Interview Questions

How to establish QA Process in an organization?

Software QA/Testing Technical FAQs


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How to establish QA Process in an organization?

1.CURRENT SITUATION
The first thing you should do is to put what you currently do in a piece of paper in some sort of a flowchart diagram. This will allow you to analyze what is being currently done.
2.DEVELOPMENT PROCESS STAGE
Once you have the "big picture", you have to be aware of the current status of your development project or projects. The processes you select will vary depending if you are in early stages of developing a new application (i.e.: developing a version 1.0), or maintaining an existing application (i.e.: working on release 6.7.1).
3. PRIORITIES
The next thing you need to do is identify the priorities of your project, for example: - Compliance with industry standards - Validation of new functionality (new GUIs, etc) - Security - Capacity Planning ( You should see "Effective Methods for Software Testing" for more info). Make a list of the priorities, and then assign them values of (H)igh, (M)edium and (L)ow.
4. TESTING TYPES
Once you are aware of the priorities, focus on the High first, then Medium, and finally evaluate whether the Low ones need immediate attention.
Based on this, you need to select those Testing Types that will provide coverage for your priorities. Example of testing types:
- Functional Testing
- Integration Testing
- System Testing
- System-to-System Testing (for testing interfaces)
- Regression Testing
- Load Testing
- Performance Testing
- Stress Testing
Etc.

5. WRITE A TEST PLAN
Once you have determined your needs, the simplest way to document and implement your process is to elaborate a "Test Plan" for every effort that you are engaged into (i.e.: for every release).
For this you can use generic Test Plan templates available in the web that will help you brainstorm and define the scope of your testing:
- Scope of Testing (defects, functionality, and what will be and will not be tested).
- Testing Types (Functional, Regression, etc).
- Responsible people
- Requirements traceability matrix (match test cases with requirements to ensure coverage)
- Defect tracking
- Test Cases
DURING AND POST-TESTING ACTIVITIES
Make sure you keep track of the completion of your testing activities, the defects found, and that you comply with an exit criteria prior to moving to the next stage in testing (i.e. User Acceptance Testing, then Production Release).
Make sure you have a mechanism for:
- Reporting
- Test tracking

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