Malthus on Testing – Manual

Malthus on testing is not something that you hear often. Thomas Malthus was an English cleric and scholar, who said “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man”. How does this relate to software testing and in particular, for this week, manual testing? Well if… Continue reading Malthus on Testing – Manual

Quality Assurance for Startups – Part 2

In the last blog we discussed why Quality Assurance for Startups was appropriate despite it not being the first thing on startup leaders’ minds. This is understandable given the amount of other work that needs to be done just to get going as a new business. It would be pointless to introduce a full Starting-Quality-Assurance process in… Continue reading Quality Assurance for Startups – Part 2

Quality Assurance – Implementing Right the First Time

The last three NVP Blogs have discussed Doing it Right the First Time. The last one addresses the issue of Implementing Right the First Time. This is the part that usually trips up most people. They know they want to implement this in their organization. They know how or they can refer to explanations that will… Continue reading Quality Assurance – Implementing Right the First Time

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