Contd... (Part3)

The process improvements are useful only when success can be measured. The outcome should benefit all the stakeholders including top management, Product, development, QA  and CPS teams which should be a value add for the members.

The following are the metrics that would be used to measure the success of the process improvement changes

§  Uniformity in writing testcases

-      This would be easier to process the entire testcase suite from the excel to convert to any format that the test management tool requires.

§  Have an updated list of tests at any given instance

-      This kind of version control in place avoids the redundancy of the tests when the requirements change.

-      Also, this reduces the time taken to make the changes as the structure is well organized

§  Review with the checklists that is published

-      The avoids any major gaps in identifying all the scenarios that are required to test that particular feature

§  Defect tracking

-      The consolidation of the results or the snapshot of the project can be provided live at any moment.

-      Easier to know the state of the project with the charts and graphs and other important metrics that the tool provides.

-      This reduces a lot of manual labor and the time can be effectively spent for QA purposes

§  Number of critical defects found at the earliest

-      As the testcases are written based on the outlined methodologies in line with the published topology and assigned with priority the critical defects are found in the initial phase thereby avoiding the last minute emergency fixes

-      This enables us to stick to the deadline

§  The work is legible and a new member acquiring the knowledge transfer has a quick turn-around time

-      This reduces the time to ramp up the new members

§  Reduced number of defects from the customer

-      Reduced re-work after the release of the project to the customer increases customer satisfaction and reduces the overhead incurred .

Continuous improvement process should be engaged , for periodic review to find the gaps in them or to modify and replace them as required.

The main business objective is to deliver a quality product to the customer by meeting the customer’s expectations within the stipulated time with less overhead. The return on investment was put forward in the following terms

-      Finding the gaps in the requirements at the earliest

-      Identifying the design faults

-      Matching the planned effort with the actual

-      Finding the critical issues at the earliest

-      Reduced re-work

-      Quick turn-around time

-      Reduced cost by using tools effectively

-      Better visibility to the top management

-      Increased customer Satisfaction  

§  The identified processes should be incorporated along with the testplan and sessions were conducted to educate the team about the processes.

§  The member’s performance to be linked to adherence of the processes

§  Process improvement effort from the teams to be part of the recognitions

§  Assigned ownerships for the tasks

§  Day in a life scenarios were demonstrated while creating the process awareness among the members.

§  Recommendations, learnings and improvements to be carried over to the next project in the pipeline

§  Provision to engage the members to come up with continuous improvement processes, to reduce the turn-around time.

§  To acknowledge and reward the rightful candidates