NVP Software Solutions

Month: October 2015

  • Software Testing Centre of Excellence – Part 3

    As we mentioned in our first blog, a Software Testing Centre of Excellence can mean different things to different organizations. Over the past year, NVP Software Solutions has talked to a number of Testing Centres of Excellence only to have found that one year later these Centres are now irrelevant or cease to exist. Because the Software Testing Centre of Excellence can mean so many different things, we have been defining the various types we have come across. Last week we talked about the Research Group in Software Testing Centre of Excellence – Part 2. This week we want to focus on:

    A group that supplies support to testing endeavours. This type of group does not do testing; they supply expertise or a repository of information that supports other groups in their testing efforts. Sometimes they also have templates and guidelines that support the required documentation.

    The endeavours of this group can range drastically depending on the mandate. Sometimes the manager of this group will seek to expand what the group does until they are taking a very active role in many projects. Other managers will simply hold back to a minimum and fulfil a limited mandate. Some possibilities for this group include the following:

    1. Create a repository of templates for use in all testing projects in the organization. This can be very well organized on a wiki or internal site. This process allows the user to identify what they need, download templates, fill them out and use the results. There is a level of effort required to set up and maintain this, but pays back for each project. After the initial set-up the group focuses on explaining and educating their stakeholders while providing updates for the project(s).
    2. Seconding personnel is assigned to the project and supports the testing effort. This person would know what templates were available and would be able to consult on best practices for each project. The TCoE would supply expertise as required on a project-by-project basis.

    This group is a little more focused on delivery (which some people consider critical for a Centre of Excellence) but not directly. Discussion of that point will come in our next blog.

  • Software Testing Centre of Excellence – Part 2

    As we mentioned in our last blog, a Software Testing Centre of Excellence can mean different things to different organizations. Over the past year, NVP Software Solutions has talked to a lot of Testing Centres of Excellence only to have found that one year later these Centres are now irrelevant. Because the Software Testing Centre of Excellence can mean so many different things, we wanted to define the various types we have come across. The first one we want to focus on is:

    A research group that looks for best practices inside and outside the organization.

    This seems like the most impractical possibility although it can be a lot of fun for the involved personnel. Basically the group would look at any or all of the following with a view to incorporating them into the organisation.

    1. Appropriate Software Testing tools – obviously this can break into many categories of tools. However, having a group with no ties to any particular project can overcome one of the major problems associated with the acquisition of Software Testing tools – namely that many are selected for a particular project and have limited applicability to any other project. Having an independent group doing the selection overcomes that bias.
    2. Appropriate phases and depth of testing – an independent group can research best practices for testing the type and criticality of the software in the particular organisation and determine what the best people in the industry are doing. This can then be used as a standard to which the projects can aspire.
    3. Best processes – this one is clearly extensive. Somewhat along the lines of the point directly above but possibly spanning more than one phase and laying out the depth, this can create a self-perpetuating Quality Assurance Improvement process. Having an independent group helps provide more general processes that are applicable throughout the organisation.

    This group is clearly not focused on delivery (which some people consider critical for a Centre of Excellence). Discussion of that point will come in a future blog.

  • Software Testing Centre of Excellence

    A Software Testing Centre of Excellence seems to mean different things to different people and organizations. Over the past year, NVP Software Solutions has talked to a lot of Testing Centres of Excellence to have found that one year later these Centres have complete disappeared or have   shrunk so far down that they are now irrelevant. Because the Software Testing Centre of Excellence can mean so many different things, we wanted to define the various types we have come across. These different types of Testing Centres don’t even appear to have defined names, so here are the descriptions we’ve come up with:

    1. A research group that looks for best practices inside and outside the organization in order to become widely accepted within the organization and important to be used.
    2. A group that supplies support to testing endeavours. This type of group does not do testing; they supply expertise or a repository of information that supports other groups in their testing efforts. Sometimes they also have templates and guidelines that support the required documentation.
    3. A team that supports one or more test tools in the organization. This group may hold the administration rights to the tool; be responsible for the initial configuration; set up projects within the tool (if applicable) and generally provide support.
    4. A group that supplies resources to projects as required. This group has a pool of testers who are seconded to projects on an as needed basis and then return to the Testing Centre of Excellence when the project winds down.
    5. A team that actually delivers testing. This is like a centralized testing department through which all projects have to go in order to be certified ready for production.

    The gradations here are fairly obvious, we are moving from a purely theoretical group to a highly practical group. Many of them still do not last for an extended period of time and some are managed by people with no background (and sometimes no interest) in testing.

    Next Week: Further discussions of TCoEs.

  • Communication in Testing and QA – Message, Audience, Transmission Method

    With all of the ‘communicating’ we do in today’s world, Communication in Testing and QA may seem like a redundant addition. The methods of communication available are endless, to the point, where the pendulum might start to swing the other way, towards a world that reduces the amount of communication we have in our lives. However, when it comes to software testing, quality assurance and quality control strong COMMUNICATION is the number one skill looked for in for software testers.

    We have already discussed WHY, HOW and WHAT to communicate in other blogs within this series and the final components to tackle are Message, Audience and Transmission. When sharing information and data, it is essential that you consider your specific message, who the intended audience is and the way in which you wish to transmit that information based on the previous criteria. Those who carefully consider and plan these components of communication get their views and insights heard and acted upon much more constructively than their counterparts who do not consider these three things.

    Start by thinking about the message you are trying to send? Is it advice, a warning, a compliment or technical information that increases the efficiency and success of your department? Whatever the message, clarify it and exactly what you are intending to convey. If you can do this in a few short sentences, you’re off to a good start. Your message should be short, concise and to the point. If there’s no point, there’s no point in wasting your time or the time of your audience.

    Speaking of audience, who exactly is your audience? You need to figure that out, because your audience may be the most critical piece to consider. Who are you trying to reach and under what conditions? There are many recipients for every message and specific knowledge of who those recipients and how they react is a determining factor in how successful your message will actually be.  People speak differently to their boss then they do to a peer, subordinate or close work-friend. You speak differently to your neighbour than you would to your spouse, children or relatives. Fully understanding your audience allows to you craft the content of your message in a way in which you think they would best receive the information being shared.

    When you have identified the message you are trying to send and the audience in which you are sending to, you can determine exactly how your piece of communication should be transmitted. How is it best to attract the attention of the intended Audience and get the Message we want across. We covered a number of these in an earlier blog.

    We also need to keep Marshall McLuhan in mind when considering this. ‘The medium is the message.‘

    Next Blog Series: Testing Centre of Excellence