Stabilising a pentest team and developing its next leaders

The CEO brought me in to address staff turnover, inconsistent quality and mounting pressure within the testing team. Resignations were occurring roughly every month. Previous attempts to strengthen the function through senior recruitment had not produced lasting stability.

The team had good technical capability, but testers often felt unsupported when facing unfamiliar work. Communication was fragmented, collaboration was limited, and scheduling became difficult because people were reluctant to accept engagements they did not feel equipped to deliver.

Establishing what needed to change

I joined the team’s daily routine and introduced a brief stand-up to surface problems and make support accessible. Working alongside the testers helped me understand the gap between their technical ability and the conditions in which they were expected to deliver.

Weaknesses in scoping, prerequisites and sales handovers repeatedly became urgent delivery problems. Work continued to be booked without sufficiently resolving what the client expected, what the tester needed, or whether the allocation was realistic.

My assessment was that further recruitment would struggle to succeed unless those working conditions changed.

Taking responsibility for delivery

I took responsibility for heading the testing function and became the main leadership contact for scheduling, scoping and quality issues. This gave the team a dependable route for decisions while we established a clearer structure.

The work included:

• A career and progression framework that recognised development into new types of testing.
• Coaching on requirements gathering and scoping, so clients understood the coverage and testers had a clear, realistic assignment.
• A documented QA standard describing what good reporting looked like.
• A consultant field guide covering expectations in client situations.
• Closer working between sales and testers, including technical support for presales and scoping.

The challenge was to meet commercial commitments while creating conditions in which the team could deliver consistently.

Support came with clear expectations for professional behaviour, including punctuality and responsiveness to clients. Where problems persisted after those expectations had been established, I advised management on appropriate action. In a small number of cases, this included recommending changes to the team.

What changed

Visible improvements emerged after approximately three months. Voluntary resignations fell from roughly one per month before the intervention to two during a subsequent twelve-month period.

Collaboration improved within the testing team and across the business. Testers became more willing to volunteer support, and a wider group could contribute to presales, scoping and a broader range of technical engagements.

Recruitment shifted towards supporting growth rather than continually replacing departing staff.

Developing leadership within the team

After about a year, senior team members began taking a greater interest in leadership responsibilities. My involvement reduced from four days a week to two, with the emphasis shifting towards helping those leaders carry the team forward.

The business still has improvements to make and new commercial objectives to pursue. It now has a more stable team, clearer expectations and growing internal leadership capacity to support that work.