What is the biggest challenge in end-to-end testing, from test management point of view?

What is the biggest challenge in end-to-end testing, from test management point of view?

I believe it is co-ordination. I spend most of my time of a day in co-ordination and follow-up. There are multiple teams involved in multi-vendor system. Most of the cases, the team given to me is virtual team. Each team/organization has its own hierarchy.  So, my reach is horizontal, but in case of escalations, where I have to escalate on a person or team, I co-ordinate with management hierarchy. So, in this case, it is vertical.

Over the period of time, now I am proficient in verbal/non verbal communication, people management, escalation management, time management. And I mean it.

But, don't you think, with rigorous follow-up, we waste our time? For example, to get response from a tester on certain task assigned to him before a certain time, say 3 PM IST, I email the tester on time. Then I ping him on my expectation. I wait till 3 PM IST. No response? Again I pinged. The response comes as he was busy on a call/discussion. I give him 30 more mins. I talk to him to make sure I get the task done by 3:30 PM IST. This is a typical scenario.

How we can reduce this? Is it good to escalate to the tester's manager on the first place itself when I realize he failed to respond on time? I am afraid, escalations are becoming part of our life. I know few people, they will work perfect only escalations come, till then they take it easy.

Any out-of-box thinking to reduce the effort spent on follow-up?

Please leave your valuable comments.