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A knockout blow for Borland?
MicroFocus has upped its offer for Borland Software to $1.50, hoping to chase off a mystery suitor also pursuing the ALM vendor.
07/06/2009 12:26 PM EST

Is the mystery Borland suitor Serena?
Borland software is considering an offer from another company after a preliminary deal with MicroFocus. Is Serena the new company?
06/30/2009 01:55 PM EST

Windows 7 - An eBayer's dream product?
Windows 7 pre-orders can make people money on eBay.
06/29/2009 03:48 PM EST

 

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Offshoring Strategy—Trust, but Verify


By Edward J. Correia
November 20, 2007 — 
I recently covered techniques to help prevent your job from becoming an outsource statistic. But if you must send your testing services to a foreign land, you might do well to remember the words of former president Ronald Reagan. A believer in negotiation from strength, Reagan’s “Trust, but Verify” philosophy became one of his signature phrases when dealing with the former Soviet Union. The same can be applied to trusting the quality of your application to somewhere beyond the sea.

Since tearing down the walls that once stymied ubiquitous communication, today’s economic reality is such that development and testing activities once done in-house can now be sent overseas at far less cost.

The trick is to make sure that excellence doesn’t fall victim to the bottom line. One way to hedge your bet is by verifying the testing processes used by the service organization. “It is important to ensure the best practices used by the onshore team are being replicated elsewhere,” advises Steve Rabin, a 20-year veteran of enterprise software design.

And this can be done, he says, through the use of a quality audit. “The idea behind a quality audit is to perform a systematic examination of the practices a team uses to build and validate software,” says Rabin, who currently serves as CTO at Insight Venture Partners. “The objective of the audit is not to uncover software defects but to understand how well a team understands and executes the defined quality practices.”

The quality audit can be used to assess whether a process is working, and to ensure that things are being done the way they’re supposed to. “The audit is also an excellent way of measuring the effectiveness of implemented procedures,” adds Rabin. “Management can use audit results as a tool to identify weaknesses, risks and areas of improvement.”

The audit is as much about people as it is about procedures, notes Rabin. “If team members understand their roles and how they relate to quality, the more likely the team will understand and adhere to the defined practices. The ultimate objective, of course, is to deliver high-quality software as defined by the organization.”

Rabin describes a quality audit plan that consists of five phases:

1. Pre-assessment planning. This includes setting expectations, defining a timeline and getting executive sponsorship for the project audit. The deliverable for this phase is agreement and buy-in of the audit process and a follow-up commitment for improvement. Typically, this is capped by a meeting with the audit sponsor and key stakeholders on the audit process and objectives.

2. Data gathering. Phase two involves developing interview questions and surveys, and gathering all documentation (bug reports, test cases) prior to the interview process.

3. Assessment. The assessment phase involves conducting the interviews and developing preliminary findings. It’s important that that team members understand the process and that their input will be kept strictly confidential. A meeting explaining and justifying the process should be held with the entire team.

4. Post audit. After reviewing documents and interview notes, the analyzed information is synthesized into a list of findings and remediation steps, prioritized by importance to the project.

5. Presentation of findings. In the final phase, audit findings are presented with the sponsor and team, and agreement is sought on the highest-priority improvement areas.

According to Rabin, quality audits should be performed multiple times and at regular intervals. “The initial audit develops a quality procedure baseline and determines areas in need of remediation. Subsequent audits are intended to monitor progress and to help teams identify and address gaps in the quality process.” Remediation typically includes the communication of effective actions to address deficiencies in day-to-day operations and quality practices.

If needed, the quality audit can be aided with software, but remember it’s as much about mentoring as anything else. “Any team, offshore or otherwise, will best respond to an approach that focuses on helping individuals meet expectations and improvement”—as opposed to slapping a spreadsheet in someone’s face and telling them they’re already falling behind.


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