NVP Software Solutions

Tag: Software Testing Strategy

  • Starting Quality Assurance – Part 7

    Starting Quality Assurance – Part 7

    Out of ideas

    What happens if you are out of ideas of what or how to improve?

     

    Not surprisingly this has been considered by some of the pioneers of Quality Assurance.  They understood that there was a limit to the number of ideas that one person or a group could generate.  Even though it was possible to identify the problems, solutions might not be obvious.  After all, if there was an obvious solution, it would have been implemented already.

    The recommendation was to change the composition of the group coming up with the solutions while retaining a minimum of continuity.  One recommendation was for everyone but the idea recorder to change.  The thought was that the idea recorder would know what had been considered (retaining the history) but might not have a vested interested in either supporting or denigrating any of the existing or new ideas.    The change needs to be done before the group becomes entrenched and before it loses momentum.

    There is nothing to prevent people coming back in a few years with new solutions to new problems (or suggesting them to the new group once they have been outside for a while).  Experience always helps.

     

    Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.

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  • Starting Quality Assurance – Part 6

    Starting Quality Assurance – Part 6

    Have we been successful?

    Last time we gathered some statistics based on the new process once it had settled down. Now we need to compare the new results with the baseline from before the changes were made. If the results have improved, then we keep the change we made. If things have not improved then we need to back out the change and measure again.

    Once we have everything either at the same level as the baseline or improved, then we can embark on the next round of improvements using the same process.

    Two things that can cause problems:
    1. Sometimes the changes are interrelated. This will require research and a method of disentangling the impacts of the changes. Otherwise we may end up undoing the wrong change and find ourselves bouncing back and forth with no long term improvement.
    2. We have to watch for noise in the system or special items that cause the measurements to be inconsistent. No two measurements will be identical and there will be some variation at some level. This has to be ignored or the measurements taken over a long enough time period to even out any variations due to noise in the system. The other item that has to be watched is some special item like a large project or a freeze on development that will cause either the baseline or the new measurements to be inaccurate. Either an adjustment will have to be made or the measurements excluded from the calculation.

    Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.
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  • Starting Quality Assurance – Part 5

    Starting Quality Assurance – Part 5

    Last time we gathered some baseline statistics.  These need to be recorded and retained somewhere.  Now we want to make some changes.  We may want to pause the measurements while we make the changes since they will not be accurate.

    Based on some of the statistics we gathered last time.

    1. Is the process taking too long? Look for parts of the process that are delayed (waiting for inputs or resources) or repeated and resolve the issue.
    2. Is the process being repeated with the same inputs because of failures? Complete a root cause analysis of why the inputs are wrong and fix the upstream process.
    3. Is there a long delay in the middle while external resources are assembled or contacted? Determine if better coordination with external departments would help or consider training internal resources to do the task.
    4. Are computer resources maxing out during the process? Enlist an expert in performance to determine the exact cause of the resources maxing out.  Which tasks are taking all the resources?  Do we need more CPU/Memory or do we need to fix something in the program that may be searching too many records(for example).

    Once the changes above have been implemented and have had a chance to take effect, re-enable the statistics gathering with the same set of measurements being recorded.

    Next blog: Have we been successful?

    Test Leader or Manager with concerns? Consider the Test Managers Conference.
    NVP Quality Assurance Services
    Contact us
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    Photos by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash and Andrew Measham on Unsplash

  • Workforce Development

    Workforce Development

     

    If you want to update the skills of your workforce and move them to the front edge of knowledge, consider our upskilling and training program. NVP has partnered with a worldwide Quality Assurance training provider to bring this to your organization.

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    The Lifecycle contains the following 6 components:

    1. Strategic Planning
    2. Skill Assessments
    3. Learning Design
    4. Learning Delivery
    5. Certification
    6. Sustaining Competency

    The Learning Paths include:

    1. Agile Tester
    2. SOA Web Services Tester
    3. Functional Test Engineer
    4. Manual Testers to Test Automation
    5. Project Leads to Project Manager
    6. Design Professional

    Learning Programs:

    1. Quality and Process Improvement
    2. Project, Program & Portfolio Management
    3. IT Service Management
    4. Business Process Improvement
    5. Agile Methods
    6. Agile Engineering & Testing
    7. Innovation & Design Thinking

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  • Register for the June 2021 TASSQ and KWSQA Events

    Register for TASSQ and KWSQA today

     

    You might want to consider these events to network with other QA people or learn some of the new ideas in QA.

