This blog is going to address two topics in terms of Quality Assurance (QA) at Marketnet. The first topic will focus on defining Quality Assurance. Secondly, as part of that definition, I’d like to delve into the first of four QA Strategy steps. Let’s get started.
When you think of Quality Assurance, what comes to mind? For many folks it’s hard to pin down and get a definitive answer. Typically you’ll hear something like “Making sure the software I bought works.” Or “Knowing that new car I just drove off the lot is going to last longer than it will take to pay it off.” Some focus on Quality alone, offering a broad sweeping statement such as “I’m not entirely sure, but I know it when I see it. Better yet, I know it when it’s not there.” In all instances these are correct, although they still miss the point. Suffice it to say Quality Assurance means many things to many people. In order to come up with an agreeable definition, specific for our industry, we need ever so briefly consider where Quality in its modern concept originated.
Quality as a modern concept came into the full front in the 1930s in large part due to mass production. Products on an assembly line were inspected to catch defects and take corrective action. These efforts led to more efficient concepts, such as sampling of production runs and control charts. This practice continued through the 1940s until a hard look into post War Japan was responsible for Quality as we know it today.
In their efforts in assisting in rebuilding Japanese infrastructure, Dr W Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran were instrumental in creating concepts of Quality Control and Assurance that applied to the manufacturing industry. Those concepts eventually grew into a school of thought known as Quality Management, and proved quite effective, especially in the Japanese automotive industry. Eventually these were adapted by American manufacturing, albeit under different terms and definitions. These models continued to evolve and mature and were later applied to the software industry.
Pioneers in this specialized area include Cem Kaner and James Bach. I recommend their blogs as a good point of reference. At this point Quality began to develop its own language, terms and definition specific to the software industry. For a thorough overview on these terms and the evolution of Quality Management, I recommend Quality Management DeMYSTiFied by Sid Kemp.
Within software development we have a set of structured disciplines performing specific activities. At Marketnet we begin with Discovery and start documenting requirements. From these we move into Information Architecture to document the wireframes and supporting documents. From there we progress into creative and design phases, generating compositions and imagery. Then onto development and design phases where the project begins to take shape programmatically. Along the way we must insure the process is adhering to requirements and finally that the product is tested and meets the customer expectations. This last step and associated activities make up Quality Assurance. You may think of QA as your in-house advocate, insuring your best interests are always reinforced through the life cycle of your project.
So that brings us to Quality Assurance and how we define it at Marketnet. I think now that we have a working understanding (first topic), this would be a good time to look at our Mission Statement and Quality Assurance System (QAS).
The Marketnet Quality Assurance (QA) Mission Statement:
Quality Assurance is an integrated layer within the Marketnet Process that helps determine whether products or services meet customer expectations. This layer considers design, development, production and ongoing customer relationships that utilize specific and flexible steps that define and help attain goals.
Quality Assurance System
Quality Assurance at Marketnet follows the Deming Wheel to continually provide reliable and effective testing. This considers the four steps (topic two) of Plan, Do, Check, Act.
• Plan: Establish objectives and processes required to meet the desired results
• Do: Implement the Plan developed
• Check: Monitor and evaluate the implemented Plan through a variety of test strategies and types
• Act: Suggest actions necessary for improvement as needed; reinforce success
Summary of upcoming blogs
In future blogs we will discuss such topics as:
• Test Plans: Types, components and the purposes they serve
• Details of a Test Plan: the nuts and bolts
• Test Execution: Constructing and Executing a Test Harness against a Test Plan
• Bugs: An often misunderstood yet important fact of the QA world
