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Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

Build a robust strategy and ensure quality is at the core of everything you do.

Given the rapid change in solution delivery over the last few years, the role of quality assurance (QA) has also evolved:

  • The widespread adoption of collaborative methodologies like Agile necessitates changes in how QA is integrated into the delivery process.
  • The maturity of automated delivery practices such as CI/CD pipelines has significantly changed how QA is conducted and enforced.
  • Industry hype is leading organizations to invest in AI to automate QA. Adopting AI can involve significant organizational changes, but current systems, processes, and roles may not be ready or able to adopt them.
  • Test requirements and scenarios are broader and more complex. Manual testing is unable to achieve the desired test coverage.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • The perception of QA as a cost center can lead to the diversion of QA investments to other value-added capabilities. This decision may come from leadership, development teams, or other key players who prioritize value generation over cost savings.
  • Significant focus is on the testing phase rather than the inclusion of QA practices throughout the solution delivery cycle.
  • QA teams are unable to accommodate new and evolving security risks and technologies, aggressive performance standards, constantly changing priorities, and misunderstood quality policies.
  • The marketplace for test automation and automated testing tools is crowded and difficult to navigate.

Impact and Result

  • Standardize your definition of quality. Come to an organizational agreement of what attributes define a high-quality solution. Accommodate both business and IT perspectives in your definition.
  • Clarify the role of QA throughout your solution delivery lifecycle. Indicate where and how QA is involved throughout solution delivery. Instill quality-first thinking in each stage of your pipeline to catch defects and issues early and motivate cross-functional collaboration.
  • Adopt good QA practices to better support your quality definition and business and IT environments and priorities. Ensure your QA activities satisfy your criteria for a high-quality and successful solution with the right templates, technologies, and tactics in your toolbox.

Build a Software Quality Assurance Program Research & Tools

1. Build a Software Quality Assurance Program Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how teams can build a robust QA strategy.

Your QA practice defines an actionable series of steps to validate and verify your products. This practice instills confidence that you have your stakeholders' needs in mind. This blueprint will help you build a foundational QA practice.

2. QA Strategy Template – Defines the approaches and practices to achieve your organization’s testing objectives and product success criteria.

This document is a comprehensive description of the QA practices for your organization, with several activities required to validate and verify software solutions. It is intended to capture and convey the significant outcomes and decisions that have been made throughout the process and communicate the expectations of QA.

3. Test Plan Template – Describes the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of intended testing activities for a specific system, product, or team.

This document identifies test items, the features to be tested, the testing tasks, who will do each task, the test environment, the test design techniques, entry and exit criteria, the rationale for the choice of tests, and any risks requiring contingency planning.

4. Test Case Template – Provides a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine whether a system under test satisfies requirements or works correctly.

This document specifies and communicates the specific conditions and scenarios that need to be validated and verified. The process of developing test cases can also help find problems in the requirements and design of an application.

5. QA Current-State Assessment Tool – Assesses the current state of QA in your organization at team and organizational level.

This tool will help assess the current state of your QA practice in your organization and identify the gaps that should be filled to achieve your target state. This will help focus your organization's efforts in closing the gaps that represent high-value opportunities.

6. Sample QA Workshop Deliverable – Offers an example of the lessons and insights from an Info-Tech QA workshop.

This sample illustrates the conversations, collaboration, and consensus involved in an Info-Tech QA workshop with a government agency. This member completed a review of their current practice and a target-state design of their QA practice with various IT and business representatives.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.7/10


Overall Impact

$49,332


Average $ Saved

16


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Louisiana Department of Health

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

I received some great advice that will be part of building up our team. The best part was that I actually felt like someone was listening to me. Ev... Read More

Effectus Ltd

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

5

Great walk through with real life examples. Was very interactive discussion which will help us immensely with our client. Kieran listened, pivot... Read More

Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma

Workshop

8/10

$75,350

N/A

Keiren is a great instructor and did a wonderful job facilitating the topic. We don't really know how much time and money will be saved yet becaus... Read More

Kuvare US Holdings

Guided Implementation

10/10

$137K

38

There was NO worst. The best will always be insight and guidance while holding our hands and helping us avoid pitfalls and wastes of time.

