Guideline: General Process Model
Relationships
Main Description

A number of processes have to be set up in the permanent test organisation to offer the services. These processes are split up into two groups. The processes for the services act on behalf of the execution of the services provided by the organisation. The processes of the permanent test organisation serve to support the execution of the services. This is shown in figure 1 “Process model of the permanent test organisation”.

Figure 1: Process model of the permanent test organisation

The service process consists of two parallel primary processes: The process for the actual execution of the service in an assignment, and the process that supports and monitors the execution from the organisation. The processes serve to support and focus on the services that are provided, the employees providing the services, and the combination thereof. The processes are described in greater detail below.

Initiation

This is the first phase for execution of the assignment. The assignment always comprises one or more services of the organisation tailored to the client’s specific situation. The initiation phase serves to describe the scope of the assignment accurately. This can be done by creating a so-called assignment description and asking the client to approve it. An assignment description concretely describes:

  • The assignment and the client’s expectations in relation thereto
  • The preconditions and basic assumptions
  • The agreements concerning the delivery of support for workplace, methods, training and coaching by the organisation
  • The agreements on monitoring by the organisation in relation to communication lines, progress reporting and consultation
  • The deliverables.

Furthermore the initiation phase is used to identify what is available in the permanent test organisation for (re)use on behalf of the assignment. This may include templates and standards, but also existing test scripts from previous releases, test environments or tools.

Execution

In this phase, the assignment is executed conform the agreements with the client. Furthermore, the parties communicate via the agreed communication lines on the results, progress, risks and bottlenecks in the execution of the assignment.

Completion

Reuse of resources is one of the success factors of the permanent test organisation. In this phase, the assignment is assessed and a satisfaction measurement made with the client. The lessons learned from the assessment are fed back into the organisation and incorporated into the (new version of the) service. This results in formal process improvement embedded into the processes of the test organisation.

In addition to the assessment, attention is devoted to the handover of products to the test organisation. The products were identified during “initiation”. It is determined to what extent these products must be retained for reuse. If necessary, the products are adapted. Examples are templates, test environments, test scripts and tools.

Support and monitoring

The organisation continuously supports and monitors the assignment process as described above. The progress, risks and bottlenecks involved in the execution of the assignment are monitored. Where necessary, new agreements are made on the assignment. It may also be decided that the organisation will provide support for the execution of the assignment, in the form of coaching or training.

Delivery management

This process covers activities that aim to win assignments for the organisation and manage (long-term) assignments. Examples of long-term assignments are maintaining the test environment or repeated testing of releases. In this case, a contract is created concerning how both parties will handle the assignment. It specifies agreements on the service level provided by the organisation. Other subjects are the manner in which the specific assignments (test this release) are executed within the context of the general assignment (release testing). As such, this contract does NOT replace the assignment description from the initiation phase, although it may serve as a basis for it.

Planning

The planning process ensures that the right employee is deployed for the right assignment. ‘Right’ in this context means that the knowledge and competencies of the employee match the knowledge and competencies required for the assignment. Other aspects relating to ‘right’ are:

  • Availability (short term, is the employee available in the short and long term, does the employee have impending leave, courses, etc?)
  • Career perspective (how does the employee want to evolve and what new knowledge and competencies must he gain to this end?)
  • Location (this is true only for organisations with multiple geographic locations).

These aspects make clear that the planning process is interwoven with all of the other processes and has many stakeholders. It serves the interests of the employee, assignment management and the entire permanent test organisation.

Service management

The range of services provided by the organisation is not set in stone – it may grow or be reduced. To this end, it must be determined periodically whether the current service offering is in line with demand and with what the employee can do. In addition services must be known (to the client, assignment management and employee) and the products for the services must be up-to-date and in line with the latest developments. Various activities can be set up to this end:

  • Research (monitoring the market to map which new services must be developed and which existing services can be eliminated)
  • Development of new services (the development of new services with related products and resources)
  • Knowledge management (managing the services with related products and resources)
  • Service marketing (ensuring that current and prospect clients are aware of the services).

Human resource management

The process of human resource management (HRM) aims, among other things, to continuously develop the career of the test organisation’s employees. In combination with planning, this creates the instrumentation for the employee’s career development. It allows him to continue to develop and grow in the compensation and career areas. This requires matters like defined job positions with associated competency and compensation levels. Attention must also be devoted to individual training plans and assessment and reviews.

Financial and operational management

Management has two key aspects – the financial and the operational. Financial management is a continuous process based on budgeting (what are the expected costs and benefits) and monitoring (what are the actual costs and benefits). Operational management can be executed on the basis of many factors, an example is KPI (key performance indicator).

A KPI is an indicator to establish the performance of an organisation or part of it. There is no fixed set of indicators for test organisations. These depend mainly on the objective and policy of a test organisation and how they are defi ned. A few options:

  • The percentage of employees executing assignments for clients
  • The percentage of assignments completed within budget
  • The number of defects (in relation to defects detected earlier) occurring in production
  • The percentage of test services purchased as compared to test services provided by others.