NVP Software Solutions

Category: Organisations

  • Review of the Year – Automation

    Review of the Year – Automation
    Automation of software testing is something that seems to be on the minds of many Quality Assurance Managers and Test Leads. It has been a popular topic for many years.

    Currently we get requests for particular tools and knowledge of their attributes in particular environments; these are usually serviceable. Current status seems to be a separate tool for every need and environment and sometimes every organisation. Based on past experience, in a few years, someone will consolidate all the disparate technologies under one umbrella tool. Then the cycle will start again with people inventing new tools for specific niches and products.

    We also receive requests for people to “automate our testing” with no decision on the tool attached. This is a completely different question and requires some discussion to occur before the attempt to automate even starts. We need to know the what; when and Why the company wants to automate their testing. The thing we want to avoid are the actions below.

    1. Purchase Automated Test Tool.
    2. Install Tool.
    3. Wait for successful automation to save all the cost of the tool and cost of manual testing.
    4. Become disillusioned.
    5. Go to 1; Repeat ad infinitum.

    This has occurred over and over in different organisations. A lot of money gets used up with no progress and eventually the organisation gives up on the cycle and continues manual testing (see last week’s blog).

    Our best recommendations are as follows:

    Look up where you are on the technology maturity level with your current technology.

    Decide what you need (criteria are available) in terms of automation and what you are capable of handling based on maturity level.

    Then do a Plan to implement your automation. Never assume it will just occur. It won’t.

    Want to discuss how to automate effectively? Contact us.

  • Review of the Year – Manual Testing

    Review of the Year – Manual Testing

    Manual Testing is something that seems to be on the minds of many Quality Assurance Managers and Test Leads. Usually they want out of the Manual Testing and view Automated Testing (Blog planned for next week) as the saviour of their budget and time constraints.

    However, judging by the vacant positions we get requests to fill, there is still no shortage of Manual Testing positions at least in our area. There are still a lot of requests for Manual Testers with business knowledge preferred and new software and startups still start with manual testing. We get requests for Automated Testing with specific tools usually requested and will discuss this next week.

    The part that seems to be missing from many of the requests and the subsequent position is any discussion of the How; What; Why; When; and If; of the manual testing.

    There seems to be limited thought given to How the testing is to be done apart from some vague request to build testcases and execute them.

    Little consideration is given to What to test and Why beyond the statement: “We need to test the software”.

    When and If are not such an issue: Yesterday and definitely are the one word answers to those questions.

    These answers certainly provide freedom for the tester to do what they want but that may not always align with all the stakeholder’s wishes and may be 180 degrees off in some cases.

    This leads to a poor ROI and a large waste of time and money.

    There will continue to be a market for manual testers for new changes and new applications that are not yet mainstream. We expect automation to take over many of the repetitive tasks (as has always been the case) The only open question at this stage might be what AI will do to the industry. That we cannot predict.

    Want to discuss the effectiveness of your Manual Testing further? Contact us.

  • A Better Way – Case Study 2 – Thinking Like the Client

    A Better Way – Case Study 2 – Thinking Like the Client

    In our last several blogs we have discussed ‘A Better Way to Test”.

    The issue is to apply this to actual situations. We have 5 Case Studies we plan to use over the next several weeks to address this. The second case study might be called “Thinking Like the Client”.

    Even though many in IT have embraced Agile in some form or another and with some level of success, not all clients are so willing. We find this particularly the case with larger, older and more safety or image conscious clients. They are not willing to take the risk of everything not coming together at the correct time. They are not willing to live with constant change. In addition, they often have milestones that need to be fulfilled and quite frequently they have stated contract deliverables that need to be fulfilled so that payments can be made.

    We received a call from the President of a development company with a large contract with probably the oldest, largest and most image conscious client you could get – the federal government. Even though the company had delivered projects successfully before and had a good record of coming through with what was required, the client still wanted a formal Test Plan completed.

    In our experience, the client is normally okay with a High Level Master Test Plan provided it contains the following (this is not an exhaustive list by any means):

    1. High Level Objectives
    2. A listing of the types of testing needed and the risk around each type
    3. Processes for Test Creation and signoff
    4. Processes for Defect tracking and resolution
    5. Methodologies for executing the testcases

    This reassures them that the developers have an understanding of what needs to be done.