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    NVP Software Solutions will be participating in the following software testing and quality assurance event happening this June in Ontario, Canada. Due to Covid-19 restrictions the events are online and are available to all. Check out the relevant websites for more information and to register. This is a great opportunity to connect with other software testing and quality assurance professionals. We hope to see you there!

    Photo by Daniela Mota on Unsplash

    June 29, 2021 6:00 p.m. EDT – Online – Event is being offered for free.

    BEST PRACTICES FOR TESTING MATURE ECOMMERCE APPS

    Speaker:  Kundan Joshi, Register here

    June 23, 2021  11:55 a.m.   Online

    Panel Discussion: How Do Things Work Where You Work?

    Speakers: Panel

    Register here

  • Register for the May 2021 TASSQ and KWSQA Events

    Register for TASSQ and KWSQA today

     

    You might want to consider these events to network with other QA people or learn some of the new ideas in QA.

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is antenna-502680-unsplash-1024x683.jpg

    NVP Software Solutions will be participating in the following software testing and quality assurance event happening this May in Ontario, Canada. Due to Covid-19 restrictions the events are online and are available to all. Check out the relevant websites for more information and to register. This is a great opportunity to connect with other software testing and quality assurance professionals. We hope to see you there!

    Photo by Daniela Mota on Unsplash

    May 25, 2021 6:00 p.m. EDT – Online – Event is being offered for free.

    APPLYING AI TO STATIC CODE ANALYSIS AND UNIT TESTING

    Speaker: Igor Kirilenko, Parasoft VP of Development Register here

    May 26, 2021  11:55 a.m.   Online

    Baking Quality In: How Testers Can Help Drive Continuous Improvement 

    Speaker: Ali Hill

    Register here

  • Trend Analysis on Defects – Part 2

    Last week we discussed some prerequisites for Trend Analysis on defects. We are only discussing defects here but there are many other project metrics that could be analysed.

    Assuming that the prerequisites from the previous blog have been satisfied, what can we determine.

    1. The trend in the number of defects in each project (after normalization by some project size measurement).
    2. The trend in the number of defects in each Priority and Severity level (again after normalization).
    3. The phase or process that consistently generates the most defects.
    4. Any weak or defect prone supplier processes.
    5. Any product weaknesses that cause consistent customer complaints.

    Once we have the information listed above, we are in a strong position to fix any weak areas and correct any issues that may be costing us customers or internal funds. This is process improvement devoted to making sure that our internal processes are the best possible and we are generating the best possible product. There is more to trend analysis than we are mentioning here, but there are entire books and conferences devoted to this topic. We have only touched the surface of one item we can measure, address and improve.

    October is Quality Month. Sign up for our newsletter, coming out next week, to see some things about Quality Month.

    Photo by Stephan Henning on Unsplash

  • Trend analysis on Defects – Part 1

    One of the items that is missed frequently in most organisations is Trend Analysis on Defects. This is the trend over time and over multiple projects. We are looking for whether things are improving or not as the case may be, over time. There are a number of prerequisites which we will discuss today prior to returning to this topic in a couple of weeks with further information.

    Prerequisites

    1. A consistent method of classifying defects with regard to Priority and Severity. I include definitions and standards for Priority and Severity either in the Test Strategy for an organisation or in every test plan for every project. Note that without this in place; it is impossible to do any trend analysis.
    2. A commitment to fairly recording defects in every phase of the project no matter what methodology you use. Otherwise it is possible to make certain phases look better than others by ignoring or failing to record the defects.
    3. A commitment from management to the years it will take to obtain sufficient statistics for trends to be meaningful.
    4. A commitment to and an understanding of the methodology used to reconcile projects that of different size and that are built in different ways. A very large project built in-house cannot be directly compared to a small project where the software was purchased.
    5. An understanding of the statistical processes that will be used to generate the trends. It is far too easy to draw the wrong conclusion
    If any of these prerequisites are not in place before anything starts, you are embarking on an expensive failure!

    Photo by Stephan Henning on Unsplash