Build a Software Quality Assurance Program
Build quality into every step of your SDLC.
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Contributors
- Alan Page, Director of Quality for Services, Unity Technologies
- Shannon Gould, Manager, Business Analysis and Quality Assurance, Mohawk College
- Benjamin Palacio, Information Systems Analyst, County of Placer
- Shaunna Bossler, CTFL, Chief Quality Officer, Montana Department of Revenue, IT Division
- Jack Bowersox Jr., Software Quality Assurance Supervisor, Mutual Benefit Group
- 3 anonymous company contributors
Your Challenge
- Today’s rapidly scaling and increasingly complex products create mounting pressure on delivery teams to release new systems and changes quickly and with sufficient quality.
- Many organizations lack the critical capabilities and resources needed to satisfy their growing testing backlog, risking product success.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Testing is often viewed as a support capability rather than an enabler of business growth. It receives focus and investment only when it becomes a visible problem.
- The rise in security risks, aggressive performance standards, constantly evolving priorities, and misunderstood quality policies further complicate QA as it drives higher expectations for effective practices.
- QA starts with good requirements. Tests are only as valuable as the requirements they are validating and verifying. Early QA improves the accuracy of downstream tests and reduces costs of fixing defects late in delivery.
- Quality is an organization-wide accountability. Upstream work can have extensive ramifications if all roles are not accountable for the decisions they make.
- Quality must account for both business and technical requirements. Valuable change delivery is cemented in a clear understanding of quality from both business and IT perspectives.
Impact and Result
- Standardize your definition of a product. Come to an organizational agreement of what attributes define a high-quality product. Accommodate both business and IT perspectives in your definition.
- Clarify the role of QA throughout your delivery pipeline. Indicate where and how QA is involved throughout product delivery. Instill quality-first thinking in each stage of your pipeline to catch defects and issues early.
- Structure your test design, planning, execution, and communication practices to better support your quality definition and business and IT environments and priorities. Adopt QA good practices to ensure your tests satisfy your criteria for a high-quality and successful product.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a strong foundation for quality, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Define your QA process
Standardize your product quality definition and your QA roles, processes, and guidelines according to your business and IT priorities.
2. Adopt QA good practices
Build a solid set of good practices to define your defect tolerances, recognize the appropriate test coverage, and communicate your test results.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a four call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Define your QA process
Call #1 - Discuss your quality definition and how quality is interpreted from both business and IT perspectives. Review your case for strengthening your QA practice.
Call #2 - Review the standardization of QA roles, processes, and guidelines in your organization.
Guided Implementation #2 - Adopt QA good practices
Call #1 - Discuss the practices to reveal the sufficient degree of test coverage to meet your acceptance criteria, defect tolerance, and quality definition.
Call #2 - Review the technologies and tools to support the execution and reporting of your tests.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite 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 onsite 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: Define Your QA Process
The Purpose
- Discuss your quality definition and how quality is interpreted from both business and IT perspectives.
- Review your case for strengthening your QA practice.
- Review the standardization of QA roles, processes, and guidelines in your organization.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Grounded understanding of quality that is accepted across IT and between the business and IT.
- Clear QA roles and responsibilities.
- A repeatable QA process that is applicable across the delivery pipeline.
Activities
Outputs
List your QA objectives and metrics.
- Quality definition and QA objectives and metrics.
Adopt your foundational QA process.
- QA guiding principles, process, and roles and responsibilities.
Module 2: Adopt QA Good Practices
The Purpose
- Discuss the practices to reveal the sufficient degree of test coverage to meet your acceptance criteria, defect tolerance, and quality definition.
- Review the technologies and tools to support the execution and reporting of your tests.
Key Benefits Achieved
- QA practices aligned to industry good practices supporting your quality definition.
- Defect tolerance and acceptance criteria defined against stakeholder priorities.
- Identification of test scenarios to meet test coverage expectations.
Activities
Outputs
Define your defect tolerance.
- Defect tolerance levels and courses of action.
Model and prioritize your tests.
- List of test cases and scenarios that meet test coverage expectations.
Develop and execute your QA activities.
- Defined test types, environment and data requirements, and testing toolchain.
Communicate your QA activities.
- Test dashboard and communication flow.
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.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
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
Kenan Advantage Group
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Columbia Mutual Insurance Company
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Sedgwick Cms
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
ISG Central Services Ltd.
Guided Implementation
9/10
$40,695
23
Novexco
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Minter Ellison Rudd Watts
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
The Government of the Northwest Territories
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
5
New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association
Guided Implementation
3/10
N/A
N/A
