How to explain lacking of testing effort and missing test cases to my manager?

Question

I have been working as a contract manual tester; currently, I have managed to get myself into a problem, can you please give me some pieces of advice? One major client I was contracted to work for has emailed my manager and asked: 1. Where are my test scripts / test cases? 2. How did I spend my time as there was so few test cases recorded on Jira? When I was working for them, there were two project phases; we pretty much stuck on the first phase. But the client manager asked me to work on the second phase, which I did not as without the first phase, I could not proceed to the second phase. I spend most of my time on fixing problems that belonged to the first phase. That is why there are so few test cases for the second phase. Regarding my missing test scripts, I did email them to a girl working next to me. How do I explain this to my manager?

Answer 1

Honesty is always the best policy. Timely, calm, kind communication and documentation are also imperative.

When the client wanted you to go to phase two without first completing phase one, it would have been to your advantage to speak with a manager immediately to apprise him/her of the situation. Documenting the communications between you and the client is also a best practice. (Perhaps you did this.)

As for delivering the tests to the girl sitting next to you, it should be documented in emails.

I know this request was some time ago, but it was left unanswered and I believe it's valuable to many.

Communicate often.

Document thoroughly.