The importance of Quality Engineering Strategy Reviews

By Julian Lawless, Client Engagement Director - Roq

Having been involved in testing for many years I am still surprised by the number of conversations I have with organisations where they do not have any form of strategy for quality and testing in place. Often, I will have conversations where the answer is “yes, we do have a strategy, someone wrote it a few years ago, or we employed someone to write the strategy for us”; then you find it hasn’t been read or reviewed since, or it can’t even be found. After a little further conversation and digging you discover it was a test strategy written for a project, not an overarching organisational Quality Engineering Strategy.

Quality is everyone’s responsibility

At Roq we consider quality to be everybody’s responsibility. To ensure that everyone is aligned with what that means in the context of any technology solution, a well-structured Quality Engineering Strategy at organisational, programme or product level is absolutely critical. Early engagement with well-structured processes will ensure quality is considered and delivered by and to all stakeholders.

What is a Quality Engineering Strategy and why do we need one?

Indulge me for a moment…  Those of you who know me personally will know I am addicted to Formula 1, therefore, every race weekend I am continually exposed to the success and failure of a team’s strategy, from the initial design concept through pre-season testing and into race weekends and the race itself. Where teams do not have an effective strategy in place for pre-season testing and that testing is compromised the damage to the teams’ chances of success in the championship year can be immense in terms of reputation. That impact can also be measured in millions of pounds of lost revenue from the Formula 1 organisation and the team’s success in attracting and retaining sponsors.

Often race strategy is just as important as the driver of the car, sometimes more so. The sport is a team sport and the entire team have their part to play in that strategy. Alongside an overarching strategy, the team has multiple strategies for the entire race weekend including qualifying, the race, tyres, pitstops etc. The most successful teams are those with a strong strategy that can react instantly and invoke an alternative strategy owing to changing circumstances. Unless it’s happening to your favourite team, we all find amusement in a car arriving at their designated pit area to find the mechanics still taking the blankets off their next set of tyres, or even worse still, sitting down!

Applying this approach to the Software Delivery Lifecycle (SDLC) in a Quality Engineering Ecosystem, everybody has a responsibility for quality, not just the testers. The strategy sets out what you are going to do, planning focuses on how you are going to do it. The consequences of poor quality as a result of no strategy, an outdated strategy, or a bad strategy can cost lives (depending on the sector), financial losses, reputational damage and a social media frenzy.

Typically, there are three levels of strategy that can be employed in an organisation’s SDLC:

• Organisation Quality Engineering Strategy

• Programme Quality Engineering Strategy

• Project Quality Engineering Strategy

All of the above strategies have common elements, but as you get into the lower-level strategies, then obviously the level of detail relating to the specific programme or project increases.

Typically, the strategies will include:

• The types of testing the organisation will carry out and where this will happen across the SDLC.

• Responsibilities - The role or team’s responsibility for quality at each stage within the SDLC needs to be clearly defined to avoid uncertainty and confusion.

• Reporting - The quality metrics that will be captured, measured and reported on.

• Environments - Defining the environments to be used across the SDLC

• Quality gates, entry and exit criteria for stages within the SDLC

• Tooling - The tooling that will be used across the SDLC for quality and testing purposes

• Defect Management - How defects are logged, tracked and managed. Defining the severity and priority levels that are to be used;

• Risk Management - Considering risk in the SDLC and releases, application of risk-based testing techniques and risk management.

Constant review is essential

To be considered relevant, the organisational Quality Engineering Strategy needs revisiting and reviewing at least once a year. Programme and Project level Quality Engineering Strategies should be reviewed and updated as needed.

It is essential that for any Quality Engineering Strategy to be effective, it focuses on quality across the entire SDLC and it must have the buy-in and support of all stakeholders within the organisation. It is crucial that the organisation’s Quality Engineering Strategy is easily accessible to everyone within the organisation and is effectively communicated. Ensure it is built into induction activities of new joiners is a good approach to adopt.

Benefits

There are a number of benefits to having an up-to-date, relevant organisation Quality Engineering Strategy in place:

• It defines a clear approach to quality across the SDLC

• It provides clarity on where ownership and responsibility for quality reside in the SDLC thereby avoiding confusion over who is responsible and when

• It provides visibility to an organisation’s senior leadership team on what quality measures and activities are in place and carried out within the SDLC

• All levels of strategy form a part of an organisation’s quality management system if the organisation is ISO accredited

• To an organisation’s prospective clients, it sets out the organisation’s quality strategy clearly and can provide a competitive advantage during a tendering exercise;

• It provides a reference point for internal and external audit purposes.

Negatives

The absence of any form of Quality Engineering Strategy means there is no visibility of quality in the SDLC. Key aspects such as non-functional requirements may be omitted or compromised.

Confusion over responsibilities for quality in the SDLC can result in issues reaching live with reputational and financial consequences.

Quality gates may not exist, if they do, they may be open to interpretation and can be changed at will.

An outdated strategy is not much better than no strategy at all. It may not reflect the current development methodology, latest techniques, tooling and best practices. Again, the result can be compromised quality, increased costs, and lost revenue. In addition, poor employee morale and staff retention can be issues as employees seek out roles where they will be exposed to the latest methodologies and best practices along with the latest tools available.

As I mentioned earlier in this article, a bad strategy in Formula 1 can cost race wins and revenue. A bad strategy in the SDLC means that everyone may be following the strategy, but because the strategy has issues quality can be compromised, resulting in increasing customer dissatisfaction, lowered team morale, increased staff attrition and increased costs.

How can Roq help?

At Roq our team of experts can help you to successfully implement a Quality Engineering Strategy.  can be provided at Organisation, Programme or Project level. We work closely with our clients, understanding their processes from design and build, planning and preparing for testing, test execution and defect management – the full test lifecycle and associated inputs.  

The QE Strategy that we develop will cover all the test processes and provide a foundation for quality engineering. It will align to the client’s methodologies, be that Agile, Waterfall or hybrid and their aspirations will be taken into account.  

Any strategy we produce is intended to add value, especially if it is written at organisation level, and will not need frequent changes. It is a blueprint that will support the client’s projects roadmap with robust guidelines and processes.

Our team of experts will take the following approach: 

• The right strategy for you

  We ask the tough questions early and provide sensible and realistic solutions that add real value to the business - giving you quality, delivered at a level that all stakeholders buy into.

• Pragmatic approach

  Our expert review provides a pragmatic approach to implementing agreed recommendations and helps companies make the necessary changes, through implementation support, training or mentoring.

• Ensuring continual improvement

  Feedback loops are built in across all phases of the project to highlight areas for continual improvement, providing an ongoing return on the investment in quality.

If you are about to embark on a major programme of work or are at the point where quality is continually a problem, then let us know and we’ll try and help, email ask@roq.co.uk or connect with me via LinkedIn – I’d welcome a chat!