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Spotlight Quality Assurance and Quality Control Take Center Stage This issue's Spotlight column features an interview with Rachel Ford, Operations Manager at Applied Discovery. Her group is responsible for developing and ensuring high quality service standards for Applied Discovery's Online Review service as the functionality and capacity expand to meet client demands. The Orange Pages™ (TOP): Rachel, you've been with Applied Discovery for more than three years. How has the operations group changed in that time? Rachel Ford (RF): One of the most noticeable changes is that the focus of our group has narrowed as the company has grown. We now have group members solely dedicated to conducting quality assurance and quality control testing. This helps us to maintain our reputation for the highest level of quality in the industry. TOP: Quality assurance and quality control? Aren't they the same thing? RF: No, but they are frequently confused. Both disciplines have the same common goal: to ensure quality. Both are necessary to effectively manage development and maintenance of our technology and services. But the concepts are different. Quality assurance (QA) is conducted during the product development lifecycle. QA takes a detailed technical requirement and product objective and applies a set of measurable methodologies and standards to ensure the explicit requirements are met, the objectives are achieved, and the code is free of defects and in compliance with industry standards. By contrast, quality control (QC) activities are continuous and focus on ensuring consistency and quality throughout the delivery of our products and services. Once a client begins using our Online Review application, quality control measures are conducted from the beginning to the end of the project. TOP: How does testing fit into the equation? RF: Testing is performed as part of both QA and QC duties, with the intent of proactively identifying quality variances and measuring success. Testing defines repeatable steps and activities that act as a road map for defining success, and guides the team in determining measurable code acceptance criteria. TOP: Can you give us some examples of testing? RF: At Applied Discovery, three fundamental traits are paramount to our success: quality, capacity and service. We create a custom test plan to ensure every feature in our Online Review application meets these needs. Examples of test coverage include: performance speed, usability, security, data validation, compatibility, and regression testing. TOP: Regression testing? What's that? RF: It is the retesting of the affected components of the system whenever there is any change to the application, no matter how large or small. In some cases, this may mean retesting the entire software application for a very minor service upgrade. This ensures that newly modified code complies with its original core requirements, and that unmodified code has not been affected by the maintenance activity. Also referred to as verification testing, regression testing is initiated after a programmer has changed or added code that may have inadvertently introduced errors. TOP: Can testing be automated? RF: Yes. The more automated the test process, the more efficiently changes can be functionally tested and regression tested. We have invested in a state-of-the-art testing system. Still, there is no single "silver bullet" that will perform the comprehensive test coverage we require. So, in addition to utilizing third-party tools, we develop customized internal test tools specific to our application. Of course, we also roll up our sleeves and perform manual tests. TOP: With so many different types of computers and networks these days, how can you be sure that Applied Discovery's application will work for all of your clients? RF: That's an excellent question. There are an infinite number of possible computer configurations in the world today. During every test cycle, we test numerous standard scenarios, from operating systems and network configurations to common virus scanning software and Internet conditions. We continuously poll our clients to find out what they're using, to make sure our scenarios are reproducing their environments. The goal is to ensure compatibility with as many configurations as possible, and also to identify the optimal conditions for our application so we can be sure our clients have the best user experience. TOP: How is the operations team involved in issue resolution? RF: Issue resolution is our number one priority. The operations team is very proactive. When a technical issue of any kind comes up, our goal is to mitigate that issue before our client ever notices a problem. For example, while performing a keyword search a client may use invalid syntax and get no results. Because we are continually monitoring and analyzing the performance of our active projects, we can quickly identify problems like this and contact our clients to help them get the documents they need. When any problem is identified, the operations team creates a resolution task force composed of members not only from our team but also from all of our other technical departments (networking, production services, development, etc.) to ensure aggressive investigation and immediate resolution. TOP: Why are QA, QC and testing so important? RF: Although QA, QC and testing are often considered expensive, non-revenue generating aspects of a business, Applied Discovery takes these functions very seriously. Our commitment to achieving high quality standards on a regular basis is critical to our clients' success, and is also vital to the success of our company. TOP: Thanks for the information, Rachel. Keep up the good work in the operations group. |
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