The document discusses how testers can transition to quality assurance roles. It provides answers to common questions about quality assurance, including what type of QA fits testers best, how to convince managers to implement QA, and how to show that QA saves time and money. The document also addresses how QA can be applied in agile and outsourced environments. Key points include using arguments about cost savings, analyzing defects to determine where issues are introduced, and measuring benefits to demonstrate the financial impact of QA.

1. How to make the step from
testing to quality assurance
Jan Jaap Cannegieter
Vice President SYSQA B.V. (The Netherlands)
jcannegieter @sysqa.nl or @jjcannegieter

2. Questions that will be answered
• What kind of QA fits a tester best?
• Why is everybody else not asking it by themselves?
• How to convince your manager to implement QA?
• How can I show upfront and afterwards that QA pays?
• How much does it pay?
• How to deal with agile and outsourcing?
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3. What is quality assurance?
The planned and systematic activities implemented in a quality system
so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled
Doc.
Doc. Process
Doc. Data Result
Process
Code Process
Code
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4. Product QA
Doc.
Doc. Process
Doc. Data Result
Process
Code Process
Code
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5. Process QA
Doc.
Doc. Process
Doc. Data Result
Process
Code Process
Code
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6. Project QA
Doc.
Doc. Process
Doc. Data Result
Process
Code Process
Code
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7. Essence of product QA
Development Testing
#
defects
Quality
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Inspections/reviews/audits
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8. 9
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9. Problem 1:
How do I convince management

10. What are important arguments for a manager
• Improve quality ✔ ✔ ✖
• Improve certainty ✔ ✔ ✖
• Improve continuity ✖ ✔ ✖
• Save time ✖ ✖ ✔
• Save money ✖ ✔ ✔
• Ease / comfort ✔ ✔ ✖
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• Safety ✔ ✖ ✖
• Status ✖ ✖ ✔

11. Problem 2:
Where do I find undisputed,
organizational specific data that
shows upfront that QA saves
money and time?

12. We have the key!
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13. Calculating the advantage of product QA
Phase Savings
Barry Boehm Requirements 32
Functional design 16
Technical design 8
Capers Jones =
Code 4
Unit test 2
SYSQA Functional test 1
Production -
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14. The case
• Big telecom organization
• Testdepartment with approximately 200 testers, test
managers etc.
• Projects are exceeding time and budget
• Quality not good (enough)
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15. Calculating costs of poor quality - I
Phase # defects Factor Pot. savings
Requirements 6 32 192 hours
Functional design 5 16 80 hours
Technical design - 8
Build 7 4 28 hours
Unit test - 2
Totaal 18 300 hours
Average € 80,= per hour: „avoidable failure costs‟: € 24.000,-
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With review effectiveness of 50% actual savings: € 12.000,-
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16. Calculating costs of poor quality - II
Phase # defects Factor Pot. savings
Requirements 65 32 2080 hours
Functional design 225 16 3600 hours
Technical design 60 8 480 hours
Build 105 4 420 hours
Unit test - 2 -
Totaal 457 6580 hours
Average € 80,= per hour: „avoidable failure costs‟: € 526.400 ,-
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With review effectiveness of 50% actual savings: € 263.200,-
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17. 18
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18. Problem 3:
How do you measure the benefits?

19. Benefits per defect found in reviews
Phase Savings
Requirements 32
Functional design 16
Technical design 8
Code 4
Unit test 2
Functional test 1
Production -
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20. Benefits
First six mounths
# Inspections 124
Solved majors 1385
Time spend on inspections in hours 2476
Saved hours 25354
Return on investment 10.24
Saved money in 6 mouths 1.601.460,-
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21. Different cases
Case 1: shared service center
• ROI: 7,1
• Saved: € 377.600 / 16%
Case 2: system dev. outsourced
• ROI: 11,9
• Saved: € 51.200
Case 3: insurance company
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• ROI: 6,8
• Saved: € 1.824.000

22. Problem 4:
How do you expand your focus?

23. Optimize and expand QA
# defects removed in phase X
Quality of a phase =
(# defects phase X-1) + (# defects injected phase X)
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24. So, how do I make the step from testing to QA?
• Use the arguments that fits the personal interest of the decision
maker
• Analyse your defects: determine moment of injection
• Quantify the cost of poor quality / avoidable failure costs
“We could have saved this, would you like to save it in the future.”
• Measure and communicate the benefits
• Keep improving
And
• Develop you political skills
• Develop your persuasion skills / sales skills
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• Develop your change management skills
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25. Everybody happy?
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This is not the end of the story …
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26. “We are going to implement scrum
so we don’t need QA anymore”

27. Quality Assurance in agile projecten
Product Product backlog Sprints
vision
User
Business requirements
requirements Systemreq., de
User story 1
User story 2
sign, €
build, test
User story 3
User story 4 Systemreq.,
User story 5 design, €
build, test
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Quality Assurance
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28. “We are going to outsource everything,
so we don’t need the QA anymore”

29. Projectdefinition
• Requirements
• Supplier selection
• Contracts
• Design
• System test
• Development
Outsourced process
Acceptance
Outsourcing and quality assurance
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30. Outsourcing and quality assurance
• Supplier selection
Projectdefinition
• Requirements
Acceptance
Outsourced process
• Design
• Contracts
• Development
• System test
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Quality Assurance

31. The answers
• What kind of QA fits a tester best?
Product QA
• Why is everybody else not asking it by themselves?
Because I used the wrong arguments
• How to convince your manager to implement QA?
By showing that QA saves time and money
• How can I show upfront and afterwards that QA pays?
Determining the moment of injection of defects and using the calculation model
• How much does it pay?
An awful lot of money
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• How to deal with agile and outsourcing?
In agile and with outsourcing you also need QA

32. © SYSQA Almere
In case you have got any questions later:
jcannegieter@sysqa.nl or @jjcannegieter