make use of the addfinalizer method of the request-context# object to register finalization functions.# Source - https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/fixture.htmlrequest.addfinalizer(resource_1_teardown)def test_1_using_resource_1(resource_1_setup):print('Test 1 uses resource 1')def test_2_not_using_resource_1():print('\n Test 2 does not need Resource 1')We execute the code by triggering all the testcases i.e. test_1_using_resource_1() & test_2_not_using_resource_1(). As shown in the output below [Filename – Pytest-Fixtures-all-tests-executed.png], ‘setup for resource 1’ is called only for Test 1 and not for Test 2.Now, we execute only testcase 2 i.e. test_2_not_using_resource_1(). As seen in the output below [Filename – Pytest-Fixtures-only-2-tests-executed.png], setup & teardown functions for ‘Resource 1’ are not called since the only testcase – 2 is executed. This is where fixtures can be highly effective since it eliminates ‘repetitive code’ and ‘execution of unnecessary code’. Official documentation about fixtures in pytest can be found here.Test Automation Using Pytest with Selenium WebDriverWhen you are looking out for a test automation framework, you would probably require a test framework that would suffice all your requirements i.e. unit test, functional test, acceptance tests, etc. The framework should have the ability to log events, generate test reports, and should have good community support. Pytest fulfils all these requirements and test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver is highly recommended as it does not involve a steep learning curve.When you are planning to develop test automation using pytest with Selenium WebDriver, the first concern that you need to look into is when should load the browser. Loading a new browser instance after each test is not recommended since it is not a scalable solution and might increase the overall test execution time. It is recommended to load the browser (under test) before the actual test cases have started & unloaded/closed the browser instance as soon as the tests are complete. This is possible by using Fixtures [discussed below in Automation Testing Using Pytest – Fixtures (Usage and Implementation) section] in pytest. As mentioned earlier, Fixtures make extensive use of a concept termed as ‘Dependency Injection’ where dependencies can be loaded before the actual tests have started.By default fixtures have ‘function’ scope, depending on the requirements; you can change the implemented fixture’s scope to a module, session, or class. Like ‘lifetime of variables in C language’, the scope of fixtures indicates how many times the particular fixture will be created.FIXTURE SCOPEEXPLANATIONFunctionFixture is executed/run once per test sessionSessionOne fixture is created for the entire test sessionClassOnly one fixture is created per class of testsModuleFixture is created once per moduleOnce the tests have been executed, you might be interested to capture the test results in a report format (like HTML). You need to install pytest-html module for the samepip install pytest-htmlBelow is the snapshot of the command in executionSource: Test Automation Using Pytest and Selenium WebDriver