Collaboration & Innovation

Baldrige national quality program

2010-02-20T01:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.quality.nist.gov/

Graduate programs in Quality Management

2010-02-20T01:02:00.000-08:00

Arizona State University - M.E. Quality & Reliability
also, M.S. Industrial Engineering with Q&R emphasis
http://www.asuengineeringonline.com/online/?page=online_qre

Eastern Michigan University - M.S. Quality Management
http://cot.emich.edu/quality/

Southern Polytechnic - M.S. Quality Assurance
http://www.msqa.edu/

Upper Iowa University - MBA Quality Management
http://www.uiu.edu/catalogs/eu/grad_mba_1.html

East Carolina University - M.S. Technology Systems emphasis on Quality Systems
http://www.tecs.ecu.edu/tsys/grad/msts/qs.htm

California State University - Dominguez Hills - M.S. Quality Assurance
http://www.csudh.edu/msqa/

Bemidjii State University - M.S. Industrial Technology (seems to have an emphasis on quality)
http://distance.bemidjistate.edu/grad8.aspx?pageID=62

University of Tennessee - M.S. Reliability & Maintainability Engineering
http://www.engr.utk.edu/rme/masters.html

University of Maryland - M.E. Reliability
http://www.oaee.umd.edu/grad/enre.html

Purdue University - M.S. Industrial Engineering w/quality emphasis or quality systems emphasis
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ProEd/credit/ms

Mercury Quality Center - Questions

2008-06-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

- Explain defect management process thru Mercury QC
- Explain how traceability is established between requirements, test cases and defects using MQC
- Explain test execution thru MQC

Question about documentation vs customer perception

2008-06-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

Customer finds that it is waste of effort in preparing documents adhering to the processes. He just pays for the hours for the time spent on product/Services. Convincing him has gone down the drain. Being CMM level 5 company, the organization requires documents. The development team says if customer does not want, why should they waste time on it? How do i handle this situation?

Importance of Code review coverage metric

2008-03-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

QA Metrics

2008-03-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

Product metrics

- Reliability (MTBF)
- Maintainability

Process metrics

- Productivity
- Schedule variance
- Effort variance
- Defect desnity
- Defect removal efficiency

Was asked to develop a QA process for small projects (<$50 K). How do I go about this?

2008-03-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

I assume you don't have any existing QA processes at your organization and you were asked to develop all the processes from scratch.

This depends on how much money your organization is willing to spend writing processes.

Before start writing processes, a plan needs to be published if it does not exist. You may want to consider proposing to your managment to recruit professional QA experienced in writing processes and/or CSQA to assist you in writing the processes.

For anything you do, just follow PDCA cycle.

P- Develop a plan and get approval
D - Write processes based on documented plan/scope. Pilot these processes
C - Monitor and Control process results
A - Improve these processes.

Estimation methods

2008-03-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

1. Function point method
2. COCOMO method
3. Analogous estimation method
4. Parametric estimation method
5. Delphi method

Defect, Bug, Fault and Failure - Discuss differences...

2008-03-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

CSTE

2008-03-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Could you please let me know the syllabus of CSTE, how to prepare for CSTE exam and where can we get the books and all? Any special training is required to prepare for CSTE? I would be thankful tp you for your information.

CSTE Syllabus -

The Common Body of Knowledge for the software tester certificate includes these ten knowledge categories:
Software Testing Principles and Concepts
Building the Test Environment
Managing the Test Project
Test Planning
Executing the Test Plan
Test Status, Analysis and Reporting
User Acceptance Testing
Testing Software Developed by Outside Organizations
Testing Software Controls and the Adequacy of Security Procedures
Testing New Technologies

where can we get the books and all
http://www.softwarecertifications.org/ and go to customer portal to register and get Common Body of Knowledge.

Any special training is required to prepare for CSTE?

- You need to work in testing profession to clear the examination. You can form a study group with your peers and study together and you will be successful in the examination.

Sample CSTE Questions

2008-03-21T18:16:00.001-07:00

Describe the Difference between Static and Dynamic testing
Draw the Testers Workbench for the process to select test automation tools
List 3 test automation tools you would like to acquire and why they are important
There is a delay in the development project. How will the testers handle the testing activities, without changing resources, working time, etc?
Write any 5 metrics and how you use metrics for to improve the test process
Write the contents of a system test report
Write the items of an Acceptance test plan table of contents. Explain them
Describe the types of information that must be covered in a COTS software contract
Define Defective, Preventive & Corrective controls and give 2 examples of each for Internal Controls
What are the risks involved with new technology
Explain about structural testing and list 3 structural tests techniques
What are the testing skills which are important to tester and why? Draw staffing matrix with those skills
Below are three risks associated with software testing. Explain each of them and give mitigation for each risk.
Not Enough Training/Lack of Test Competency
Us versus Them Mentality
Lack of Customer and User Involvement
Draw a defect tracking screen
Write at least three test cases for login screen
Draw a control chart and explain how to use it
Describe the steps in a process that you would recommend for your users to develop "use cases" for acceptance testing
What is foreign attachment and give an example
Responsibilities of Auditor's responsibilities and tester's responsibilities in testing internal controls
If RFID chip are introduced to meet the requirements of a super market customer, what are the risks.

