In Search of Quality

Posted by Paul Fratellone in

 Testing

Aug 26, 2010 | Total views: 23

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Paul Fratellone
Program Director of Test Consulting
More articles by the author

Introduction

Through my many years in quality assurance, I have come to experience many epiphanies about quality, testing and what these terms actual mean to business owners. My “In Search of Quality” series will be several blogs covering the many aspects and dimensions of identifying, measuring and delivering quality. I can divide my old career into thirds. The first third of my career was at IBM, the second third was an independent consultant and the last third has been director of quality assurance. Each was instrumental in making me a seasoned professional and each situation brought more aspects to consider when making strategic, tactical and course corrective decisions. In my new career, test consulting, I will be drawing upon my many experiences over the last 2 plus decades to lead, mentor and influence clients in how best to approach quality assurance and testing. My point of reference is from an “in-house” software development applications/delivery, ERP implementations, eCommerce B2B/B2C and general software products. My industry experience spans Shipping/Logistics, Publishing, Pharmaceutical, Insurance, Brokerage, Financial/Asset Management, Portfolio Management, Institutional Banking/Accounting and Financial Accounting.

This “In Search of Quality” series will start with discussions around Business Goals/Objectives, Quality Dimensions and Testing. For this group of topics, I will introduce you to my experiences around high performing teams and alignment of goals across the delivery team and organizations. The second set of topics will cover Metrics, ROI, Cost/Benefit analysis; how we can measure the value that the software product is providing to the company. How can the delivery team become more productive/efficient, effective in the jobs they do? Peter Drucker once said “efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things”; it’s something we need to identify, understand and measure. Everyone is accountable for quality. The last set of topics will concentrate on Testing/Quality Control; Strategy, Organization, Methods, Techniques and tools.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you and hopefully you will get something out of the discussions. Always wanting your feedback and own experiences as there are many ways to success.



Regards,
Paul Fratellone