April 2010

1. Communication at all levels:

Challenge:

• Communication plays a major role in any offshore software development and Testing and it is one of the biggest challenge if communication is not proper.

My Solutions:

• Effective Communication is the key to manage a project. Communication should be clear in between Product Management, Development and QA on what we are designing and what we are delivering.
• Need to maintain good relationship with Customer, Project and Account Managers to know  the high level info about project progress.
• The communication should be formulated as per the stakeholder needs and to manage the stakeholder expectation.
• Communication should vertical , horizontal, with in the project and external to the project. There are various methods of communication(push, pull and interactive communication) and various tools are used in communication.
• Last but not least, All peers should be on the same page w.r.t. goals, objective and beginning & ending of a product/project.

2. Unrealistic Schedule:

Challenge:

• This is a worst thing and biggest problem in most of the STLC and it impacts on Quality of the product/project. Testers should get enough time to test the application.

My Solution:

• See the schedule and make a plan for deliverables, if time wont permits you to deliver then raise a flag and please don’t compromise here.
• Make sure as everything is working as per plan or not, if not then take corrective actions rather than preventive.
• The Responsibility assignment matrix should be used while assigning the task and identification of the resource.
• The project risk should be identified continuously and throughout the project life cycle and the risk response owner should be identified while doing the risk planning.
• It is always better to prevent the risk before coming otherwise it will increase the project cost and delays in completion of the project.

3. Unclear Requirements / Changing Requirements:

Challenge:

• Most of the times client won’t give/share all the documents to QA Team, or sometimes requirements are not clear and changing it frequently.

My Solution:

• Client/BA should share all documents to QA team and should explain briefly about project and then only team will deliver quality output
• Team should be clear on requirements, if not arrange a meeting and resolve it by discussing with BA/Client/Dev Lead.
• Update the change requirements to team as it will cause many problems if team is not aware of it and should provide enough time to test the application for changed features and functionalities as well dependencies.
• Requirement documentation and requirement mgmt plan should develop by the project team with the project lead

4. Unclear Expectations / Outcome:

Challenge:

• Team should know the outcome of the product and met client expectations as well otherwise it will show big impact on end user expectations.

My Solution:

• Talk with the stakeholders of the project to collect the actual requirement to define the scope of the project.
• Project objective is clear then requirement to execute the project should be identified by brainstorming and Delphi techniques and should develop the project charter and then the project mgmt plan
• Always think as a end user while doing testing of an application and make a habit as why are you doing this project and outcome?
• Tester should have ‘break the application attitude’ and found major issues in the early stage of the release.

5. Utilization of Automation Tools:

Challenge:

• It is one of the most challenging stuff but definitely it will adds value to QA

My Solution:

• Need to add excellent experienced technical guys over here as experience and Should give a proper guidance and act like as a good mentor.

Advantages:

• It provides accuracy, reliable, faster, security as well better quality test results
• Optimizes the process by reducing the turnaround time
• It will gives you the better output and great ROI

6. Delivering a product with good quality on time:

Challenge:

• If there is no proper plan in place then it is hard to deliver the product with in time with good quality.

My Solution:

• Understand the requirements properly and discuss with in team, Dev and Stake Holders to clear doubts/issues
• Plan, Design and develop the test plan, test cases and test data … etc
• Prepare Traceability Metrics  and Checklist for features coverage and dependency
• Execute all test cases and make sure that we have covered 100% and re-verify it before delivering

7. Managing Metrics to provide visibility to customer:

Challenge:

• It is little bit hard/difficult to manage, mainly in Product testing but it will gives a clear picture to everybody

My Solution:

• Identify no. of test cases identified/Automated and put it in Metrics w.r.t. Weekly & Yearly basis
• Identify no. of bugs found  and put it in Metrics w.r.t. Weekly & Yearly basis
• Track each resource achievements w.r.t. Weekly basis on Project and put it in Graphs
• Prepare a Quarterly based report and give a small demo to Customer w.r.t achievements

8. Focus more on Customer Business, domain and market:

Challenge:

• Need to be aware of customer’s customer and upgrade existing process or skills to ensure they meet their cusomter’s expectations.

My Solution:

• Add more Creativity and Innovation to existing work and go for Optimization
• Focus more on Customer needs and change the existing process
• Introduce new types of testing’s as per market trends
• Think ‘Out of the box’ and provides customer an optimal solution both technologically and meeting business needs.

9. Lack of Resources / Expertise’s:

Challenge:

• Experience and trained Resources would be ideal, if not then proper training programs should be in place.

My Solution:

• Add sufficient amount of resources to the project to balance work
• Sometimes resources might go on unplanned leaves or casual/personnel leaves, so it will show big impact on committed deliverables
• Need to create Training plans and Backup plans for resources/work/…etc
• Need to add expertise’s to the team w.r.t. domain knowledge, technologies, processes …etc

10.Last but not least, Internal Issues within the Team:

Challenge:

It will show big impact on Quality of Deliverables, need to resolve such type of issues as on high priority

My Solution:

• Communicate with the team and create friendly environment
• Motivate & Encourage team by giving more chances/responsibilities
• Provide development plans and Goals as objective
• Recognize excellence and Emphasize the balance

Please feel free to add a comment or suggestion, if any.

Thanks,

Baji Prasad CH

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