Replacing an obsolete retail back office, head office & point of sale system that was to be rolled out across Poland & the Netherlands & then a number of additional countries by a trio of integrators on behalf of a major petroleum company, none of the integrators had mature or dedicated testers or business analysts, or believed they needed them.
As far as QA was concerned they were completely green field.
Poorly documented excel based requirements with no traceability.
No tooling to facilitate a single view of the development & test progress.
No test assets at all.
No clear vision of what was required to be tested by whom & in what order.
Key Requirements for SQA
Create a Programme Specific Test Strategy, Policies and Procedures
Create, Manage and Deploy a Programme Specific Test Approach underpinned by an MPP
Setup and manage the end clients test management tool of choice
Upskill internal graduate resources teaching them how to document requirements, create and execute test scripts, raise defects and adhere to quality gates
Create and Manage Test Environments
Augment Test Team with QA SME’s on a build Operate and Transfer Model
Manage all Phases of Testing
SQA PROposed solution
Test strategy & approach created denoting accountability & responsibility targeting, unit & component integration, vendor integration test, product testing, smoke/link testing, system integration testing, non-functional testing, security & penetration testing, operational acceptance testing, user acceptance testing, business process testing, cut-over testing & certification testing.
Microsoft project plan created to underpin all test phases across both countries.
Customised ALM test management framework created.
Requirements static tested, re-engineered & uploaded into ALM.
Requirement relationship linked to aid impact analysis.
Multiple workshops conducted to educate resources on how to construct modular reusable test scripts, e.g., login, navigation, function – thread together to exercise business process.
Estimation models created.
Client resources trained & supported in correctly & fully utilising all of ALM’s features.
Resources from SQA Consulting mobilised to own & lead multiple test phases.
Continuous client resource mentoring & support throughout the programme lifecycle.
Real-time MI providing a single view of overall/test phase coverage, defect density, daily targets & achievements.
Interviewed new client hires for permanent roles within the test team.
Self-sustainable test teams created.
solution benefits
Career testers created within client environment.
Accurate test estimates can be created relating to business, functional & technical requirements.
Uniform test processes continuously improved via lessons learned to support new projects.
Resources can now be seconded to support test phases irrespective of country or client.
Self-Creating MPP’s via test management software.
Automatic creation of daily execution targets.
Able to conduct true risk-based regression based on impact analysis.
Test asset re-use between phases & across projects.
Single real-time view of test phase or project can be ascertained on demand.
30% Change request reduction due to continuous static analysis.