effective-qa-time-management

Effectively Manage QA Time Constraints

effective-qa-time-management

Typically Quality Assurance are normally the last line of defence prior to a project going LIVE. Therefore, any missed deadlines prior to testing would normally have a knock on effect which the QA Team will have to suffer by way of reduced testing time, but that is all part of the challenges of a QA Tester and the need to anticipate these situations and having the measures in place to react accordingly is extremely important.

Do we even need QA on this we don’t really have the time or the budget for it.

In my own experience, I have found that there are many ways to ‘catch up with testing’ but the most effective way is to apply a priority to individual tests or groups of tests (specific area of the System). If this is an approach that is adopted then the resource to script test cases does not have a huge amount of pre work. Typically a more experienced QA Tester who has in-depth knowledge of the system or business procedures should be able to carry out a task of applying a priority to each are of the system. Alternatively a Business Representative, or Business Analyst should be able to assist with this task.

Risk Based Testing Review

  1. Very High: These are the test cases, which test the core functionality of the software. It’s the feature that without them working the software is unusable for its sole purpose. If any of the feature stops working then this will block any further testing.
  2. High: This is all the test cases that are involved in major functionality performed by the end users. These functionalities are very important to the customer and if these fail then customers will loose confidence in the software, so they also need to be tested ASAP.
  3. Medium: These are the ones that make our software unique and would be the look and feel of the system. If these have bugs the customer will not be happy but will still use the system as all the critical features are working fine.
  4. Low: In this category, all the suggestions, and small UI changes or product improvements will be included. They will not affect the software usage in anyway and can be avoided if there is tight deadline.

This review of the areas to be tested should then be able to be used to create a testing timeline and deadlines for groups of tests. This way you can really see when or if you are falling behind or even when you have caught up and the project is back on track, this information is absolutely key to a Test Manager and PM’s and they will be sure to thank you for it. Remember Defect Management will also play a huge part in meeting any Testing deadlines set so be sure that you have a solid Defect Management Process in place prior to the start of any project.

Although a bit controversial, one of the main obstacles or challenges for a QA Tester to deal with when faced with time constraints is the level of ‘buy-in’ from Key Stakeholders liked Project Management and Release Management. This could be the difference between everyone pulling in the same direction to meet deadlines, or cutting corners in the quality and coverage of the testing leading to a project that meets deadlines but has an unsightly number of LIVE issues – I know which I would prefer! Luckily enough, I have always worked for companies that believe and support QA but I have heard, as I am sure you have, of some horror stories from testers through the years.