Agriculture Financial Services Corporation

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,000

5

This was our first call with Alex and really appreciate how prepared he was for the call. The feedback he provided on the deliverable was realisti... Read More

Heartland Co-op

Guided Implementation

10/10

$6,499

5

The best parts of my experience with Hans Eckman were: Clear customer focused conversation and topics that covered my needs and gave me more to t... Read More

Aipso

Guided Implementation

10/10

$32,499

50

They gave us good real-life examples. Good ideas - like rotating business users. Generally validated our thinking. Alex and Dawn are always gr... Read More

Cross Country Mortgage, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$34,649

16

This guided implementation was a great experience. Alex was able to help us adapt general software QA practices to our niche data team. We learne... Read More

New York City Housing Authority*

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

5

Hans was very informative and the follow up notes and materials very helpful. thank you!!

University of Texas - Arlington

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

5

The best part of the experience was the experience and knowledge the analyst brought to engagement. Also, we needed to change the direction of the... Read More

Shentel Management Company

Workshop

10/10

$44,099

20

Thinking and talking outside of the box... Conversations and discussions were all best parts of this workshop. The worst was that we weren't in... Read More

Oregon Public Utility Commission

Guided Implementation

9/10

$1,889

5

Colorado Housing And Finance Authority

Workshop

8/10

N/A

N/A

Scott and Allison were terrific and facilitated an quality workshop. The best parts of the class were : 1.) the breadth of information provided and... Read More

Westmoreland Mining LLC

Guided Implementation

9/10

$6,199

5

Omaha Public Power District

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

120

County of Clark Nevada

Workshop

7/10

N/A

N/A

Best parts of the workshop experience: Sharon and Scott engaged County Team members well. Collaborative and interactive question and answer sessi... Read More

Omaha Public Power District

Guided Implementation

8/10

$123K

120

Westmoreland Mining LLC

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

State of Ohio - Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

The best parts of our experience were the in depth discussions about best practices and the blue print for becoming a center of excellence. The ... Read More

J.R. Simplot Company

Guided Implementation

5/10

N/A

N/A

Forsyth Technical Community College

Guided Implementation

10/10

$123K

20

The best part of this experience was hearing best practices and getting tips on how to resolve some of the pain points we experience here. I can't... Read More

Saskatchewan Blue Cross

Guided Implementation

10/10

$5,000

3

BEST: Hearing Info-Tech's view on the QA process and applying a QA practice and strategy was very helpful WORST: n/a

Texas Children's Hospital

Guided Implementation

3/10

N/A

N/A

Toyota Canada Inc

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

2

University of Northern British Columbia

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

Infotech is very supportive and provided expert level advice.

Kenan Advantage Group

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A


Workshop: Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Assess Your QA Process

The Purpose

Reflect what QA means to your organization.

Key Benefits Achieved

Standardized definition of quality and list of metrics to track

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Define solution quality in your context.

  • Solution quality definition
1.2

State your QA objectives and metrics.

  • QA objectives
  • Metrics to gauge QA success
1.3

Assess the current state of your QA practice.

  • Understanding of the current state of your QA practice

Module 2: Align on Improved QA Practices

The Purpose

Define what would be your ideal QA.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understand how can QA thinking can help your organization and what QA activities will be helped
  • Defined roles and responsibilities

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Define your QA guiding principles.

  • QA guiding principles
2.2

Define your QA target state.

  • Target QA process and artifacts
  • RACI chart of QA capabilities
  • QA resource allocation approach and structure

Module 3: Build Your QA Toolbox

The Purpose

Build a solid set of testing practices.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Defined tolerance levels
  • Defined tests, test data, and environment requirements
  • List of desired tools

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Define your defect tolerance.

  • Test defect risk tolerances
3.2

Define your tests.

  • Test definitions
3.3

State your test data and environment requirements.

  • Test data and environment management requirements
3.4

List your QA tools.

  • List of QA solutions current available in your organization
  • List of desired QA tools to be used

Module 4: Establish a QA Roadmap

The Purpose

A time-based plan that defines where your organization is, where you want to go, and how to get there.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Prioritization of QA initiatives that will help mitigate gaps
  • How various roles will communication with each other and for each activity

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Report and communicate your QA activities.

  • List of QA initiatives and roadmap
  • Communication map

Build a Software Quality Assurance Program

Build a robust strategy and ensure quality is at the core of everything you do.

