Starting Quality Assurance – Part 2

Last week we mentioned looking for places where items are going wrong once we had our initial picture.  This is still in the beginning stages and is not meant to prove anything.  We have not started to gather any statistics since we really do not know what might be worth measuring.  So our step is simply to divide up the diagram into discrete pieces and ask people to vote for the 1st 2nd, 3rd choices for the pieces of the process causing the most trouble.  We will assign 5 points to the a first place vote, 3 to a second and 1 to a third.  Total up the points and determine where the worst offending problems exist.  You probably already know the answers but it does not hurt to get confirmation from other people.  It also makes it easier to make changes if everyone is voting for, and agreeing where the worst problems exist.

Next week; Process Analysis and Statistics.

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Starting Quality Assurance

We recently were asked for 5 top ideas to launch Quality Assurance in an organization.  They were looking for a practical process without too much theory.

As a suggestion, we recommended that you start by sketching your process in a diagram.  This is quite literally a hand drawn sketch with only the main processes shown and no details.

If you have a product, put down the major steps it goes through.  If you are doing Software Development, sketch the major project steps.  This is only intended as a guide to what occurs.

Once we have this documented, it will be much easier to determine the next step (which is where things are going wrong).

Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.
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Photos by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash and Andrew Measham on Unsplash

What happens after a organization “Buys Quality”?

We attended a seminar on Digital Strategy last Thursday and the amount of overlap was quite surprising.  They encounter the same questions and concerns that we do.  The same roadblocks appear and the same issues arise.

Some of the questions include:

1. What is the benefit?
2. How soon will we see tangible benefits?
3. How long will this continue?
4. When will it be done?

Concerns:

1. Impact on other groups.
2. Cost.
3. Length of time to effect the change.

Roadblocks:

1. Lack of Management Support.
2. No buy-in from other departments.

Issues:

1. This is not what we expected.
2. We need something NOW.
3. Change in direction.

The above are just a few of the items that come up.

If any of these come up in your organization, give us a call.

Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.
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Photo by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash

How many times have you heard that statement as you start a meeting

One of your critical technical people (in this case; the technical person) is unavailable because they are busy fire-fighting in another project.  The disruption caused by fire-fighting is huge and it has on-going effects.  Meetings are delayed and the project is delayed as a result.  People have to reschedule their time and days. Any preparation time may be wasted.  A period of of 30 or 60 minutes unexpectedly becomes free with no plan for using it. This is especially true if the notification comes through at the last minute. The nature of fire-fighting an issue is that it cannot usually be estimated. It may be solved in 10 minutes or it may take days. The solution is quite frequently obvious once it is found but getting there is painful. So it is hard to estimate whether someone will be available. The issue could be resolved right ahead of the meeting or not (which was the case here).

Quality Assurance tries to avoid fire-fighting by planning for the possibility and making sure people are available.

In the above situation, the meeting has been rescheduled for today – we’ll see if it comes off.

Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.
NVP Quality Assurance Services
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Photo by Leonie Zettl on Unsplash