Service Level Agreements

2008-03-21T07:53:00.001-07:00

Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal written agreement made between two parties: the service provider and the service recipient.Generally, a SLA should contain clauses that define a specified level of service, support options, incentive awards for service levels exceeded and/or penalty provisions for services not provided. Before having such agreements with customers the IT services need to have a good quality of these services, Quality management will try to improve the Quality of service, whereas the SLAs will try to keep the quality and guarantee the quality to the customer.
Typical Service Level Agreement Contents: Services Delivered Performance Problem Management Customer Duties Warranties & Remedies Security Disaster Recovery Termination

Testing question

2008-03-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

> Any one has experience in testing the IA, Design documents or requirements? >
What are the methodologies for testing that is performed before â€œTesting phase>
What is the benefit of testing these documents?>
How did it improve the testing phase?> >
I would like propose the process of testing IA, Design documents before the â€œTesting phaseâ€ started to my company, so I will appreciate any information you provide.

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Answer - When you say "IA", are you referring to interface agreements?
You need to refer to "V" model of testing.
Business requirements are validated by user acceptance test cases.
System requirments/Interface agreements are validated by system test cases.High level design is validated by integration test cases.Low level design/code is validated by unit test cases.
- Prepararing and reviewing these documents should begin early in the life cycle.
- Reviewing and ensuring that test cases are correct/complete before test execution is key part of static testing (reviews, inspections.)

How are the pass rate determined for CSQA & CSTE exams?

2008-03-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

Please check with softwarecertifications.com for the latest policy. Here is what we think is the current policy.

"It is an average score of 75%, nit 75% percent persection...Jeff PerryManager ~ Software Certificationswww.softwarecertifi cations.org"

Useful questions for people preparing for CSQA exam

2008-03-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

Explain what is traceability and why traceability is important?

Pro-metric test experience - CSQA

2008-03-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

There were 4 question papers, 1- objective 45 mins 2- subjective 1:15 minutes 3: Objective 4: subjective 1:15 mins.

Useful questions for people preparing for CSQA exam

2008-03-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

1. How can you reduce the cost of quality?

Cost of quality = Cost of Prevention + Cost of Appraisal + Cost of Failure,

You can reduce quality by increasing cost of prevention and cost of appraisal.

2. Many organizations are trying to acheive 6 sigma, Based on the historical data available, what is the norm (2 sigma, 3 sigma or 4 sigma)?

4 Sigma is the norm.

3. You were asked to form a process improvement team. What will be your activities?

- Form a team of stakeholders ( stakeholders are those who have vested interest in improving the process)

Interested in paper presentations and sharing testing experiences?

2008-03-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.test2008.in/

Question - ISO 9001 Vs CMM discussion

2008-03-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

Do we have any estimates on achieveing CMMI Level 3 if an organization is ISO 9001 certified.

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First let us understand the differences between CMMI Level 3 & ISO 9001.

- It will approximately 1-3 years depending on the organization size & maturity.

- It will take approximately 1-3 years to achieve CMMI level 2 depending on organization size, Maturity.
- Use PDCA (1. Develope a plan (Include training, external consulting as part of project plan, You need to train your quality staff on CMMI and key process areas/goals/practices etc.) (2) Identify core team to perform gap analysis, Assign core team leader for each KPA.) (3) Execute the plan / Pilot for few specific projects initially (3) Monitor the results (4) Revise gap analysis document and make improvements to new/existing processes. (5) Roll out at the orgnaizational level.

Effort / Cost - Consider factors such as - Training cost, Consulting cost, Gap analysis, Developing new processes and modifying existing processes, Identifying new tools needed, if needed etc. If it is India based organization, I estimate this to be around Rs - 10,00,000 - Rs. - 25,00,000. This again depends on how an organization calculates internal / external costs.

What is CSQA?

2008-03-15T22:17:00.001-07:00

CSQA
Certified Software Quality Analyst (Quality Assurance Institute; formerly Certified Quality Analyst)

Helpful networking sites for CSQA

2008-03-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CQAfolks/files

What is Gold Plating?

2008-03-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Giving more than what customer wanted. It is not needed.

CSQA - Certified Software Quality Analyst

2008-03-15T22:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.softwarecertifications.org/