Analyst Perspective

Quality assurance (QA) has undergone a significant transformation over the years, evolving from a step in the development lifecycle to a pivotal, integrated process throughout the solution delivery cycle. This shift reflects a broader understanding that QA is not merely a gatekeeper of quality but a strategic partner in ensuring software excellence and reliability.

Today, the emphasis is on a proactive QA approach that aligns with Agile methodologies and CI/CD practices, fostering a culture where quality is everyone's responsibility. By leveraging advances in automation, AI, and machine learning (ML), modern QA practices emphasize collaboration, early defect detection, and preventive measures to ensure product robustness.

This perspective positions QA as a strategic investment, a revenue enabler, and crucial to the company's long-term value, rather than as a cost center. A modern QA strategy, therefore, must encapsulate a holistic view of quality, integrating it with business goals and leveraging automation to ensure your products consistently meet the highest standards of quality demanded in today's competitive market.

Bhavya Vora

Bhavya Vora

Research Analyst,
Special Projects
Info-Tech Research Group

Andrew Kum-Seun

Andrew Kum-Seun

Research Director, Application Delivery & Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Given the rapid change in solution delivery over the last few years, the role of quality assurance (QA) has also evolved. Latest disruptors helped evolve the role of QA:

  • The widespread adoption of collaborative methodologies like Agile necessitate changes in how QA is integrated into the delivery process.
  • Maturity of automated delivery practices such as CI/CD pipelines have significantly changed how QA is conducted and enforced.
  • Organizations are looking to invest in AI to automate QA due to the industry hype. AI can involve significant organizational changes, but current systems, processes, and roles may not be ready or able to adopt them.
  • Test requirements and scenarios are broader and more complex. Manual testing is unable to achieve the desired test coverage.

Common Obstacles

  • The perception of QA as a cost center can lead to the diversion of QA investments to other value-added capabilities. This decision may come from leadership, development teams, or other stakeholders who prioritize value generation over cost savings.
  • Significant focus is on the testing phase rather than the inclusion of QA practices throughout the solution delivery cycle.
  • QA teams are unable to accommodate new and evolving security risks and technologies, aggressive performance standards, constantly changing priorities, and misunderstood quality policies.
  • The marketplace for test automation and automated testing tools is crowded and difficult to navigate.

Info-Tech’s Approach

  • Standardize your definition of quality. Come to an organizational agreement of what attributes define a high-quality solution. Accommodate both business and IT perspectives in your definition.
  • Clarify the role of QA throughout your solution delivery lifecycle. Indicate where and how QA is involved throughout solution delivery. Instill quality-first thinking in each stage of your pipeline to catch defects and issues early and motivate cross-functional collaboration.
  • Adopt good QA practices to better support your quality definition, business, IT environments, and priorities. Ensure your QA activities satisfy your criteria for a high-quality and successful solution with the right templates, technologies, and tactics in your toolbox.

Info-Tech Insight

QA is not a role but is a way of working; hiring QA roles can be a start to building a practice but it is not scalable. Automation can help but is limited by the roles who are developing and using it. QA must be delegated and ingrained in every aspect of work.

Insight Summary

Overarching Info-Tech Insight

QA is not a role but is a way of working; hiring QA roles can be a start to building a practice, but it is not scalable. Automation can help, but it is limited by the roles who are developing and using it. QA must be delegated and ingrained in every aspect of work.

QA performed early and throughout the solution delivery lifecycle (SDLC) improves the accuracy and effectiveness of downstream tests and reduces costs of fixing defects late in delivery. QA activities should be embedded in one’s job description.

QA is not a role. It is a mindset (way of working) that revolves around quality-first and proactive thinking. Good QA practices future-proofs solution investments by ensuring they are maintainable, scalable, and transferable.

QA is a shared responsibility. Your test plans and test cases are not static documents nor built in a single event. They are continuously updated and improved through feedback during the solution delivery process in collaboration with developers and other key stakeholders.

Start small to evaluate the fit and acceptance of new and modified roles, processes, and technologies. Aggressive initiatives and timelines can jeopardize success in big-bang deployments. Gradual and thoughtful adoption of QA ways of working helps your teams focus on practice fit rather than fighting the status quo. This approach must involve change tolerant teams, solutions, and cooperative stakeholders.