    If you want to discuss this further contact us.

    Take a look at some of the seminars that we offer that address this situation and see if they apply to you. Testing can be better.
    Contact us for further information.

  • October QA Events – Toronto and GTA

    NVP Software Solutions will be participating in the following software testing and quality assurance events happening this October in Ontario, Canada. The events are located in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and London in the coming two weeks. Check out the relevant websites for more information and to register. This is a great opportunity to connect with other software testing and quality assurance professionals. We hope to see you there! (more…)

  • Selling QA

    In the last couple of blogs we talked about Early Involvement and the ROI of Quality Assurance. A list of a few places where Quality Assurance pays was also provided.

    However, Selling Quality Assurance can still be a challenge.

      • Some organisations see the benefit and buy in to the concept permanently.
      • Others never make the move towards a Quality Culture and cannot see the need.
      • The most common scenario is a cyclical one:

    Someone in an organisation embraces Quality and either are in the correct position to make it happen or have great timing where there has been a move towards Quality Assurance and it just needed someone
    to ‘ride the wave’ to completion.

    • There is, of couse, always the last scenario where there has been a crisis and everyone comes to the conclusion “If we only had had Quality Assurance the ‘problem/crisis/disaster’ would never have occurred”.

    Be very careful of the last one; it is not likely a deep commitment. Once the crisis is over, there will be a reversion to the earlier behaviour. It is very tempting to go to an organisation that has just had a crisis and try to convince them to change but it is not likely to occur and will be a struggle.

    So, how do we sell QA:

    1. We need to know the state of the organisation. Is there an underlying need or wish; or just a superficial desire?
    2. Who are the decision makers and what do they want?
    3. Where can be we get a reasonable return in a short period – we have to show something fairly quickly.

    Remember a culture change takes years. We need a set of successes that are directly attributable to Quality Assurance to start making the case for the wholesale introduction and embedding of the concept.

    Take a look at some of the seminars that we offer that address this situation and see if they apply to your situation. Quality Assurance is exceedingly Cost-Efficient.

    Contact us for further information.

  • June Events in Software Testing in the GTA and beyond

     

    NVP Software Solutions will be participating in the following software testing and quality assurance events happening this June in Ontario, Canada. The events are located in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and London in the coming two weeks. Check out the relevant websites for more information and to register. This is a great opportunity to connect with other software testing and quality assurance professionals. We hope to see you there! (more…)

  • Upcoming events in February

     

    NVP Software Solutions will be participating in the following software testing and quality assurance events happening this February in Ontario, Canada. The events are located in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and London in the coming two weeks. Check out the relevant websites for more information and to register. This is a great opportunity to connect with other software testing and quality assurance professionals. We hope to see you there! (more…)

  • Selecting Software to run your business – 3

    Implementation is by far the most interesting and challenging part of Selecting Software to run your business. This is where the details become major problems and resistance to change can derail the entire project.

    It is crucial to do the following:

    1. Get everyone on side.
    2. Get a champion (or champions).
    3. Anticipate the issues.
    4. Address the issues (before they become problems).
    5. Start small (if possible).
    6. Demonstrate successes.
    7. Roll out to the entire company

    Many solution packages look simple on the outside but turn out to be complex to implement and maintain. Others have hidden depths you will never use while others will disappoint you. The selection process is crucial to anticipate some of these issues and make provisions to address them.

    No matter what package is selected or what deployment process is used; at some point the implementation must go ahead or else it will never occur.

    A study from some years ago provided the following figures for software that was purchased to be implemented:

    1. Software Delivered but never successfully used – 47% of the total.
    2. Software paid for but not delivered – 29% of the total.
    3. Software used but extensively reworked or later abandoned – 19% of the total.
    4. Software that could be used after changes – 3% of the total.
    5. Software that could be used as delivered – 2% of the total.

    Implementations have to fall into that 2% to be fully succesful and within the 5% to be partially sucessful. These are not high odds and to be successful requires a correct deployment process throughout the organisation.

    If you have concerns about any of the three stages (Stage 1 and Stage 2 were described in earlier blogs) of acquiring and implementing software – call us at 1-800-811-4718 or contact us.

    We are here to help.