Taking Quality on the Road

In a former place of employment, I worked as Quality Assurance Director at a software company who produced products for the hospitality industry. At the start of one fiscal year, the CEO issued a friendly charge to all business units to find ways to add to revenue streams. I silently groaned, as Development and Testing Teams so often hear the corporate rhetoric about not being 'profit centers' but 'profit spenders'—and we're often left feeling many executives lose focus of how these groups are the center builders of the products that bring in profits.

At any rate, all the department heads moved forward with eyes wider open, looking for ways to generate revenue. The IT group found some creative ways that year to generate some income through hardware hosting projects. A few developers managed to 'up-sell' some custom development and custom web design projects with existing clients.

Somewhat surprisingly, we found that there were clients that were eager to receive help from Testing/QA staff, and fund on-site initiatives. Large implementation projects generally require a significant amount of acceptance testing–and in general, most software customers do not retain inherent testing expertise. Their users have the know-how for doing their jobs, and know what they need software to do. But, their staff may not always have the background to thoroughly and successfully formulate and organize testing programs to endorse products for implementation. Even where the expertise might be around, client's staff members always have their own jobs to perform, and software acceptance testing is difficult to also make an additional priority, and fully complete. Bringing trained testing/quality staff on-site, who know the products and industry well, makes a great deal of sense for many situations.

Here's a rough idea of how I approached one significant QA consulting project we procured:

• I gathered checklists, and a good understanding of all defects resolved, and features created and changed for the specific client
• I gained a solid up-front understanding of how the customer's company was organized—what business units utilized different portions of our product, who key stakeholders were, etc.
• I pieced together and adapted high-level functional test scripts, scaled back from our standard arsenal of tests, that applied well to the current implementation
• I segregated tests into checklists, that linked up with the different business units of the client
• I processed a few test upgrades in my testing center, just to assure as best I could, that things were staged to roll smoothly during the live implementation
• I shared with the client an open source test case management program that I recently set up for my test processes. We aligned use of the program, so we could easily share test cases
• I prepared a formal acceptance test plan, to share with leadership of my company and the customer’s company—confirming what services would be provided, what testing was planned, and what resources and contingencies would be required

After we arrived at the client site for the implementation proceedings:

• I outlined, on a white board, the stages of tests we were prepared to complete
• The project leader helped us schedule ½ day segments of time with subject matter experts from each business group, to work through all the tests described in our acceptance test plan
• We stepped through each of our initial test cases for each functional area, cooperatively with client staff
• We observed the business representatives go through their routines, in the software, and together, we assessed the product functionality in the new version
• We tested recently and historically resolved defects in the specific product areas, to confirm resolution to all points of prior concern
• While going through these motions we carefully documented test cases that well-represented client acceptance and workflow scenarios
• Opportunities existed, along the way, for light training to occur, for full understanding to be provided on new and existing functionality

After working through these efforts, we quickly came to an acceptance point, and saw a highly-successful implementation as a result.

In addition to the revenue benefits, some great additional side-effect benefits from this venture were recognized:

• Added rapport developed between both companies involved
• Heightened satisfaction was achieved, as thorough, communicative review occurred through the implementation
• Peace of mind was sustained, for both agencies, as confidence was in place that planned, systematic testing and acceptance were being provided
• Our test personnel were on hand to quickly respond to any kinks that surfaced during a major application upgrade
• Our testers were able to see first-hand the application in action, and witness elements most important to quality in 'the real world'
• In addition to stepping through scenarios and tests with stakeholders, we were granted ability to observe ongoing business practices like: viewing accounting and contracting groups going through processing in the software; front desk clerks checking hotel guests in via our application, and listening to calls coming through their Call Center, and being tracked in our product. This provided invaluable exposure for us, to our application being used in production. (We also managed to get out of the 'lab' setting, and spend two weeks in Europe, in this case, which was great!)
• The client was left with a comprehensive set of test cases, in a test management system, to execute themselves, during future upgrades
• Our Test Team was able to return with new sets of test cases to utilize upstream, in our processes, that better ensure quality for this customer, and all customer’s needs

Many options like this may exist, for companies to expand their profit centers. With your QA Team and business model: Are there large acceptance test projects they can help complete? Are there opportunities to consult and build test plans and test cases for customers to use? Might a client need assistance with performance tests, endorsing new or existing hardware and needed performance standards? Is a QA Consultant needed to review processes and best practices during implementation programs at client sites? Can you help with custom reporting, metrics, or utilization measurements?

With or without revenue opportunities, I’ll definitely continue to promote and request on-site Test and QA consulting efforts. It's clear the benefits can be exceptional for QA programs, and for long-term success with software customers.