The value of QA stems from the assurance of sustainable and valuable solution delivery

What is quality and QA?

  • Solution quality is the degree a system, feature, component, or process meets specified customer needs, customer expectations, and nonfunctional requirements. QA is a program of tasks and activities to ensure software quality priorities, standards and policies are met throughout the SDLC.
  • Do not expect a universal definition of quality. Everyone will have a different understanding of what quality is and will structure people, processes, and technologies according to that interpretation.

What is the core of QA?

Verification

is evaluating work items to determine if they meet specified business and technical requirements.

Is the solution built right?

Validation

is evaluating the solution during and at the end of delivery to determine if they satisfy specified business and technical requirements.

Is the right solution built?

How is QA perceived in the organization?

  • Efficient and effective QA practices are vital because solutions need to readily adjust to constantly evolving and changing business priorities and technologies without risking system stability and breaking business standards and expectations.
  • However, investments in QA are often afterthoughts. QA is often viewed as a lower priority compared to other SDLC capabilities (e.g. design and coding) and is typically the first item cut when delivery timelines are under pressure.

Maximize the value you expect to gain from QA

Your QA program is not just about keeping pace with changes. QA is about setting a standard of software quality excellence aligned to stakeholder expectations and priorities while anticipating future challenges and opportunities.

Improved customer satisfaction

Solution issues are identified and addressed before they can negatively impact the customer. Preventative measures can then be implemented to maintain a consistent experience.

Enhanced security

QA enforces the right protocols and tactics are employed during the solution delivery. This standard is aligned to the organization’s security risk tolerance, latest trends, and industry regulations.

Business continuity

Good QA increases stakeholder confidence that the solution can reliably operate in sunny- day and rainy-day scenarios and meet defined service level agreements.

Increased resource utilization

QA practices streamline the SDLC process by reducing the time spent on fixing issues late in the lifecycle, ramping up resources unfamiliar with the solution, and paying down technical debt.

QA remains a challenge for many organizations

These challenges highlight critical gaps in our current approach, showcasing the necessity for a shift toward more integrated and automation-driven QA processes. This focus ensures that QA ultimately drives your competitive advantage.

Top challenges in achieving your software quality goals. Bar graph shows challenges and percentage of respondents. 39% reported lack of time to ensure quality, and 33% reported challenges in applying test automation.

Source: Katalon, 2023.

Increasing the QA budget does not guarantee success

Organizations are investing more into their QA practice.

Forty percent of large-scale companies are spending more than 25% of their budget on testing, with nearly 10% of enterprises spending more than 50% of their budget on testing (LambdaTest, 2023). This showcases how important quality is for all organizations.

But the reception and value of software products do not justify the money invested

78%: Average customer satisfaction score for the software industry.

Source: Fullview, 2023.

On-time, on-budget solutions do not indicate successful delivery practices.

90% of CIOs see at least some business frustration with IT’s failure to deliver value.

Source: CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, Info-Tech Research Group, November 2022 to October 2023; N=115.

Design your QA approach

A thought model depicting the key takeaways from this blueprint. All the text in the thought model is provided below.

Stakeholders expect the speed and responsiveness of product delivery will not come at the expense of quality. A well-structured strategy streamlines delivery processes, upholds quality standards, and bolsters the solution delivery team’s reputation as a trusted partner.

Quality assurance is more than just software testing. Embrace a quality-first mindset that instills product quality accountability, fosters collaboration, and sets delivery expectations across all solution delivery lifecycle (SDLC) roles.

QA Strategy

Achieve a Quality-First Vision

  • Establish clear targets to guide and measure effective QA.
  • Create a unified definition of quality.
  • Align to common quality standards.

Delegate QA Responsibilities

  • Integrate QA early in the delivery cycle to identify critical issues sooner.
  • Perform quality checks throughout the SDLC.

Instill Cross-Functional Accountability

  • Include solution request accuracy and go-live sign-offs as stakeholder accountabilities.
  • Empower SDLC teams to make local quality, low-risk decisions.

Build Your Toolbox

  • Compile a comprehensive set of QA tactics, tools, methods, and standardized templates.
  • Architect, rationalize, and monitor your QA tools and technologies.

