Inventory

Create Inventory activity involves an inventory of the current testing method in the organisation. The test policy of the organisation that describes how the organisation deals with the people, resources and methods involved with the test process in the various situations plays an important part in this activity. The inventory results also contain a conclusion and approach for the subsequent activities: definition, organisation, awareness and testing. The result is described in a plan of approach. The (final) activity, implementation, follows at a later stage after the trial project is completed.

Definition

Based on the results of activity 1 “Inventory” the preconditions for a permanent test organisation are elaborated step by step. A process description of the test organisation is created. The result is a concrete process description of the permanent test organisation for the trial project, including the deliverables of the trial project. The services to be delivered by the organisation are specified unambiguously. The agreements considered necessary in the preliminary study are made and confirmed.

Organisation

Based on the results of activity 1 “Inventory” and in parallel with activity 2 “Definition” the organisation is set up. While the activities to be executed here depend on the results of activity 1 “Inventory” a possible description follows to clarify this step. Setting up an organisation is done in terms of services. Examples are test expertise, test lines, and testware management. For test expertise, this means elaborating the various test functions. The aspects that can be considered generic to a test are set up in the test lines. This means procedures, methods, techniques, test strategies, test environments, testware and test tools. The process from the existing situation to the permanent test organisation is a migration process, which is described in a migration (activities) plan. The result is a concrete description of the organisation and its position in its environment (internal and external organisation). A step-by-step plan according to which the organisation can be established.

Awareness

In parallel to a number of other activities, the organisation works on the awareness of the test organisation. Activities are presentations, workshops, articles in internal magazines, etc. It is important in this activity to obtain and retain continuous commitment on the part of the management, clients, and personnel executing the activity. The stakeholders in the migration process to the test organisation at the various levels in the organisation must be aware of the significance of the test organisation. If this is not the case, the proposed changes will never be assimilated into the organisation and the organisation will tend to return to the old methods. In fact, awareness must not be considered a separate activity but rather a vital precondition. If there is inadequate commitment, it is better to cancel the migration process. As a result there is support from the stakeholders, such as line managers, project managers and (test) personnel.

Support from line management

It is important in this activity that the people see that the line management supports the migration process. Tools to achieve the required awareness are presentations and workshops. For this reason, the awareness-building process must start with the line management and only later move to the project management, test leaders and testers. The long-term objectives and costs/benefits are discussed with the line management. The operational issues and short-term migration activities are discussed with the testers. If the line management is skipped, the test organisation runs a great risk of failing, in particular when the regular operations and the migration process have clashing priorities at one point.

Trial

The (new) approach in the test organisation is tested via one or more trial projects to demonstrate the feasibility both internally and externally. The results of the trials are recorded. Any improvements in both the organisation and the approach are implemented. The result is an adjusted test organisation for the trial test process with a justified go/no go decision for wider implementation.

Implementation

To work as efficiently as possible with a test organisation, it must be used as widely in the organisation as possible. Based on the results of activity 5 "Trial” and with the support realised via activity 4 “Awareness” the organisation is implemented and anchored, if necessary with some adjustment. The end result is a permanent test organisation supported by the client organisation, which can be used by multiple projects for their test activities.