Category: Software Testing

Quality Assurance 2022 – Step 2

If you look back at the initial post on this subject from this year, we stated that it was required to ‘sell’ this initiative to other groups. We ended with a comment about the need to anticipate further questions. If you read some of the original books on QA, you will find that they state that QA ‘took on a life of its own’ and became self-sustaining. Most of us do not have that luxury and run into continual push back as the Quality Assurance initiative touches more and more groups. Each group has a different viewpoint and different needs from Quality Assurance. Some of these will be contradictory and some will be in direct opposition to the initiative. All of these will need to be anticipated and answered if we do not want the initiative to stop.

Do not anticipate that because the initiative has been approved once that it is immune from further questions until it is completed.

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

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Quality Assurance 2022 – Step 1

What seems to be omitted from many Quality Assurance initiatives is the need to ensure it will be well received. There is a tacit assumption that because it seems an obvious thing to do (at least to the Quality Assurance group) then everyone will be onside with doing it and all we need to do is fill in the details to get it going. That rarely works since people do not understand how the items fit together or how they benefit the company. This needs to be explained before we start implementing any changes and all along the process. Both the explanation for the existing changes and the explanation of the changes to come needs to be included. A timeline of the expected changes and the impact as well as the benefits needs to be prepared and maintained.

Do not anticipate that because the initiative has been approved once that it is immune from further questions until it is completed.

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

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Quality Assurance 2022

During the past year, we gathered up some articles and LinkedIn posts indicating a desire to improve Quality Assurance. Most people seemed to feel that this needed to be a country lead initiative or at least a consortium of several large companies. While that might be a laudable aim, it is unlikely to occur.
Most governments have other things to do and a lack of understanding about quality. Large companies have other priorities and Quality Assurance is just one of many items that need to be addressed.

Look for more about this in the New Year.

1. There have been a lot of changes in the last 22 months. QA is uniquely positioned to make those changes more effective in the longer term.
2. The issue will be to get this done while people are still thinking about it and are receptive to changes.

Happy New Year

One thing not to forget is to note the Lessons Learned from the process. Don’t let the rush of the project prevent you from making some notes as to what went wrong and what could be improved for next time. Otherwise the same situation will repeat itself.

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

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Quality Assurance 2021

Quality Assurance (defined as Process Improvement) had an interesting evolution in 2021. After the rush in 2020 when a lot of other projects and initiatives got pushed off pending the expected quick end to the pandemic and let in room for QA initiatives, 2021 saw a reversion to the status quo where QA was a lesser priority compared to on-going projects. Since it was clear that things were not going to be normal during 2021, clients started the projects they had delayed. Of course, many of them did not run as well as hoped given the remote nature of work that still existed but they had to be done. A little less attention was paid to Quality Assurance.

However, that change had some advantages:

• Remote projects showed a different set of Process Challenges compared to onsite projects.
• People adapted very well to remote working (after some initial glitches).
• We were able to see and document many changes that make the processes better whether they were local or remote.
• Some tools were already designed for the change to remote working since they had assumed on that type of model already. Others required a lot of extra steps to access and use.

Will this help?

1. There have been a lot of changes in the last 22 months. QA is uniquely positioned to make those changes more effective in the longer term.
2. The issue will be to get this done while people are still thinking about it and are receptive to changes.

One thing not to forget is to note the Lessons Learned from the process. Don’t let the rush of the project prevent you from making some notes as to what went wrong and what could be improved for next time. Otherwise the same situation will repeat itself.

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

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Automated Testing 2021

The term “Automated Testing” means different things to different people. Some people go for an all-encompassing definition that includes anything that is not manual. Other people restrict it to a very limited subset of what could theoretically be done. However, by far the most common definition is automation of the Manual User Testing that is usually done at the end of testing; i.e. the interaction at screen level with the application under test. Something about carrying out this process bothers a lot of people and they are willing to spend a lot of money to get out of doing it. Of course, it also tends to shift the testing to a Test Automator and away from the user. You could argue endlessly about whether that is a good thing or not but that is not the intent of this blog.

A brief (and entirely unscientific) study:

• Many tools are concentrating on one particular problem or methodology.
• You can pick the best method for generating tests.
• The same tools mentioned in the previous points are synchronizing seamlessly with other tools.

Overall this seems like good progress. You can select a set or subset of tools that suit your current conditions and then bolt on others as the needs arise. You are no longer locked into one particular process and trying to force fit everything into that methodology.

The two issues that always come up are:

1. Maintenance costs – we received a good graphic about this from a recent webinar. Contact us for a discussion.
2. Eventually you will have to migrate from the existing tool. The only question is how soon and how much will it cost?

One thing not to forget is to note the Lessons Learned from the process. Don’t let the rush of the project prevent you from making some notes as to what went wrong and what could be improved for next time. Otherwise the same situation will repeat itself.

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

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Manual Testing 2021

It is always interesting to review the need and usage of manual testing for the year. We hear a lot about automating testing from vendors and management. But there is still a lot of new projects coming along with requirements and designs in flux and no clear idea of how long the software will last or how often testing will be required (which are the major drivers of the ROI for automation). The amount of change is also a factor for testing and how much automation is cost effective. So we end up requesting a lot of Manual testing to cover the current release with no thought of automation until ‘things have settled down’. By the time ‘things have settled down’ the software is installed and the next project is on its way. Going back is not an option.

What do we do?

• The recommendation is to keep good records of what was tested and how it was tested in a management tool and use that to inform your testing decisions the next time the software needs upgrading.
• Don’t depend on memory for how it went last time!

One thing not to forget is to note the Lessons Learned from the process. Don’t let the rush of the project prevent you from making some notes as to what went wrong and what could be improved for next time. Otherwise the same situation will repeat itself.
 

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

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

End of Year Rush

There is often an arbitrary end date set for projects. Sometimes it is driven by the fiscal year or the calendar year. Budgets run out at the end of the fiscal year and sometimes political requirements drive calendar year end dates. Most of our clients impose a code freeze for the last two weeks of December as well so that moves the real completion date closer. In our experience, the rush starts at the beginning of November and continues until mid December. Projects that were never anticipated appear from nowhere and push aside lower level projects. Other projects get accelerated. No matter what the Quality Assurance and Testing is based on the risk of the implementation and should not change based on a reduced timeline.

Sound familiar?

One thing not to forget is to note the Lessons Learned from the process. Don’t let the rush of the project prevent you from making some notes as to what went wrong and what could be improved for next time. Otherwise the same situation will repeat itself.
 

Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.

Services NVP Quality Assurance Services

Contact Contact us

Meeting Book a Meeting with NVP

LinkedIn Group LinkedIn Group

LinkedIn Company Page LinkedIn Company Page

Photos by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash and Andrew Measham on Unsplash