Lead assesses performance wrong. How do I act? [closed]

We develop software and don't have SCRUM. That makes it more challenging to objectively assess performance of individual workers. For example, our QA lead manually counts the number of tasks each tester has tested. It is not a fair way to assess performance considering some tasks take significantly more time to test. I am a developer myself. However, a colleague of mine from the MQA privately got in touch with me and shared her frustration due to a lack of bonus. Her MQA colleague who preferred more "low-hanging fruit" sort of tasks tested more and got a good bonus, while she didn't get as much. And in February, she didn't get any, because she was on vacation for two weeks (she still did test some). All bonus money got her colleague. I suggested writing to their lead, but she declined. Besides, the lead may be annoyed by some random dev dude telling him how to do his job (even though he's objectively wrong on this). So it's off the table. The lead is a male, the two (only) MQA people are women. It may have nothing to do with it, but I'll mention it just in case it may be relevant. So far, I actively look for (easy) bugs, report them to my MQA colleague, solve the bug tasks she creates based on that, and assign their testing to her personally (as opposed to the MQA department in general). It's ok, the lead doesn't mind. It should at least improve her "score". Besides, I win too, I get more solved tasks myself. But maybe I should do more or differently. I have this "how dare you" Greta Thunberg kind of energy, I think I can help. How can I assist my MQA colleague?

Apr 17, 2025 - 13:35

We develop software and don't have SCRUM. That makes it more challenging to objectively assess performance of individual workers.

For example, our QA lead manually counts the number of tasks each tester has tested. It is not a fair way to assess performance considering some tasks take significantly more time to test.

I am a developer myself. However, a colleague of mine from the MQA privately got in touch with me and shared her frustration due to a lack of bonus. Her MQA colleague who preferred more "low-hanging fruit" sort of tasks tested more and got a good bonus, while she didn't get as much. And in February, she didn't get any, because she was on vacation for two weeks (she still did test some). All bonus money got her colleague.

I suggested writing to their lead, but she declined. Besides, the lead may be annoyed by some random dev dude telling him how to do his job (even though he's objectively wrong on this). So it's off the table.

The lead is a male, the two (only) MQA people are women. It may have nothing to do with it, but I'll mention it just in case it may be relevant.

So far, I actively look for (easy) bugs, report them to my MQA colleague, solve the bug tasks she creates based on that, and assign their testing to her personally (as opposed to the MQA department in general). It's ok, the lead doesn't mind. It should at least improve her "score". Besides, I win too, I get more solved tasks myself.

But maybe I should do more or differently. I have this "how dare you" Greta Thunberg kind of energy, I think I can help.

How can I assist my MQA colleague?