Service Overview
Q/P Management Group's proven assessment techniques and up-to-date industry benchmark database can help your organization quickly and economically determine the steps that will improve software development performance. The Best in Practice Assessment evaluates software development processes, practices, and other factors that impact quality and productivity. It is often integrated with a benchmarking assessment.

The scope of the evaluation includes people, process, tools, and the environment related to a project or application, and is organized into the following categories.

• Personnel Knowledge and Experience
• User Personnel Experience and Involvement
• Personnel Management and Support
• Development Methods and Techniques
• Project Management Methods and Techniques
• Q/A and Q/C Methods and Techniques
• Measurement Methods and Techniques
• Software Engineering - Design
• Software Engineering - Construction
• Technical resources
• Office and Environment

Attribute information and sample work products are collected for selected projects and/or applications through workshops and interviews that involve representatives from the project and/or application support teams. The information is used to determine a score for each attribute.

Assessment Findings and Recommendations
Q/P will present your organization's attribute profile in comparison to industry averages and best in practice organizations to:

• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Assist in formulating an improvement strategy and plan
• Explain productivity rates, quality rates, schedule variations, and staffing variations

Based on the assessment findings, recommendations will be developed for each category.  The recommendations will focus on how to improve software development and bring performance closer to best-in-practice organizations.

 

QA/QC Assessment
Improving the software testing and quality assurance environment can increase development productivity, lower delivered defect rates, increase customer satisfaction, and dramatically cut maintenance costs.  An important first step in improving the process is to assess Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) to learn where and how to make improvements.  A QA/QC Assessment is a subset of the Best in Practice Assessment, and may be executed as a standalone engagement.

Q/P will build a QA/QC profile for your organization.  This profile will be compared to best in practice results, using similar types of projects and organizations in the comparison.  The primary deliverable of the assessment is a report which details your organization's profile and makes recommendations for bringing your organization's processes and tools closer to best in practice.

 

 

 

Your organization's profile will include an analysis of the following attributes:

• Software Testing Methodology
• Test Plans and Policy
• Test Bed Facilities
• Test Scripting and Testing Tools
• Defect and Measurement Analysis
• Reviews and Inspections
• Project Management
• Personnel Experience and Staffing
• Software Development Methods
• Quality Assurance and Measurement