Quality Assurance Assessments take a variety of forms in an IT project and can range from very informal to very formal. This week we will discuss What to do with the results of a QA Assessment now that we have completed an explanation of HOW to do Assessment in a past blog.
What to with the results of a QA Assessment
There is a strong temptation to (facetiously) say Do Nothing with the Results since that happens so frequently. The Assessment is completed and everyone just wants to forget about it. Not only is that a direct waste of the effort and time included in the assessment, it also sends the signal to everyone that their effort was unnecessary and their thoughts unappreciated. Don’t expect a lot of effort next time under this scenario.
If we use the example from the last blog (referenced above) of the questionnaire or in person interviews to elicit the information using open-ended questions, then we will end up with a lot of disparate information that may not be readily parsed.
The steps are as follows:
- Review all the provided answers.
- During the review write down some general categories for the answers (i.e. insufficient testing; requirements issues; development issues; testing issues). If these categories were predetermined then this step does not apply.
- Allocate the answers into the categories.
- Allocate the answers that fit into more than one category (put them into both).
- Allocate the answers that only occur once and do not fit into any category (make a category of Other and put them there).
- Extract a common consensus from each category (there is a lot of work in this step)
- Start a process of finding the root cause of the common problems.
Now we have to act on the root causes and resolve them. This could be a whole series of blogs but we will leave that for the process improvement cycle.
If you are having trouble working this out, contact us and we can help guide you and your team in the right direction.
Finally, we’ll leave you with a few questions and ask you to post your answers.
- Have you participated in a Test Process Assessment?
- Has anyone acted on the results?
- Were the results used for Process Improvement?
Next Week: Vocabulary