Quality Assurance – Benefits of Right the First Time

In the last couple of weeks, we have been discussing the first two steps of Doing it Right the First Time. This week, we will take brief side trip to the Benefits of Right the First Time. A lot of groups stumble over this point because they cannot articulate this well. They seem to use… Continue reading Quality Assurance – Benefits of Right the First Time

Quality Assurance – Right the First Time (Part Two)

Last week we talked about getting it Right the First Time and started with Step 1. The next question many people ask is “How”. Usually they agree that this would be be a good thing for their project or organization and wish it could be done but stumble over How. There is a requirement for… Continue reading Quality Assurance – Right the First Time (Part Two)

Quality Assurance – Right the First Time (Part One)

Quality Assurance is frequently confused with Quality Control (Software Testing) and many people will sell Quality Assurance Solutions and provide Software Testing. Quality Assurance refers to methodologies and processes that try to avoid errors and mistakes in the first place and getting it right the first time. It is also confused (as we have mentioned… Continue reading Quality Assurance – Right the First Time (Part One)

Acting on the Results – Redoing

Last week we discussed how to measure the results of a Process Improvement initiative and how to successfully implement the process. This week we have assumed that the Process Improvement Initiative has been completed and we are now faced with Acting on the Results. There are two possible outcomes from the results and both lead… Continue reading Acting on the Results – Redoing

Acting on the Results

This is the first of two blogs devoted to implementing metrics and discusses the piece most likely to cause failure. Assuming that the metrics were properly identified, measured and the results analyzed, we are now at the point of Acting on the Results of the metrics. There are two major ways in which a organizations… Continue reading Acting on the Results

Implementing Metrics

Implementing Metrics is the hardest aspect of the entire Process Improvement process. It is reasonably easy to determine a need for metrics – anything that can be measured and will lead to cost savings is a candidate for a metric. It is usually fairly straightforward to determine what to measure as long as the question… Continue reading Implementing Metrics

Using Metrics for Process Improvement

There are three aspects to using metrics for Process Improvement: Defining the correct metric to gather Gathering the correct statistics to determine that metric Making use of the results We have already discussed the first two in previous posts so we will make the assumptions that the correct metric has been defined and the correct… Continue reading Using Metrics for Process Improvement

Examples of QC & QA Metrics

It is reasonably easy to define measurements and metrics for any particular organization or project. The bigger question is whether those metrics are relevant to the project and work at hand. Metrics or Measurements Specific to Quality Control Number of tests Number of defects Defects per module Percent of tests completed The above are fairly obvious… Continue reading Examples of QC & QA Metrics

Quality Assurance Metrics

In our last post we listed the need for some way of measuring Process Improvement without going into too much detail about how. What we were referencing was Quality Assurance Metrics. We define a metric similar to the way Wikipedia does in that it is the degree to which software possesses some desired characteristic. This… Continue reading Quality Assurance Metrics

Quality Assurance Supports Process Improvement

Quality Assurance Supports Process Improvement by showing us when the improvement has occurred. This is typically done through measuring the existing process; making the change and then measuring the results of the new process. In last week’s blog we discussed examples of Process Improvement. Now we need to ensure that the Improvement has actually occurred. The initial steps to… Continue reading Quality Assurance Supports Process Improvement