FAQ's on Software Testing - 1

How can new software QA processes be introduced in an existing organization?

- A lot depends on the size of the organization and the risks involved.For large organizations with high risk (in terms of lives or property) projects,serious management buy-in is required and a formalized QA process is necessary.
- Where the risk is lower,management and organizational buy-in and QA implementation may be a slower,step-at-a-time process.QA process should be balanced with productivity so as to keep bureaucracy from getting out of hand.
- For small groups of projects,a more ad-hoc process may be appropriate,depending on the type of customers and projects.A lot will depend on team leads or managers,feedback to developers,and ensuring adequate communications among customers,managers,developers,and testers.
- The most value for effort will often be in
(a) requirements management processes,with a goal of clear,complete,testable requirement specifications embodied in requirements or design documentation,or in 'agile'-type environments extensive continuous coordination with end -users,
(b) design inspections and code inspections,and
(c) post-mortems/retrospectives.
- Other possibilities include incremental self-managed team approaches such as 'Kaizen'methods of continuous process improvement,the Deming-Shewhart Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle,and others.