How To Maximize Your Test Group’s Productivity

Leverage tools you already have to manage, automate, and collaborate in today’s fast paced development environment.

Abstract (1 Day Seminar)

You will learn how to:

·        Leverage tools you already have to manage, automate, and collaborate in today’s fast paced software development / test environments

·        Automate and support project management tasks, resource tracking, test assignments and group coordination

·        Institute collaboration and single-source repositories for your project without spending any cash

·        Collect and present test metrics and reports that communicate information that can be used to make business decissions

·        Make compelling arguments to support your resource needs

·        How to budget and plan for success in this new technology

·        Overcome obstacles, and show your management the value added by testing  --Demonstrate the ROI of the Test Effort

The global connectivity provided by the Internet has driven the cost of communications to an all time low changing the way that we do business and the people we do business with. Ubiquitous low cost communications; e-mail, and voice over IP allow us to ally with new partners and join new markets in far away places, on a scale that is unprecedented in history. A competitive market drives us to undertake projects and accept schedules that were previously impossible.  But, with all this new connectivity come a whole set of challenges.

The Internet or Intranet web site is a supremely accessible information store.  It should be the perfect place for a group of people to pool their resources, share their thoughts, plan and coordinate their efforts, and track their progress.  But, historically trying to use a web site for these tasks has been problematic expensive and disappointing.  Internet based collaborative tools and strategies are available, but they don’t have all the answers yet. 

This tutorial shows you how to leverage the Web to produce a high quality product complete with an outline of the workflow differences, common assumptions, and unexpected challenges of managing a project via the Web. 

Topics

Module 1:  A High Function Web Site

·        Introduction

·        The Challenges Of Doing Business On The Internet

·        Case Study 1: Document Review

·        Barriers to Participation

·        Benefits of using a high function web site

·        Case Study 2: A Product Deployment and Support Site

Module 2: Tools for the Project Web

·        Introduction to S-Curves

·        S-Curves and STS Project web site

·        Case Study: S-Curves

·        Conclusions

Case Studies

The Document Review Project

Abstract

This case study follows the development of a series of technical specifications using Web based collaboration techniques.  The internationally based team was tasked with writing and developing technical documentation in parallel with the agile development initiative.  The process of updating and notifying team members of updates was automated using a high function web site with Collaboration capabilities.  These techniques allowed the documents to be reviewed by more than 100 reviewers and go through four major revisions cycles during its development. --This was an unprecedented level of review and evolution. 

Traditional documentation and communication costs were minimized using this approach. The quality of the resulting documentation and courseware was very high and the trainers who are now delivering it participated in its creation and had lots of practice time.  Whenever anyone had a good idea, they could share it with the group, without delay.  The cost of managing the effort using the Collaborative solution was less than 25% of what the company had expected to pay based on their past experience with Internet based development efforts.

Students learn:

·        What a high function collaborative web site is and how it can be used to speed development evolution and improve quality of the product

·        What worked and what didn’t

·        Lessons learned about managing far flung efforts using Web based Collaboration

A Product Deployment and Support Site

Abstract

This project involved training and supporting instructors who would deliver the technical course, developed in Case Study 1, around the world.  The project goal was to educate 600 instructors around the world within 6 months, and then provide ongoing support for these instructors as they educated 100,000 students in the following 12 months.  All of this, while the product the courseware and materials continued to evolve as the product that is the subject of the courseware approached its actual release.

The results were far better than anyone expected

·        Using a team web site (high function collaboration enabled web site) saved 75% of the expected costs for the first project

·        And, 99% of the next three deployments…

Students learn:

·        How the process worked (and the challenges that the team faced them

·        What special steps were required to succeed

·        What the team learned

S-curves

S-Curves are particularly effective tools for tracking and reporting project progress.  The S-Curve graph shows clearly when the project is on schedule, when the schedule is slipping, and where the schedule is slipping. The graphs give insight into the reasons behind deviations from the plan.  S-Curves make it possible to make adjustments to the effort as soon as slippage is detected, allowing management to “fix” problems immediately.  -- Before the become big problems.  S-curves are helpful in tracking the types and density of errors encountered in the project and in making estimates of the probable number and severity distribution of remaining errors.  S-Curves also make it possible to measure the effectiveness of the test effort and they provide a valuable basis from which to estimate time lines and resources for subsequent releases.

Students learn:

·        What S-Curves are and how to create your own

·        How to use S-Curves to manage your Agile projects

·        Time Boxing in Agile Efforts for Development and Test

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Copyright Ideva 2008

Last modified: August 13, 2008