Quality Assurance Assessments take a variety of forms in an IT project and can range from very informal to very formal in nature. No matter where each assessment lands on the spectrum, they are intended to do only one thing: Improve the Processes that are used. This week we will discuss the various forms of assessments.
Post Project
Post project assessments have had a variety of names throughout the years:
- Post-Implementation Review
- Lessons Learned
- Post Mortem
Regardless of what they are called, they all have one purpose. The people on the project are asked to recall what went right and what went wrong in a project. This could mean trying to remember things that are a few years old, which isn’t always ideal. The person conducting the assessment then provides the information to a recorder. The resulting information is compiled somewhere and (sometimes) used for process improvement. (More on that in our next blog series).
In-Project Assessments
In-Project Assessments can have a variety of formats:
- Walkthroughs
- Reviews (checkpoint and in process)
- Inspections
Sometimes the above are referred to as Reviews and not as Assessments.
Test Process Assessment
The last type of Assessment we want to discuss is the Test Process Assessment. This one is aimed solely at assessing the Test Process used for any particular project. It is often carried out by an independent group although it can be done by a Quality Assurance person or a test manager. The assessment looks for places where the process is not efficient or not effective. It looks for redundancies and repetition. Frequently the assessment starts with the Quality Assurance aspect of the project but finds itself extending back into the Development piece and forward into Implementation. It’s usually difficult to carry out an assessment just of the Quality Assurance piece when there are so many other interlocking pieces that impact Quality Assurance and Quality Control. See nvp.ca/services/assessments/ for further details.
Next Week: Test Cases
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