However, quality control plans should always have a structure that permits improvements to the plan. This allows employees to offer input on how to improve efficiency and quality. In addition, the plan should be reviewed by others periodically, including stakeholders, to ensure the plan is comprehensive. Three Elements of a Quality Plan. Strategic-level quality plans are developed and deployed through the strategic planning process.
Where appropriate, each function or department may develop and internally deploy operating-level quality plans. Operating-level quality plans often are the resulting document s from a production scheduling function. When the product or service is produced, the planning documents may be augmented by inspection documentation, statistical process control SPC charts, and copies of shipping documents and customer-required certifications. In the process, the plans are transformed from documents to records.
These screens, internally, become records when operators, inspectors, shippers, and others make computer entries to the screens. Cart Total: Checkout. Learn About Quality. It is also known as component testing. It is done by the development team early in the development stage.
There are two approaches of Integration Testing i. Top Down and Bottom Up approach. Here test drivers and test stubs are used to assist the integration testing workflow. When there are temporary programs in the applications to substitute programs in development, are called stubs and drivers. The main program if replace is called a Driver and if the lower programs are replaced, then it is called Stubs.
When we have stubs and drivers we call the environment as Test Harness. Once deployment team sends a mail that software is installed into the test environment. We start with build verification testing Smoke test. Here we check if minimum features are working and send a mail to the development team that we are accepting or rejecting the built.
It is also called end to end testing and performed by the testing team at testing environment. When two or more applications need to operate together, there is one more level of testing between system testing and user acceptance testing is called system integration testing.
It is performed by the client. It has two types such as Alpha Testing and Beta Testing. The release testing is a final testing phase of software product or application to verify, the developed software to be release. Here the entire functionalities of that application should be tested to ensure the readiness of the software application.
The testing of the software which is in production, when there are changes to either the i. In this phase, we plan on Impact Analysis i. It is also helpful for testing as it guides where to do most of the testing i. This type of testing done by the testers. Large software development programs are complex and inherently risky. Projects will be at various stages of completion, managed by different project managers, with diverse project teams, stakeholders, environments, and business problems.
Each project is unique. Therefore, projects must use common project controls and processes to mitigate risk and to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Exhibit 1 demonstrates the value of Quality Management for an actual software development program. The chart shows the health of the portfolio over a two-year period. The remainder of this paper describes some proven techniques that you can use to improve the quality of your own projects.
The techniques work best for related projects under one program or any set of projects that are managed in a coordinated way. Quality Assurance QA during project delivery is a series of evaluations by seasoned, experienced project managers.
These individuals should be independent from the project team to provide the necessary management and customer insight into the project. Their objectives are to assess the status of the project, assist the Project Manager PM with problem identification, and recommend possible solutions. QA plays an important role by identifying potential project issues before they cause problems thereby helping to keep projects on time and on budget. At IBM, internal evaluations occur at various designated checkpoints throughout the project life cycle.
There are three types of evaluations during the project delivery phase:. The initial evaluation provides an assessment of the project to ensure it gets off to a solid start. Depending on the size of the project, the initial evaluation can take anywhere from a couple of hours for a small project to several days for a large multimillion-dollar contract. Two techniques are very effective during the initial evaluation:.
Basic project management processes and procedures are always critical to success. QA should verify these are in place during the initial evaluation. Some of the important areas to review for software development projects are:. These documents are essential for managing the customer expectations and customer dependencies.
A change management plan and change control process are in place. Are specialized resources e. What is the process to monitor and evaluate risks? Are testing experts involved early in the project? It is critical that proper project controls exist for communications, change control, performance reporting, issue management, and risk management. To the extent possible, controls should be common across all projects in the program.
World-class companies use a variety of training and development programs to increase quality Hodgetts, The emphasis is to help team members increase their potential and develop high performance, productive teams.
One of the themes of this paper is to build your organizational capability and project management discipline by providing leadership through the quality assurance process. The initial evaluation is an excellent place to start. Building capability during evaluations is a valuable technique that is often overlooked.
In fact, QA professionals are often in the best position to provide coaching and mentoring for the project team, as well as share their experiences. The key is to establish the proper working relationship up front. Frame offers an excellent perspective from his own experience Frame, , p.
The initial evaluation is the right time to create a positive environment for future QA activities. Once the project has started, ongoing evaluations provide an independent assessment of the project status. Ongoing evaluations should be performed at regularly scheduled intervals and major milestones. The purpose is to verify that the project is tracking against the plan, being managed in accordance with the contract, and satisfying the customer's expectations.
Techniques to use during the ongoing evaluations include:. Conducting a monthly delivery review with the project team is a basic technique to review how things are going and to measure the pulse of a project. Many organizations use a checklist to confirm the team follows the project management processes. Regular delivery reviews also give an early warning when the project is not going well, and allows sufficient time to recover before the project becomes troubled.
Here is where an experienced QA professional who has built a relationship with the team can provide tremendous value by advising how to deal with issues and how to fix problems. Software development projects have unique characteristics and risks. The delivery review should include a discussion with the project team when any of these apply to your project:.
Warning signs to watch for include: diverse stakeholder groups, unrealistic customer expectations, or inadequate participation by business areas. Recognize and avoid the pitfalls.
This is especially true when the project requires business process reengineering or organizational change.
Make delivery reviews and the associated checklists an integral part of the quality management plan for your program. Project managers who use earned value analysis generally have better financial control over their projects.
Earned value integrates a project's scope, schedule, and financial baselines and gives an objective assessment of the project performance. Earned value allows the PM to accurately track the work completed, identify variances from the plan, and take corrective action as necessary.
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