Test Process Management

Course available as online self-paced

Course available to schedule onsite

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Concepts

This course is designed to take a serious look at the process question. How much process do we need and how do we get the right amount implemented? Process requirements vary widely depending on your organization, your environment, your project and even the people involved. In this course we'll look ata variety of approaches to determine what we need, what we can implement and how to get the support we require to make our processes effective. Our goal is to have an efficient test organization that is a productive and necessary part of the project team. In order to do this, we need enforceable policies, processes and standards in place that can adapt and grow.

Outline

Introduction
- Setting the objectives for the course
- Administrative items
- Instructor introduction
Defining Quality Policies, Processes and Standards
- What is a quality polic
  - Do you have one
  - Who should set it
  - Can you realistically set one
    - Based on requirements
    - Based on experience
    - Based on management edict
- What are quality processes
  - Do we need them
- What are quality standards
  - Some industries have set standards
    - Do we want standards
      - Advantages
      - Disadvantages
    - What if the industry standards don't apply
  - How do we make standards with teeth
Let's get real about quality goals
- What are the quality goals of the organization
  - Who sets them
  - What is the overall perception of quality
    - How can we use this perception
    - Will a cost of quality document help
  - Do your goals differ from those of the organization
  - How can we ferret out the unspoken goals
Process - Is it really a dirty word?
- How does process get defined
  - Is this the best way
  - How do we work around default processes
- What are the best ways to propose and implement process change
- Can we leverage industry standards and best practices
  - Is CMM useful
  - Is TMM useful
  - Where do we get support
    - Are there other groups involved
    - Can we make them follow our rules
- How can we control our processes before they control us
  - What happens when there's too much process
  - Or not enough
  - Or just the right amount
- In what areas do we need process
  - There are at least 12 areas of process control in most organizations
  - The level of control may vary by organization, project or people
- Are we control freaks
- Does process documentation help
  - How much do we need
  - Do we spend all our time documenting and not doing
  - What is the role of the test plan in process documentation
- How does process affect our infrastructure management
  - How do we effectively document processes for the following areas
    - Bug tracking
    - Configuration management
    - Source control/release management
    - Unit testing (including code coverage)
    - Test tracking
    - Automation
    - Change control
  - What works and what doesn't work for the above areas
  - Do processes vary based on development methodologies
    - How flexible should we be
    - What is the control vs. efficiency vs. schedule tradeoff
How do we sell what we want to implement
- What are the best practices
- Can we justify and present COQ data
- What data do we need to track now to use later
  - How do we effectively report our information (publish or perish?)
  - How do we get our message to the target audience
How do we make reviewing and adapting processes part of every project