The Bounty Conundrum: Incentives for Testing

When you think of a bounty, do you think of Dog the Bounty Hunter, a reality series featuring a biker dude with a bad mullet, or maybe Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s latest film about a slave-turned-bounty-hunter? Shaun Bradshaw doesn’t have a mullet and isn’t a movie star, but he has witnessed his fair share of bounty-style incentives used to motivate test teams to find more bugs, in hopes of improving software quality. But bounties can backfire—commonly referred to as the Cobra Effect—and create tension within a development organization without improving software quality. Join Shaun as he discusses alternate merit-based methods that can add a fresh take on incentivized testing and productivity. Learn why you should keep bonuses a surprise. Start to reward collaboration rather than competition. Understand how to use both subjective and objective measurements in your favor, and implement a rewards system that is “safe to fail.” Shaun explains these concepts and more in “The Bounty Conundrum.”