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QUALITY ASSURANCE & TESTING PRACTICE
The demands, access, and sophistication of customers and the dynamic nature of business and information technology environments demand change. The number, complexity and interdependencies and relationships of stakeholders, data stores and development organizations (host, workstation, DB support, table support, architecture) increases the risk associated with change. Enterprise Engineering’s Quality Assurance Practice ensures that all changes are in accordance with business direction, executed efficiently and effectively, prioritized with stakeholders, and verified and validated. Coordination, control, verification and validation of change is essential to compete effectively in the marketplace and provide impeccable services to internal and external customers.
The catalysts for change include (but are not limited to):
a. Customer Service. Change is required to better serve customers or to allow representatives to provide better service to customers.
b. Legal. Change is required to comply with legal requirements or administrative rules.
c. Business Retention. Change is required to correct a problem that is negatively impacting the ability to compete in the market place or is causing customer loss.
d. Market Opportunity. Change is required to take advantage of an emerging market or increase market share in an existing market.
e. Incident Repair. Change is required to correct a problem.
f. Usability. Change is required to make the system easier for the user to use.
g. Technology. Change is required to take advantage of changes in technology. It may be necessary to make technology changes to take advantage of other opportunities in the competitive marketplace.
h. Business Process Re-engineering. Fundamentally changing the ways and means of delivering or providing a service or product to a customer.
Change is manifested and communicated by the following:
a. Business Requirements. Business Requirements can precipitate changes to existing systems or be the impetus for new system development.
b. System Requirements. System Requirements are developed to define and illustrate how Business Requirements will be satisfied.
c. Policies and Procedures. Policies and/or procedures can be updated or developed to response to change catalysts.
d. Design/Architecture. The basic design of an application or component may change. The system environment or architecture is also subject to change.
e. Business Process Re-engineering. The ways and means of delivering or providing a service or product to a customer undergo fundamental change.
f. System Upgrades. Periodic changes to vendor products, hardware upgrades and new software product standards drive the change process.
The information technology world is becoming increasingly complex. Interrelated and dependent environments, systems, technologies, applications, platforms, and data must coexist and be seamlessly integrated to make the customer/user desktop an effective business tool. Increasingly the user and the environment are not using or viewing applications as discrete entities but as a single solution that allow the user to perform their function. The user tool must meet or exceed requirements and expectations while not negatively impacting any existing functions.
Any change to any part of any component can compromise all user tools negatively impacting the user and the organization. A single well-defined Quality Management Process (QMP) is required to verify and validate change in today’s Information Technology organizations and is an integral component to the success of a development and implementation effort.
Verification refers to the procedures, processes, practices, and methods employed to verify:
a. Adherence with the Client’s strategic direction, vision, values, and mission
b. Compliance to standards
c. That all requirements have been identified, defined, quantified, appropriately addressed, and accepted by the impacted business areas
Quality Assurance is the process of evaluating change, verifying change, and managing risk associated with change. Validation refers to the process, practices, and methods employed to prove that all requirements have been satisfied. Testing is the process of validating processes, procedures, systems, methods and practices and identifying risks associated with change. Requirements will be considered satisfied when all project deliverables meet or exceed their acceptance criteria. Any deliverable that fails to meet its acceptance criteria puts the successful implementation of the change at risk. A change can be identified as at risk if deliverables are delayed, not approved or if resources are significantly underestimated.
Testing refers to the processes, practices, methods, and strategies employed to validate change. Every change must be validated.
There are three (3) aspects to change:
Structure Validating:
(How it is put a. System requirements and components
together)
a. Connectivity and Communications
c. Stability, Integrity, Reliability
d. Architecture
Each level of validation builds on and extends the previous validation activities and constitutes a complete, comprehensive, cohesive, and coordinated validation process.
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