NVP Software Solutions

Tag: Project Management

  • A few good crises

    Last week we mentioned how October used to be Quality Month and now has also been designated as CyberSecurity Awareness month. But the question that arises is how to get Quality accepted in your organization. One client once said that a “A few good crises” would aid Quality Assurance in being accepted. A very true statement and as an external consultant, that was true. However, the people inside the organization were not quite so thrilled with that thought. Clearly crises, were not a good reflection on their management since they should be helping avoid them.

    Our suggestion is to redo the statement as: A few good crises averted and see where you get with that. Start a log of what was averted by your work. Add it to the issue reports as a separate field. Clearly this is bundled in with Risk Management and needs to be attached to the Risk of something occurring. Something that was very low risk is not really a candidate for an averted crisis. However, something that is High Risk and was successfully avoided is a much better candidate for the list. Concentrate on those.

    What are you doing to avert crises?

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  • Why October?

    October was Quality Month at one time although we have not heard a lot about that designation recently. It is now also CyberSecurity month.

    We have to ask “Why October?”

    But ignoring the Why for a little bit, it does seem that October is considered to be a month when we are all supposed to look at the way Quality impacts our lives and take a second look at how we have been operating and see if it can be improved.

    Possibly the originators thought that October would give enough time for any improvements to be included into the following year’s budget and plans. However, with so many organizations having different year ends, that thought may no longer apply. Regardless, Quality considerations should not really be restricted to a single month. Continuous improvement is not continuous in name only. It has to occur all year around.

    What are you doing about Quality Month?

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  • Quality Assurance Article

    Following up to our presentation to PMC on September 1, a short article has been posted elaborating on some of the concepts from the talk. Please see the article at PMAC- Article

    Quality Assurance and You

    Using software as an example, in many more locations, we are dependent on it for our safety and well being. Couple that with the pressure for faster delivery and there is not sufficient time to do thorough testing at the end of development. Quality Assurance finds and utilizes the best places to do validation and verification and ensure a good product while reducing the testing cycle. Projects are delivered, faster, cheaper and with better quality.

    Takeaways:

    Three ingredients to delivering Quality.
    The Costs and Risks of Poor Quality.
    Six Steps to implementing a Quality Program
    Sign up today, this event will sell out!

    See the Article for more information or contact us at neil@nvp.ca

  • Quality Assurance Presentation

    If, as a project manager, you are called upon to implement a new process, software or WHATEVER, quality assurance is something you need to watch.
    On September 1, 2021 at 1PM EST, PMAC will be delivering a one time only professional development webinar for members:

    Quality Assurance and You

    Using software as an example, in many more locations, we are dependent on it for our safety and well being. Couple that with the pressure for faster delivery and there is not sufficient time to do thorough testing at the end of development. Quality Assurance finds and utilizes the best places to do validation and verification and ensure a good product while reducing the testing cycle. Projects are delivered, faster, cheaper and with better quality.

    Takeaways:

    Three ingredients to delivering Quality.
    The Costs and Risks of Poor Quality.
    Six Steps to implementing a Quality Program
    Sign up today, this event will sell out!

    https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcode6tpjktHtzrZPnQJLgRXEosgWwv3jTz

  • QA with No time

    QA with No Time

    One of the constant issues that comes up in discussions or classes is the lack of time for Quality Assurance and Quality Control. We seem to be under constant time pressure and with Agile and DevOps it has become worse rather than better.

    While Quality Assurance cannot anticipate everything, the Continuous Improvement aspect can help improve the time considerations. The key is to prioritise and plan for the high priority items to be completed.

    Some people will say (with a fair amount of truth) that even planning for the priorities and only doing those high priority items will still not be possible in the time allotted for Quality Assurance and Quality Control. With development reacting to changing requirements from the users, constant upgrades in technology (both hardware and software) and impacts from other projects, the time scale can shrink radically.

    However, without a definitive list of what must be done and the risk of not completing attached, it is very hard to push back against the time pressure. With the list in hand, it is easier to quantify the risk of not doing something.

    Some people will say that they do not have the time to even create the list. They are under extreme pressure to start testing immediately and provide issues so the developers have something to handle now that they have finally delivered all the changes requested by the user. Our recommendation, in this case, is to simply make a list of the functions or requirements, assign High, Medium or Low to the risk of not testing that function or requirement and send it around for review. This will at least alert people to the challenges faced by Quality Assurance and Quality Control.

    Want to discuss your list further? Contact us.

  • A Better Way – Case Study 4 – Caught Between Vendor and Client!

    A Better Way – Case Study 3 – Test Plan in a Hurry!

    In our last several blogs we have discussed ‘A Better Way to Test”.

    The issue is to apply this to actual situations. We have 5 Case Studies we plan to use over the next several weeks to address this. The fourth case study might be called “Caught between Vendor and Client”.

    Although one could argue that Quality Assurance has always been caught between a Vendor or Vendors (developers) and possibly multiple clients (users), it has become a little more obvious and formal with the purchase of software from outside groups. This is not something that is going to go away. Assembly of a solution rather than building it has been around for quite a while and will probably become more frequent rather than less. The question is what Quality Assurance does to “Bridge the Gap” between what the client wants (‘perfection!’) and what the vendors are willing to supply in terms of proof given competitive secrets and possibly some Non-disclosure requirements.

    In our case (as discussed here) we built a plan that provided the final client with what they wanted. We then mapped what was supplied by the vendors against what was required and filled in the rest. Not surprisingly, the main items that were missing were Integration testing between what the various suppliers had provided and the type of testing that needed the entire system to be there including Performance, Security and Usability (to name a few).

    Bridging the gap in this fashion satisfied everyone and made use of everything that was already in place. That saved us a lot of time and allowed us to concentrate the tests that were critical to the client.

    If you want to discuss this further contact us.

  • A Better Way – Case Study 3 – Test Plan in a Hurry!

    A Better Way – Case Study 3 – Test Plan in a Hurry!

    In our last several blogs we have discussed ‘A Better Way to Test”.

    The issue is to apply this to actual situations. We have 5 Case Studies we plan to use over the next several weeks to address this. The third case study might be called “Test Plan in a Hurry!”.

    This issue came up from an organisation that was part way through (as usual!) an engagement and suddenly required a test plan to satisfy the client. The request came from the Project Manager on Friday with a deadline of Monday afternoon. There was no prior exposure to the project; no knowledge that the request was coming; and very little in the way of Project Documentation (with certainly no time to review it). There was a temptation to ignore the request and had they not been an existing client, we might have been tempted to point out that this was not really an effective use of time. However, given the nature of the request and the people from whom it came, we went ahead with the attempt.

    Clearly, we were not going to get detailed testcases or test objectives based on what we had been given. So we opted for a process based Master Test Plan. In other words, we put together a statement of how the project would be tackled from a Quality Assurance point of view when the information became available. We put in processes for all the Quality Assurance items and highlighted the risks inherent in testing under these conditions (including the lack of any understanding of the project) and went forward with that. We put a strong emphasis on what was required now in order to make this work.

    If you want to discuss this further contact us.

  • Reduce Business Risk with QA

    The software your business relies on to operate successfully is crutial to the success of your company. Software RISK (a potential problem that may occur due to lack of information, control or time) is something that should be minimized wherever possible when it comes to your daily business operations.
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