Wednesday, November 21, 2007

QA AND THE PROJECT DELIVERY LIFE CYCLE


Common Project Problems

Like all software development activities, projects risk the following common technical and programmatic problems:

v Inaccurate understanding of the project requirements

v Inflexibility; inability to adapt to changing requirements

v Modules that do not work together

v Late discovery of serious project flaws

v Scant record of who changed what, when, or why

v Limited roll-back capabilities

Root Causes

Such problems often stem from the following root causes:

v Lack of communication; poor information work flow

v Lack of processes

v Lack of standards and/or procedures

v Lack of process for integration (the big picture)

v Lack of solid testing methodology

Missing Components

With the following programmatic components in place, the root causes of many common project problems may be corrected:

v Quality assurance

v Configuration management

v Version control

v Controlled testing environment

v Quality assurance testing

v Error management

v Standardized work flows for all of the components above

No comments: