NVP Software Solutions

Month: July 2015

  • Starting Quality Assurance – Part 3

    Starting Quality Assurance can be difficult when there are existing projects already on the go, new projects starting up and operations running at full speed. There never seems to be a good  time to say “We are going to launch into Quality Assurance activities and start improving our processes”.  There will always be a more important operation or project related activity that needs to be solved that takes precedence.

    So, the third question we want to answer is How. Last week we discussed When we would want to start Quality Assurance and the next step is to decide How.

    The quick answer is with a minimal effort and hopefully a positive Return on Our Investment. We already discussed a somewhat similar question in our blog on Quality Assurance for Startups. The argument is similar; we need something we can do alongside everything else and yet improves our ongoing processes. The only real difference is that a Startup usually lacks any processes at all while an existing organization may have lots of processes; some of which may conflict with the new processes we want to introduce. As a matter of fact that will be the biggest impediment to this process.

    So the process differs a little:

    1. Identify the process that we want to implement.
    2. Identify the small steps needed to implement the change.
    3. Identify the impacted processes already in existence. This is the important difference.
    4. Plan around the existing processes or identify the small (again!) steps that are needed to change that process.
    5. Implement the dependent steps.
    6. Implement the new process steps.
    7. Measure the result.

    Obviously the key concern is that we may end up with too many dependent steps that stop the new process from moving forward. We could end up changing all the other processes and never get to our desired end result. That is why it is critical to have clear measurable goals in view for all the processes that are being changed.

    Next Week: Examples

  • Starting Quality Assurance – Part 2

    Starting Quality Assurance can be difficult when there are existing projects already in progress, new projects starting up and operations running at full speed. There never seems to be a good  time to say “We are going to launch into Quality Assurance activities and start improving our processes”.  There will always be a more important operation or project related activity that needs to be solved that takes precedence.

    So, the second question we want to answer is When. Last week we discussed Why we would want to start Quality Assurance and the next step is to decide When.

    The obvious answer is now but that is almost never possible. The next best answer is to set a date and an objective for another date further down for achievement of the goal. Since this is often an extra task, beyond all the tasks that are already occurring to support the normal operations of the organization; it is also critical that it be reasonably small and limited.

    The easiest and most common process that organizations start is the recording of defects in a central location using standard Severity and Priority settings.

    The subtasks are the following:

    1. Select a repository to record the defects. This could be an open source free repository downloaded from somewhere; a purchased repository or (as the last choice!) a spreadsheet.
    2. Set a goal for a project or a date for defects to have been recorded.
    3. Determine some appropriate Severities that area applicable to your business. If you can’t think of any; either look online or contact us and we will provide some standard settings.
    4. Determine some appropriate Priorities that area applicable to your business. If you can’t think of any; either look online or contact us and we will provide some standard settings.
    5. Pick a (small) project and start recording. Even if the project is part way through, starting at the midpoint is better than not starting at all.
    6. Evaluate your progress towards your goal at the set date.

    Next Week: How

  • Starting Quality Assurance

    Starting Quality Assurance can be difficult when there are existing projects already in progress, new projects starting up and operations running at full speed.  There does not seem to be a good point in time to say “We are going to launch into Quality Assurance activities and start improving our processes”.  There will always be a more important operations or project related activity that needs to be solved today that will take precedence.

    So the first question we want to answer is Why. If we cannot answer the question Why for our particular situation then it is unlikely that any initiative will succeed. Since the answer to this question has to go to the highest levels of the organisation (given the perceived cost of quality), the answer must be put in business terms.

    So, given that premise, here are some possible answers to the question Why

    1. To reduce the amount of rework in any particular process and Save Money
    2. To get a product or service to market faster and Save Money
    3. To reduce the number of defects or process problems at all stages of the development and Save Money

    In general the arguments, as is obvious from the above, are made out in terms of saving money for the organization. The above are the obvious ones that are common to almost all organizations and can be adapted to any situation.

    For your particular situation, you need to look at the processes you use or the products you produce or the way you work and ask if you can apply the above to any aspect. If you cannot apply them directly then you need to look in detail at your processes and see if anything else applies with the caveat that it must have the end result of saving money.

    Next Week: When

  • Quality Assurance for Startups – Part 4

    The last three posts have concentrated on Quality Assurance for Startups. Next week we will move into Starting Quality Assurance (for an already existing organization). However, we will finish off this week with some small examples of Quality Assurance Processes that a Startup can adopt for little or no cost.

    The first and easiest one is a Incident Tracking Process; definitions, and standards. You can easily  download a free Incident Tracker online or simply use an Excel Spreadsheet. The part that tends to get ignored is the process and standards. Generating a incident tracking flow chart can be done on paper and takes little time to create and post. Standards for the Priority and Severity for incidents can be downloaded from the Internet or generated. The resistance is usually because it is viewed as unnecessary at this stage. However, if it is created and posted at this stage, it becomes part of the culture.

    The second one is the code control and promotion process. Similar to the above, it is generally not viewed as worthwhile at the Startup stage since everyone knows where the code is and how it is to be treated. It is also likely that not all steps or stages are needed at this time. However, another flow chart showing the steps and the expectations at this stage can save a lot of concerns later. The diagram will need to be augmented as the company grows and becomes more complex but the initial diagram is quick to create and solves a lot of problems.

    The third one is testing processes. Again, it may look like too much effort for too little return at this stage but the creation of a testing process, standards, and definitions can be very effective in ensuring that everyone is working in the same way and can avoid a lot of repetition and redundancy.

    None of the above are intended to take more than a few minutes to create and set up. The payback is quite high and long term benefits are huge.

  • Quality Assurance for Startups – Part 3

    Last week we discussed When to implement Quality Assurance for Startups. This week we want to dive a little more into How without impacting everything else a Startup needs to do to make sales happen.

    Often Startups make the assumption that Quality Assurance is unnecessary or unnecessary at this stage of the product or service life-cycle. This means that they might never get to it, and that’s not a dangerous practice to follow. There is also the obstacle of How to implement QA into processes without having it negatively impact the other areas of the business.

    There are several questions we like to start with for implementing QA:

    1. What is currently a problem? If you cannot identify anything that is a problem then it is unlikely that an initiative will go anywhere.
    2. Is there a solution to the problem? If you cannot identity a solution to the problem reasonably quickly then you are in danger of expending more effort than the return.
    3. Can the solution be implemented with current resources and in a series of steps that are able to be done by those resources? If the solution requires extra resources then again the effort will likely exceed the return.

    If the answers to all the above questions are positive then we are well on our way to identifying How to implement the required process improvements.

    Look at the what has been identified as problems that fit the above criteria.

    1. Pick the most tractable one.
    2. Post it somewhere where you and everyone else can see it.
    3. Invite solutions for the problem.
    4. Hold a brainstorming session to pick the best solution.
    5. Create the list of steps that need to be done to implement the best solution.
    6. Determine what constitutes overall success and success for each step.
    7. Implement the measurement or metric that will measure whether that result has been realised.
    8. Measure the current status.
    9. Implement the steps.
    10. Measure the results.

    None of this will be immediate but it will improve over time.

    Next week: Examples.