Embrace industry good practices and leading-edge technology

  • Adopt AI and automation capabilities in QA design, execution, and analysis.
  • Incorporate iterative and collaboration practices (Agile, DevOps) into your QA practices.

Coach, Mentor & Support

  • Guide SDLC teams and stakeholders with the priorities and tactics of the QA way of working.
  • Facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration across the different SDLC functions.

Purpose of QA Strategy

  • QA Objectives and Metrics
  • QA Standards and Definitions
  • QA Roles and Responsibilities
  • QA Communication and Reporting
  • QA Process
  • QA Tools and Technologies

Assess and strengthen your QA capabilities

Core Capabilities to Grow and Mature Your QA Practice

Vision and Buy-In

Clear direction and goals of the QA practice and ensuring the practice has the appropriate funding and stakeholder buy-in.

Execution Management

The tactics to manually and automatically execute the various QA activities and test types.

Planning

The creation of artifacts needed to define the scope of QA activities and for teams to confidently plan and commit to that scope.

Reporting and Communication

Preparing and delivering the outcomes of QA activities for the consumption of decision makers, SDLC teams, and dependent roles

Cross-Functional Collaboration

The collaboration among SDLC roles in QA activities and the involvement of QA in other SDLC activities.

Practice Management

Defined QA roles and responsibilities; processes, tools, and technology management; and tactics to support and improve the practice.

View the QA Current-State Assessment Tool

Your solution delivery lifecycle should embrace quality at its core

Connect all phases with a solution-centric approach that goes from the first idea all the way through to maintenance.

Solution delivery lifecycle with Product Management, Product Delivery, DevOps (CI/CD). Legend for the above.

See our Evolve Your Software Development Lifecycle Into a Solution Delivery Lifecycle blueprint for more information

Explore the trends in the QA marketplace

  1. AI and ML-Embedded QA Tools

    Embedding AI and ML in QA tools increased the efficiency, scope, and accuracy of test design and execution, enabling them to:
    • Create test cases from functional requirements and test scripts without code.
    • Analyze past testing activities to predict potential issues and defects of current delivery efforts and suggest root causes and solutions.
    • Provision accurate and realistic synthetic test data using production data to train ML models.
    See Leverage Gen AI to Improve Your Test Automation Strategy and Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery for more information.
  2. Autonomous Testing

    Autonomous testing involves tests and other QA activities to be created, executed, and managed through intelligent algorithms without the need for human intervention. This capability enables the
    • Configuration of QA activities to new requirements, testing scenarios and observations of solution delivery activities.
    • Self-healing of test scenarios and scripts when issues occur.
    • Immediate feedback during any phase of the SDLC of potential risks or conflicts with quality standards and industry frameworks and regulations.
    See Tech Trends 2024 for more information on autonomous back office.
  3. Scriptless Automated Testing

    Low- and no-code capabilities reduce or remove the technical skills traditionally needed to create, script, execute, and manage automated tests. This capability motivates the shifting of solution quality accountability earlier in the evolve-your-software-development-lifecycle-into-a-solution-delivery-lifecycle and enables the discovery of risks and defects before they cause negative impact and become expensive to fix. See Satisfy Digital End Users With Low- and No-Code for more information on low- and no-code.
  4. End-to-End Testing

    The configuration and orchestration of automated tests to evaluate the functionality of the solution from start to finish under real user scenarios. End-to-end testing looks at:
    • Testing to ensure specific software layers or components work consistently and reliably across other parts of the software and system.
    • Testing to ensure specific functions work smoothly across the technical stack (from the user interface down to the infrastructure).
    This approach can involve the use of automated testing solutions alongside nontraditional testing solutions like robotic process automation. See Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook and Enhance Your Solution Architecture Practices to identify the impacts of your changes to your systems and users.
  5. QAOps

    QAOps involves the embedding of QA procedures, automation, reporting, and technologies into the SDLC pipeline (BrowserStack, 2022). The goals are to guarantee high software quality consistently across teams and operationalizing QA-optimized, CI/CD processes for broader organizational adoption. QAOps shares many of the principles, behaviors, and best practices of DevOps and Agile methodologies. See Implement DevOps Practices That Work for more information.
  6. QA Tool Ecosystem

    The team’s personal preferences for specific QA tools and technologies have been and are continually shifting away from the siloed, monolithic tooling and vendor stack that the industry standardized in the past. This demand pushed many vendors to position their solutions to build and strengthen relationships with third parties and deliver out-of-the-box plugins and customizable APIs. See Applications Priorities 2024 ass for more information on multisource ecosystems.

