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Final Paper
Right “Fit for Purpose” Testing Process through Test Process Assessment and Improvement
Author: Karankumar Wadhwani, Test Solutions Consultant
Co – Author 1: Vishesh Kumar Gupta, Test Consultant
Co – Author 2: Rahul Sharma, Test Tooling Consultant
SOPRA STERIA
AbstractIT organisations generally believe that they have world class testing teams delivering
to the SLAs’ within the mandated cost and quality paradigm. In the rapidly changing IT
space, as SDLC methodologies continue to mature towards a nonstop delivery model,
does the belief still hold?
In a bid to ‘do more for less’, we usually cut down testing efforts as that’s most easy
thing to do!! What is the effect of this? It’s anybody’s guess, poor quality.
Instead, institutionalising and continually improving the testing process in line with the
best practices best suited to today’s project methodologies (Agile/DevOps) can
provide the much needed impetus, confidence and the assurance in software quality.
The pursuit for establishing strong testing processes must begin with an unbiased
evaluation of the current test processes using benchmark industry standards and
accepting the shortcomings.
Though the identified gaps with respect to the industry standards gives a view of areas
to be focused, there is still a need to have a well-defined path for test process
improvement which can instil industrialised set of testing practices eventually leading
to tangible value to business.
In the book “The High Performance Entrepreneur”, Subroto Bagchi shares a wonderful
story that highlights the importance of having strong process. The story leads to the
conclusion “Be like Michelangelo or else, you must follow process”.
This whitepaper will detail about the whys and how of test process improvement
keeping in sight the TMMi mandated ways of working.
Test Process ImprovementWhyIn an ever-shifting software world, as the SDLC matures from the Waterfall to the Agile
and DevOps, there is increasing demand for enhanced level of efficiency and
effectiveness in testing. In order to bring about a semblance of conformity with the
emerging trends and needs, it has become all the more important to continually review
the existing processes and to assess their applicability against the changed or newer
benchmarks.
A robust Test Process Improvement process must be defined to aid the alignment and
refinement of the current Testing Process whilst making best use and reuse of the
existing test assets across the organisation. The improvements must be in line with
the product quality goals and testing objectives, which are themselves derived from
the organisations business objectives and growth drivers.
Even the topmost of the quality conscious organisations with the best of class test
process must apply Test Process Improvement initiatives, supported by organisation
wide cooperation, to adopt the Test Maturity Model into their test organisation.
The organisations should consider and value Process Improvement as a structured
and a measured activity, which enables their Testing services to achieve the highest
level of efficiency and effectiveness.
The key fundamental principles include quantifying the test process and further fine-
tuning it to ensure adherence best practices and industry standards, enhance
efficiency and effectiveness of testing and bring in the culture of continuous
improvement and innovation.
The vital objective of the Test Process Improvement process is to develop a system
which continuously improves testing. Test process optimisation entails the following:
Instituting test process assessment against best practices and industry
standards
Identifying the weak and the strong process areas, suggesting areas from
where process assets can be extracted and reused
Deploying incremental and innovative improvements across test processes and
technology
Selecting and providing the best practices to the organisation
Continuously evaluating new testing related tools for adaptation
Reuse of high quality test assets across the organisation
Continuously improving the testing process involves proactively and systematically
identifying, evaluating and implementing improvements to the standard test process
and project’s defined processes on a continuous basis.
Where
The Test process improvement initiatives across most of the organizations seemingly
have higher focus and returns around the core testing functions like Test Policy and
Strategy, Test Planning, Design, Execution and Control activities. Nevertheless, the
other supporting functions also have an equivalent impact on the success of testing
organizations. Now, depending upon the specific need or level of test process
improvement required, the organisation can seek to assess and improve upon the
core or/and the supporting testing functions.
The level of scope of the assessment will be driven by the factors such as:
Size of the testing organisation
Current and targeted maturity level
Timelines to bring the change
Budget constraints
Cost / revenue benefits
How
The first step towards any improvement is realization of the necessity to improve, be it
Test Process or any other area. The problem signs concerning testing need to be
interpreted consequently providing an impetus to improve the testing process.
