7. Quality Control Practices

Quality control practices should occur during product development, product acquisition, product construction at the end of development/acquisition and throughout product change and operation. During development, the quality control process is frequently called verification and at the conclusion of development, it is called validation. This category will address the various types of controls and when they are best used in the process. The quality practitioner should also be familiar with developing testing methodologies, verification and validation techniques, the framework for developing testing tactics, change control and configuration management.

Testing Concepts

·        The Testers’ Workbench

·        Test Stages (Unit, Integration, System, User Acceptance)

·        Independent Testing

·        Static versus Dynamic Testing

·        Verification versus Validation

·        Stress versus Volume versus Performance

·        Test Objectives

·        Reviews and Inspections

Developing Testing Methodologies

·        Acquire and Study the Test Strategy

·        Determine the Type of Development Project

·        Determine the Type of Software System

·        Determine the Project Scope

·        Identify the Tactical Risks

·        Determine When Testing Should Occur

·        Build the System Test Plan

·        Build the Unit Test Plans

Verification and Validation Methods

·        Management of Verification and Validation

·        Verification Techniques (reviews, code walkthroughs, requirements tracing)

·        Validation Techniques (white box, black box, incremental, thread, regression)

·        Structural and Functional Testing

Software Change Control

·        Software Configuration Management

·        Change Control Procedures

Defect Management

·        Defect Management Process

·        Defect Reporting

·        Severity versus Priority

·        Using Defects for Process Improvement