Extend the QA mindset beyond testing

Shift QA left and right

An emerging trend in QA is the adoption of shift-left and shift-right testing. Shift-left testing is a software testing approach that places strong emphasis on conducting testing activities earlier in the development process by shifting all testing activities to earlier development stages rather than leaving them until the very final stages (Katalon, 2023).

On the other hand, shift-right testing implies extending testing activities beyond the traditional development and release phases.

This involves performing testing activities in the production environment or closer to the end users after the software has been deployed.

QA involves testing across the SDLC

  • Testing new requirements
  • Testing new code
  • Testing every build
  • Testing every deployment
  • Testing on production

Bridge your silos with DevOps

DevOps purposefully blurs the lines between these responsibilities, forcing collaboration. The developers start building the mindset of continually checking for errors in their code. The testers increase their responsibilities from validating the application to ensuring it is deployable at all times. They may even fix code as needed. All these pieces work together to ensure rapid delivery of features. The focus on the customer drives the work of the entire team.

Venn Diagram with Development, Operations and QA. Where all 3 intersect, at the center of diagram is DevOps

Integrating QA into DevOps:

  • Realign team structure
  • Automate as much as possible
  • Use metrics to track progress
  • Run tests in parallel
  • Have common set of processes & tools
  • Continuous feedback
  • Increasing viability
  • Sufficient training

See Info-Tech’s Implement DevOps Practices That Work blueprint for more information.

Info-Tech’s methodology for building a software QA program

Phase Steps

1. Assess Your QA Process

1.1 List your QA objectives and metrics

1.2 Analyze your current QA state

2. Align on Improved QA Practices

2.1 Define your QA guiding principles

2.2 Define your foundational QA process

3. Build Your QA Toolbox

3.1 Define your defect tolerance

3.2 Align on your QA activities and tools

4. Establish a QA Roadmap

4.1 Build your QA roadmap

Phase Outcomes

  • Solution quality definition
  • QA objectives
  • Metrics to gauge QA success
  • Current QA state assessment
  • QA guiding principles
  • Target QA process and artifacts
  • RACI chart of QA capabilities
  • QA resource allocation approach and structure
  • Test defect risk tolerances
  • Test definitions and owners
  • Test data and environment management requirements
  • List of QA tools currently available in your organization
  • List of desired QA tools to be used
  • List of QA initiatives and roadmap
  • Communication map

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

QA Current-State Assessment Tool

Assess the current state of QA in your organization at team and organizational level.

Test Plan Template

Complete description of the plans and scope of tests.

Test Case Template

Specify and communicate the specific conditions and scenarios that need to be validated and verified.

Key deliverable:

QA Strategy Template

A template to help you document a comprehensive description of the QA practices for your organization. It presents several activities required to validate and verify software solutions.

Blueprint benefits

Demonstrate the value QA brings to your organization

  • Level set your QA expectations with stakeholders to ensure they are achievable and aligned to their strategic goals.
  • Pinpoint and optimize the QA capabilities inhibiting your team from delivering solutions your customers need.
  • Measure the effectiveness of your QA practice in the language your stakeholders understand and empathize with.
  • Clearly illustrate your QA vision and optimization plan through a QA strategy and good communication.

Notable Impacts

  • Clear understanding of the funding needed for the QA practice.
  • Executive buy-in for broader QA improvement initiatives spanning across business and IT functions.
  • SDLC functions motivated to collaborate, learn from each other, and adopt a quality-first mindset.

Consistent delivery of quality across your solution portfolio and teams

  • Consolidate different and siloed perspectives and definitions of quality into a single interpretation and statement to rally behind.
  • Leverage a common toolbox of QA tools, tactics, and templates that were optimized to meet your quality policies and standards.
  • Embed and delegate QA tasks and activities throughout your SDLC roles and processes and empower team-level decision making where possible.
  • Encourage the applying QA practices to the artifacts supporting the SDLC (verification) alongside the solution being delivered (validation).