To carry out the Test Process Improvement, an individual / group must collaborate
with relevant stakeholders to assess the current testing process, to introduce the
newer testing practices, and to manage the existing ones.
A gap analysis must be carried out to determine the delta between the current set of
organisation testing practices including tooling landscape against the best available in
the industry. This gap analysis should result in qualitative and quantitative
identification of the current state of play. This will serve as the basis to identify the
required changes.
The assessment scope and methodology could be customised to suit the exact needs
of the organisation depending upon the factors described before. Typically, the
assessments could range from basic informal surveys to more formal and structured
interviews with the testing stakeholders, and thorough analysis of testing process
enablers such as guidelines, templates, checklists, tools. A fast track approach, which
is a smaller subset of a full-fledged assessment, could be employed if time is a
constraint.
The assessment would result in a set of ideas and recommendations. These ideas
could range from setting consistent testing guidelines and practices for the
organization, to implementing the right set of tools to enable the automation and
enforcement of these guidelines and practices. These improvement ideas must be
captured in a Test Process Improvement log to allow further planning, tracking and
reporting. The implementation of these ideas must be managed using the
organisation’s Change Management and Configuration Management processes.
The following process should be followed to sift through the idea logs and implement
the fit for purpose ideas:
Ideateo Triage the ideas and assess the suitability of these with the stakeholders
before finally deciding to approve / reject these proposals
o The approved proposals must undergo a change impact assessment to
gather details such as: Cost benefit, efficiency benefits and other
intangible benefits
Incubateo Basis the Change Impact analysis, a refined cut down list of the potential
improvements need to be agreed
o Group and Prioritise requirements according to the scope, benefits that
they offer, the type of change
o Identify the necessary resources required to implement requirements
o Create a detailed plan to implement the requirements
o A schedule and high level milestones must be listed in the plan
Executeo Carry out the implementation of the process improvement to ascertain
the benefits that it produces
o Capture the process improvement metrics to measure the scores from
before and after the implementation. These metrics are presented to the
relevant stakeholders along with the benefit analysis
o Once the relevant stakeholders are satisfied with the improvement
initiatives, they must provide a sign off
Train
o People who will be responsible to work with the improved test process
must be trained to increase familiarity with the process
Key Success Factors
Below are the key success factors which will play a crucial role in realising the true
potential of test process improvement:
Clear vision of the objectives
Intent to bring in change
Willingness to accept the shortcomings
Overcoming apprehensions
Awareness of the latest industry standards and innovations in testing
Applying the right methodology (there is no one size fits all)
Benefits
A business outcome driven approach towards test process improvement delivers
several benefits and adds value to business:
High Quality: Industry best practices strengthen testing to deliver a high quality
product/application
Improved Productivity: Test process optimisation and incubation of robust
techniques (E.g. Risk based Testing) to enhance productivity
Cost Optimisation: Identify bottlenecks and recommend ways to optimise
testing efforts leading to cost reduction
Reduced risk levels: Predictable quality and increased level of confidence
leading to reduced risks
References & Appendix
World Quality Report: 2016-17
https://www.tmmi.org/
“The High Performance Entrepreneur”, Book by Subroto
Bagchi
Author Biography
Karankumar Wadhwani works as a Test Solutions Consultant in Sopra
Steria Noida, and having 8 years of experience in Test Solutioning,
Presales, Consulting and Testing delivery. He has expertise in creating
Testing proposals, conducting test assessments and implementing QA
process changes. He holds a Master’s degree in Business and
Management from University of Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow,
U.K.
Vishesh Kumar Gupta works as a Test Consultant in Sopra Steria Noida.
He has over 12 years of industry experience gained through multiple roles
covering Test Transformation Consulting, Test Management and
Business Analysis.
Rahul Sharma works are a Test Tooling Consultant in Sopra Steria Noida,
with over 20 years of experience in Testing.
THANK YOU!