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- The short answer is "as soon as possible".
- Early QA involvement in your project will help in delivering a quality product to your customers in a timely manner.
- QA can help plan your development by reviewing the MRD (Marketing Requirements Document) and other requirements documents; and raising issues resulting from their review. This interaction will result in a product that is more clearly defined. Clearly defined requirements result in more complete specifications.
- QA should review specifications to ensure their 'completeness'. During the testing phase, software is tested against these specifications. Clear specifications will result in fewer questions during the coding process and fewer issues relating to the functionality of the software during the testing phase.
- QA can review the results of unit testing and focus the final testing to concentrate on any areas of weakness discovered during development.
- QA can work with your development organization to produce a product designed for ease of testing.
- By using an outsourced QA team, you can start with a small team and ramp up over the length of project to the appropriate level.
- When should you use automated testing?
The first development cycle in which automated testing is introduced will take longer. Not only do you have to test the product under development, but also you need to debug and test the automated tests. If any interfaces are to be tested (either human or system to system) you should not start automated testing until those interfaces are frozen. Otherwise your tools will be in a constant state of flux, which will add to the cost of your project. Automated testing for regression testing on subsequent releases will reduce the time it takes to verify previous bug fixes, back-end functionality, and HI stability.
- Getting started - related costs.
First you need to purchase a tool. You need the 'right' tool for your environment and product. It is even possible that you will need multiple tools to adequately test your product. Automated tools tend to be expensive, and if you chose the 'wrong' tool for the automation project it will be even more costly.
For automated testing to be cost effective, you must be able to use it for several product releases. Industry experts seem to have different thoughts on how many releases it will take to recover the cost of the automated tools, script development, and maintenance. You need to carefully calculate this for your product.
- On-going maintenance.
Don't forget that you will need to maintain the automated tests. Any interface or functionality changes will require 'script changes'. Also remember that every tool uses its own scripting language - some are touted to be 'English-like' - so you may need to hire or train employees to perform this maintenance.
- Just-in-time staffing.
We can provide the right size team throughout your project. You can start with a senior QA engineer to help you with document review and project planning. Add additional resources when you need them.
- The right skills when you need them.
We can provide overall project management for your quality effort. We can define your test strategy, build/manage the QA team, and create test plans and test cases. Tierra Tech Corporation functions as a liaison between other related departments. We can provide status and project management reports as necessary.
Our personnel can execute your existing test cases or scenarios; create new test cases or scenarios as required; write bugs/defects; and perform ad-hoc, manual, functional, and regression testing. We can write test scripts for automation testing. Based on the unique requirements of your project, Tierra Tech Corporation can provide any combination of the following personnel: Project Manager, Lead QA Engineer, Senior QA Engineer, QA Engineer, QA Tool Writer, Technical Writer, and IT Support Personnel.
- Security.
Tierra Tech Corporation is a U.S. Corporation with all of its offices located in the US. Your copyrighted and proprietary information is safe with us. Additionally, all of our personnel have undergone background checks and drug testing.
- No long-term investment.
We function as outside consultants. We provide the required QA services for your project, and then, when the project is complete, we pack up and go away. You have no on-going personnel costs. Should you require it, we can 'ramp down' just as we 'ramped up' to provide post project QA support.
- Continuity.
Call us for your next or follow-on project. We already know about your company, your business model, and your products. You know and trust us. TTC is in the business of establishing long term relationships based upon great customer service, fair pricing, and trust. We look forward to working on your future projects.
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