Notable Impacts

  • Organizational accountability of solution quality before, during, and after the solution delivery process.
  • Common interpretation of quality attributes to ensure consistent compliance with your organization’s, industry’s, and regulator's policies and standards.
  • Greater customer and stakeholder trust in the solution delivery team in delivering high-quality solution.

Measure the value of this blueprint

Outcome

Project Metrics

Impact

Improved software quality by reducing the number of defects

Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively
  • 25% reduction per quarter/year

Increased solution delivery throughput

Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively
  • 20% increase in throughput after nine months
  • Sustainable velocity after one year

Reduction of rework due to defects found during the solution delivery process

Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively
  • 50% reduction in rework due to compliance after one year
  • 90% reduction after two years

Increased application and end-user satisfaction

End User Satisfaction Diagnostic
  • 10% increase in satisfaction in one year

Increased IT satisfaction

CIO Business Vision Diagnostic
  • 10% increase in satisfaction in one year

Increased resource effectiveness

Fully loaded employee costs incurred per year to deliver a given solution
  • 30% improvement by second year

30% improvement by second year

Assess the Value Drivers Within Your Solutions
  • 10% quarterly increase in recognized ROI

Executive Brief Case Study

INDUSTRY: Government
SOURCE: Info-Tech Research Group Workshop

Government Agency

A government agency worked with Info-Tech to develop a strategy to mature and scale their QA practice. The QA team identified several key QA objectives that they want to achieve through their practice:

  • Ensure software products meet business, functional, and nonfunctional (including security, performance, integration, and regression) requirements.
  • Build a disciplined and formal QA practice.
  • Increase customer and stakeholder confidence, trust, and respect.

However, they recognized key challenges standing in their way, such as:

  • Low QA resource capacity.
  • Low availability of business subject-matter experts.
  • Lack of automated testing and test automation tools.
  • Very tight project timelines resulting in the cutting of QA activities.

See our sample workshop deliverable to know how an Info-Tech Quality Assurance Workshop helps improve your QA practice.

Results

By conducting the workshop, the organization was able to:

  • Build a consensus of what QA means and list the necessary changes to be successful.
  • Gauge the maturity and capability of the current QA practice to define a list of optimization initiatives and build a roadmap.
  • Create the initial design of target QA roles and processes of the QA practice.
  • Finalize the future state of QA roles, processes, tools, and tactics, including their implementation to other products and systems, with the existing test strategy.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.

Executive & Technical Counseling

“Our team and processes are maturing; however, to expedite the journey we’ll need a seasoned practitioner to coach and validate approaches, deliverables, and opportunities.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all five options.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Phase 1

  • Call #1:
    State your quality definition and list your QA objectives.
  • Call #2:
    Review your QA current state.

Phase 2

  • Call #3:
    Define your guiding principles and target state process.
  • Call #4:
    Build your QA RACI chart.

Phase 3

  • Call #5:
    Define your defect tolerance.
  • Call #6:
    Build your QA toolbox.

Phase 4

  • Call #7:
    List your QA objectives and define your roadmap.
  • Call #8:
    Finalize your QA strategy.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Build a robust strategy and ensure quality is at the core of everything you do.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.7/10
Overall Impact

$49,332
Average $ Saved

16
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Assess your QA process
  • Call 1: State your quality definition and list your QA objectives.
  • Call 2: Review your QA current state.

Guided Implementation 2: Align on improved QA practices
  • Call 1: Define your guiding principles and target state process.
  • Call 2: Build your QA RACI chart.

Guided Implementation 3: Build your QA toolbox
  • Call 1: Define your defect tolerance.
  • Call 2: Build your QA toolbox.

Guided Implementation 4: Establish a QA roadmap
  • Call 1: List your QA objectives and define your roadmap.
  • Call 2: Finalize your QA strategy.

Authors

Andrew Kum-Seun

Bhavya Vora

Contributors

  • Alan Page, Director of Quality for Services, Unity Technologies
  • Shannon Gould, Manager, Business Analysis and QA, Mohawk College
  • Benjamin Palacio, Information Systems Analyst, County of Placer
  • Jack Bowersox Jr., Software Quality Assurance Supervisor, Mutual Benefit Group
  • Shaunna Bossler, CTFL, Chief Quality Officer, Montana Department of Revenue, IT Division
  • 3 anonymous contributors
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