In last week’s post we asked the question “Where does it hurt?” or ‘What concerns you?”. Obviously we are going to get different answers to these questions depending on who you ask. If no answer is forthcoming, then there would be a question about the need for an Assessment. However, we are usually inundated with concerns and problems – some real and some imagined. As part of the interview we need to ensure that every concern is noted (no matter how trivial it may appear) and that everyone has a chance to state their issues. Answers to this question will probably drive a lot of the second round of interviews to ensure we get all sides of the problem. Some people may not consider some items to be issues until someone else mentions it.
Category: QA
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Process for a Quality Assessment – Step 3
In the last post on this topic we said we would look at the initial set of questions that might be posed to someone involved in an assessment. Obviously the initial set are intended to elicit the information on the person and where they belong in the organization and for what parts of the product they are responsible. These questions are self-evident. There could be red flags raised here if the person does not feel they are responsible for anything or have too much for which they are needed.
However, assuming that those questions go well, the next two may be crucial:
- ‘Where does it hurt?’ or “What concerns you?’ these questions can frequently lead to a long list of issues. After all we would not be doing an assessment if there were no concerns.
- How do you interact with other people who have input on this product? It is crucial to get this question answered by everyone before going for a second round. The answers to this may uncover a lot of secondary questions for people to whom we have already spoken.
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Process for a Quality Assessment – Step 2
There will be little progress on an assessment without an understanding of basic system architecture. One of the first requests is for a system diagram so we can start putting names, titles and process questions beside each section. Two red flags may be raised here:
- If no-one can generate or find a system diagram then there is an immediate concern that there is no-one who understands the system.
- Assuming we can obtain a system diagram, are there sections for which it is impossible to attach a responsible person? Again, an immediate concern that there are pieces of the system that are being left unattended.
Our next blog on this topic will drill down to the initial set of questions.
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Process for a Quality Assessment – Step 1
Sometimes the most difficult thing in a Quality Assessment is the first step. While there are usually some obvious quality patterns and issues, it can be difficult to get a starting point. We always start with information gathering interviews with the client representative who requested the Assessment. Clearly they thought that there was benefit to be obtained from an Assessment and their reasoning and motivation is crucial to the subsequent success of the contract.
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What is a Quality Assessment?
To many people, a Quality Assessment seems rather nebulous. How can one assess Quality in an organisation? A Quality Assessment looks at the Processes being used to develop or purchase and test software and compares them against industry best practices to see where improvements could be made. There are some existing standard models that can be used (TMMI for example) which provide lists of attributes and processes to compare. These can be modified to suit any particular situation and the assessment completed and mapped.
Next week, we will discuss some of the processes we follow to complete this assessment.
Lessons Learned: No one process suits every occasion and we need to be flexible in what is used to provide answers.
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The Importance of Edge Cases
Frequently the consideration of Edge Cases comes up after all the main test cases are complete and passed. They are often considered to be extra items that may or may not contribute to the major functionality of the product and it may not be necessary for them to all pass.
However, we recently ran into a case where the ‘edge cases’ were very critical. The product depended multiple people using it at one time and multiple people monitoring all the queues continuously. However, in the implementation we were testing, some queues could be left unattended for a few minutes at shift change. The product was not equipped (for safety reasons) to allow a queue to sit with no one monitoring it and it immediately moved the queue somewhere else leading to the ‘loss’ of the queue.
The extra work late in the project added two months to the schedule.
Lessons Learned: Even if the Edge cases are not immediately obvious they need to be listed and the impact determined in order to ensure that the product will address them.
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Quality Assurance
How to start QA with an unwilling company?
Sometimes you run into a situation where a company indicates a wish for QA but will not put in any effort to make it happen. It looks like a large effort to them and they cannot see any reason or benefit. In this case there are several steps that you can take to make this happen. We will discuss these over the next few weeks.
The need for Quality never goes away; it just reappears in a different format each time. The same techniques often apply; it is just a different situation.
If you have something you would like to discuss, please get in touch. Our contact information is below.
Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Test Managers Conference.
Services NVP Quality Assurance Services
Contact Contact us
Meeting Book a Meeting with NVP
LinkedIn Group Software Testing and QA Group
LinkedIn Company Page NVP LinkedIn Company Page
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Quality Assurance
For those who follow the blog, we gave it a rest over the summer. Not only were we busy with some security testing, we also had a several projects go-live at various dates. One more is going live right now. Between one thing and another, the summer seemed to pass more quickly than we expected. However, quality did not take a break and we are looking forward to the last part of the year for several reasons.
- Some of the rush to get critical items updated has abated.
- Projects are now running for more extended periods of time which will give more time to get the Quality right
- We are getting more buy-in from people with respect to the need for Quality. This is a welcome change
The need for Quality never goes away; it just reappears in a different format each time. The same techniques often apply; it is just a different situation.
If you have something you would like to discuss, please get in touch. Our contact information is below.
Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Test Managers Conference.
Services NVP Quality Assurance Services
Contact Contact us
Meeting Book a Meeting with NVP
LinkedIn Group Software Testing and QA Group
LinkedIn Company Page NVP LinkedIn Company Page