Tag: Process Improvement

Normally one of our mantras is as little paper as possible.  Only ink signed contracts or items that should not exist online longer than necessary would be printed.  So far we have succeeded in cutting the paper to a minimum.  Less than 20 pages for all the work to date this year.

However, was talking to someone this afternoon and some of the following conditions came up:

1. Testcases must be printed since it is not possible take a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone to the place where they are to be executed.  Paper is the only medium (plus a good writing device called a pencil).
2. The test report must be filed on paper (regulation).
3. Some items are secret and cannot be put into a computer system for security reasons.  Paper is the default storage.
4. Some of the items that are stored in the computer system are only to be printed for if sufficient security clearance is provided.

So despite an attempt to reduce the paper usage to a minimum, we have not got rid of it entirely.  There are places where it is just not practical.

Please let us know of ‘unavoidable instances of paper usage’.

If you have input on the above, you might want to consider our survey.

Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash

Managing in Uncertainty

Starting a course today on “How to” for Test Leads.  Normally we would supply this course in person and with the group in one room.  Under the current conditions, that is not possible, so the course is being supplied remotely with the participants being scattered across the province.  So this is an experiment.

As a Team Lead, one of the issues is interactions with the team and that is clearly different when managing a Team Remotely (as opposed to Managing a Remote Team).  We added a number of items around:

1. Improving your virtual communication
2. Remote Management
3. Remote Communication Skills
4. More visibility
5. Starting with yourself.
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate, and if in doubt Communicate
7. How to Lead with Care and Focus
8. Usage of Tools.

It will be interesting to see how it goes.  

Give us a call to discuss after Wednesday.

If you have input on the above, you might want to consider our survey.

Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash

QA as an Afterthought

Continuing with the theme from last week about recalcitrant IT, we ask why QA is often an afterthought?

1. Is it because QA is ‘traditionally at the end of the project”?
2. Is it because people have too much else going on at the beginning of a project and cannot think about QA?
3. Is it because QA does ‘not fit anywhere’ at the corporate level so ends up nowhere?
4. Is it because QA is regarded as a necessary evil which no one wants to acknowledge?
5. Is it because we do not know when QA is  needed and by the time we find out it is too late to make a difference?
6. Is it because QA does not do a good job of selling ourselves?
7. Is it because …

We could certainly go on with all the reasons that QA seems to be frequently ignored. 

Not surprisingly, when people do take the time to consider the Return on Investment for QA, they are often shocked by how much it benefits them.

Give us a call to discuss.

If you have input on the above, you might want to consider our survey.

Photo by Alev Takil on Unsplash

Just finished a short article in the latest Economist called “Why companies struggle with recalcitrant IT”.  (July 18, 2020 Edition).

Several points stood out:

1. The usual list of IT problems that get mentioned in the press.
2. It is recommended that planes be turned off and back on (rebooted) to stop the software from displaying incorrect information mid-flight.  Wonder where we have heard that before (except not for a plane!).
3. Programming is a mix of literal and creative.
4. New companies start with a blank slate while older companies struggle with legacy code which may or may not do what it says and is often poorly documented.
5. Very small errors can cause a computer system to work very differently to what was expected.
6. Programming is partially self-learned and has few standards.

None of these problems are new.  They have been in the industry for years and often gets the IT a very bad name.  Sometimes deserved but not always.  

Given the increasing role of software in the world, how much longer can we continue with this methodology?

 

If you have input on the above, you might want to consider our survey.

Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash

1. There has been a change in direction with regard to Quality Assurance and your services are no longer required.
2. The Quality Assurance department has not changed in 18 months (the average half life) therefore we need to reorganize it.

 

 

Stop me if you have heard either of the above before (but keep reading). If you have not heard those items then where are you?

This came up as a result of a conversation with a long term friend who had the first one occur to him after multiple years at the same organization. The second one we have seen so often, we have lost count. Either the department is centralized or dispersed but it never seems to settle anywhere for any length of time.

What is interesting in either case is the following:

1. Quality Assurance still gets done despite the change in direction.
   • It gets renamed as something else but is still done.
   • it get reassigned to someone else or to another group but is still done.
   • It gets stopped for a few months until a crisis hits either internally or from a client and then it is suddenly reinstated.
2. There never seems to be a happy medium where some obvious functions are centralised and others are dispersed according to need.
3. There is no plan to move people back and forth and supply them with training until the pressure or poor quality become an issue after which there is a major catchup

If you have input on the above, you might want to consider our survey.

Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash

Infection rates are down.  Businesses are opening up.  And now there is a backlog of IT projects that were put on hold when things closed down in a hurry.  Some continued on at a slower rate while the lockdown occurred, others came to complete halt, and a limited number were launched while the lockdown was in progress.  We have all three types of projects in the portfolio

Unless you were working on a single project, and continued to work on a single project, you are now juggling multiple items with different schedules, priorities, and work loads.  In other word, business as usual.  Some of the projects may even be delayed until the next fiscal period since they did not finish inside the mandated time lines.  

So what is the Quality Assurance response:

1.  Slower rate projects – nothing has changed except that it will now be longer before implementation.  Unless your memory (and everyone else’s memory) is really good you will need to document what was completed, stretch the schedule and make sure that nothing is forgotten.  If the end date has not changed, it will be very easy to let Quality Assurance slide or get missed in the compressed schedule.
2. Projects that came to halt.  Hopefully you had time to put together some documentation before everything was lost.  If so, you can pick up where you left off.  If not, you are starting from the beginning with a potentially squeezed schedule.  Documentation has its uses!
3. Projects that launched in the pandemic started with the assumption of being unable to see people so they will run with or without in-person meetings.  This is a regular project.

 

If you see yourself above, use the link below to get in touch.

 

Give us a call to continue the discussion. We have supplied Assessment, Coaching, Consulting Management and Training to Financial, Telecommunications, Utlities, NFP, and Government to name just a few.

Photo by Vladimir Fedotov on Unsplash

We are taking a slight detour from the theme of the last several weeks  and asking what Quality Assurance means to you?

The classic definition, as per some of the pioneers of Quality Assurance (external to Software), is Process Improvement.

So you look at your existing processes and try to improve them.  Possibly your processes have extra steps or people are repeating information into multiple locations due to a lack of access.  These two are very common.  Someone needs something in a different format or someone needs something that requires them to extract something from the process.  We spend a lot of time doing this.  This can be hard to recognize when you in the middle of the process and under time pressure.  It takes a step back and a review of the process either from a distance or after many iterations – preferably both, and extending over a period of time so we can identify anything that is specific to the time evaluation and make sure our statistics are correct.  This has been a challenge for years and will probably continue.

So having said that, “What is your definition of Quality Assurance?”

If you see yourself above, use the link below to get in touch.

 

Give us a call to continue the discussion. We have supplied Assessment, Coaching, Consulting Management and Training to Financial, Telecommunications, Utlities, NFP, and Government to name just a few.

Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash

For those who want to count, this is blog number 8 on “Staying In”!  We have been concentrating on what is occurring locally and in Ontario, Canada that currently means opening up.  Although it is slow and being done in stages, there is still a change.  

We thought we would look at some specific clients (with no names) and see what this means to them and what QA can do to help:

1. Utilities – unchanged.  Projects continued throughout the lockdown with remote access (part of the existing contingency plan) enabled.  The items that require physical access will now be done but everything else is ready.  Quality Assurance helped prepare the methodology.  We will see how successful we were in the next few weeks.
2. Financial – they have proved they can work remotely but the IT projects need to get done.  So we expect a resurgence in the need for Quality Assurance.
3. Retailers that were open throughout – Projects that were derailed by the necessity to concentrate on immediate issues will now come back with more time pressure.  Quality Assurance will need to pick up where we left off which can be done reasonably easily.
4. Retailers that were closed and are just now reopening face a different set of challenges.  Some were doing curbside pickup and contactless payments but others were effectively closed down.  Every opening is unique and depends on what the retailer sells.  This will mean new systems that can prove they are adhering to proper cleaning methods and keeping stock off the floor for an extended period (clothes) while still ensuring that it can be sold. Quality Assurance is process oriented and this is process.
5. Medical statistics  – we expect the projects to pick up but with a major change to move faster.  

If you see yourself above, use the link below to get in touch.

P.S. Next week we will discuss a new definition for Quality Assurance.

Give us a call to continue the discussion. We have supplied Assessment, Coaching, Consulting Management and Training to Financial, Telecommunications, Utlities, NFP, and Government to name just a few.

Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash