NVP Software Solutions

Tag: Strategy

  • Quality Assurance Process Improvement – Part 2

    Quality Assurance Process Improvement is the current topic in our Blog Series. We completed a series of 4 on Assessments because at the end of the Assessment process a lot of organizations won’t act on the Assessment results if they don’t have a plan for moving forward. This is particularly true if the Assessment has not been tailored to the particular company in question. A standardized Assessment process generates standard recommendations which may not be applicable. Make sure you detail your expectations at the beginning of the Assessment so you get value from the process and your expenditure of time.

    Last time we looked at What Process Improvement is and now want to address the question of “Why do it”. We stated earlier that we needed to understand the intent of an Assessment and use it going forward. And that is  after-the-fact in terms of the answering the question. Why do an Assessment and continue on with Process Improvement in a Quality Assurance environment in the first place?

    The answer is that Process Improvement Saves Time and Money. We do not carry out any Process Improvement activity without the intent of saving money. The activities we do must have a positive ROI. This, however, is the more difficult question to answer since the positive ROI is not always in the current project. Putting in a defect management process; improving the review process; ensuring early involvement of Quality Assurance personnel in a project benefit the next project but not the current one.

    The objective is to save the overall organisation funds; not just the current project. As such the results of an Assessment and the activities done as part of Process Improvement must be assessed at the corporate level and not at the project level.

    Next Week: Scheduling Test Cycles

  • Quality Assurance Process Improvement – Part 1

    Quality Assurance Process Improvement is the next topic in our Blog Series. We completed a series of 4 on Assessments and at the end of the Assessment process a lot of organizations tend not to act on the results if they do not have a plan for moving forward. This is particularly true if the Assessment has not been tailored to the particular company. A standardised Assessment process generates standard recommendations which may not be applicable. Make sure you detail your expectations at the beginning of the Assessment so you get value from the process and your expenditure of time.

    Assuming that you have the results of an Assessment available, the next step is often some sort of Process Improvement. So what is Process Improvement?

    We define Process Improvement as a planned and measured activity that leads to a better process.

    Planned – Process Improvement carried out without a plan is simply change for the sake of change with no knowledge of whether this is an improvement or not.

    Measured – Measurements need to be taken both before and after the process improvement activity is completed. Before measurements provide a current baseline of how the process is currently operating. After measurements determine whether the process improvement activity has had the desired effect. Without both, there is no point to the process improvement.

    Better Process – The measurement process tells us whether the process has improved at all. There is a number of things that could be measured. Maybe the process has got quicker; maybe it is cheaper in some way; maybe it is more consistent so the results are more similar; or maybe the end product or service generated from the process is better. It would be nice to get all four with one process improvement activity but frequently it will require multiple iterations of the process improvement cycle to start realising gains on all four items.

    Next Week: Coming Meetings

  • Software Testing Strategy – The Test Strategy

     

    We discussed Test Plans and their contents in the earlier blog and today we will discuss the Test Strategy. Some people will look at the title above and think we are just repeating our blog from three weeks ago. Luckily, that’s not the case. We differentiate between Test Plans and Test Strategies.

    NVP considers a Test Strategy to be a document that outlines a long term direction for testing. It’s possible that the Test Plans for each project will borrow heavily from the Test Strategy and may even be based on it. We’re not necessarily considering that level of connection in this scenario.

    The following is a set of contents for a Test Strategy

    1. Introduction – outlines the purpose of the document
    2. Corporate Business Strategy – Copy and paste from the relevant business document
    3. A high level outline of the Test Strategy – See below
    4. Alignment with corporate strategy and identification of the gaps
    5. Baseline of current testing (where we are today)
    6. Gaps between the baseline and Test Strategy
    7. Goals or methodologies to close the gaps
    8. Strategy assessment process
    9. Continuous improvement

    The Test Strategy section would include answers to the following:

    1. Where is the best place to complete testing in the life cycle?
    2. Who are the best resources for each level and type of testing?
    3. What is the long term development process for the identified resources?
    4. From where are the resources going to be sourced?
    5. What is the long term automation process or direction?
    6. Where is the greatest ROI for testing?

    Some questions to assess your Test Strategy readiness:

    1. Do you have a Test Strategy?
    2. If you have a Test Strategy; has it been reviewed recently?
    3. Is there a person or a group responsible for the Test Strategy?

    If you answered No to any of the above questions, send us an email to see if a Test Strategy would be a fit for your organization.

    Next Week: Assessments – Deal with Results

  • Software Testing Strategy – The Test Plan

    Any given test plan and its contents vary widely depending on to who is doing the testing and what template is used. Test plans can be found anywhere on the web. They can be generic in nature or specific to a particular industry and have specific sections that are critical for regulatory or risk reasons. A test plan can also be seen as a strategy, while in some cases strategy is never considered. Sometimes test cases are included in a test plan.

    We consider a test plan to be a document that outlines a path for the testing but excludes the test cases (which we like to keep in a database). The test plan often includes the following (not a comprehensive list):

    1. Introduction
    2. Test Approach
    3. Assumptions and Dependencies
    4. Risks and the Risk Plan
    5. Schedule and Resources
    6. Glossary

    The Incredible Shrinking Test Plan

    We’ve seen where one client invested a lot of time creating a test plan template for use within their organization. The template with various sections indicated what the contents of that section should include, however, if the section was irrelevant,  a statement as to why it was inapplicable was to be noted. Under no condition was any section to be deleted. Unfortunately, one group misunderstood the importance of keeping ALL data and deleted any section they felt was unnecessary. They innacurately used the previous plan version as the template for the next one and so on. So every time a section was deleted it was lost forever. We used to refer to those plans as the The Incredible Shrinking Test Plan, it just got smaller and smaller.

      1. Do you write test plans?
      2. If you use a template, do you have trouble filling it out?
      3. Do you get test plans reviewed by the relevant stakeholders?
      4. Are they approved at any point?
      5. What is your experience in how well they test what you need to test?

    And most importantly: Do you ever review them after the project is over and see how well you adhered to the initial outline?

    Next Week: Assessments – How