Quality Control, Assurance and Management

Quality assurance is the heart and soul of quality control. Expressed simply, quality assurance consists of guaranteeing that a consumer can purchase a product or service with confidence and enjoy its satisfactory use for a long period. Quality assurance represents a type of promise or contract with the consumer regarding quality. 

Quality assurance establishes organizational standards procedures for quality. All the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system and demonstrated as needed to provide adequate confidence that an entity will fulfill requirements for quality.

Often, this issue is confused. The two approaches are complementary to each other but different. Whereas Quality  Control is corrective, Quality Assurance is a prevention approach. Quality control is the operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements for quality. It includes the processes and methods used to monitor work and observe whether requirements/standards are met. 

On the other hand, Quality assurance is all those planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system and demonstrated as needed to provide adequate confidence that a work product will fulfill requirements for quality. 

Quality management includes all activities of the overall management function that :  

Determine the quality policy, objectives, and responsibilities and implement them by means such as quality planning, quality control, quality assurance, and quality improvement within the quality system. 

Quality management principles are fundamental and comprehensive beliefs for leading and operating an organization that aims at continually improving its performance on a long-term basis by focusing on customers while addressing the needs of all other stakeholders. Basic quality management principles include : 

1. Customers driven organization 
2. Leadership 
3. Involvement of people 
4. Process approach 
5. System approach to management 
6. Continual improvement 
7. Factual approach to decision making 
8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships. 

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Software Testing Fundamentals

Software testing is a process and activity to verify whether the real results match the expected results and to certify that the software system is defect free. It involves execution of a system component or software component to evaluate one or more properties of significance. There are various types of software testing. Each and every used as per need and requirement. Software testing tools are used to find error and fix bug as soon possible to ensure software quality.

Software testing is an examination conducted to give stakeholders with information about the quality of the software product or examination under test. Software testing also offers an objective, independent view of the software to permit the business to understand and recognize the risks of software development and implementation. Test techniques consist of the process of executing a software program or application by the aim of finding software errors, bugs, and other defects, and verifying that the software product fulfil the software requirement and fit for use. Software testing involves the execution of a software component or system component to assess one or more properties of software requirement. In general, these properties specify the degree to which the component or system under test, such as:

• * Meets the software requirements that guided its design and development,

• * Responds accurately to all kinds of inputs,

• * Performs its functions within a satisfactory time,

• * Is suitably usable,

• * Can be installed and run in its planned environments, and

• * Achieves the universal result its stakeholder’s need.

  As the number of probable tests for even effortless software components is practically infinite, all software testing uses various strategies to pick tests that are feasible for the offered cost, time, and resources. As an outcome, software testing typically (but not absolutely) attempts to implement a program or application with the target of finding software bugs, errors, or other defects. The work of testing is an iterative process as when one bug is fixed, it can clarify other, deeper bugs, or can still develop new ones. Software testing can give objective, independent information about the quality of software products and risk of its failure to users or sponsors. Software testing can be conducted as soon as executable software (even if partly complete) exists. The overall approach to software development regularly determines when and how software testing is conducted. For example: in a phased process, most software testing occurs once system or software requirements have been defined and then implemented in testable programs or software. In compare, under an agile approach, software requirements, coding (programming), and testing are often done simultaneously.

  Software testing also helps to recognize errors, gaps or missing requirements in different to the actual software requirements. It can be whichever done manually or using automated tools. Some favour saying software testing as a white box and black box testing. Testing is imperative because software bugs could be costly or even dangerous. Software bugs can potentially cause economic and human loss, history is full of such examples, such as:

  • * In 1985, Canada’s Therac-25 radiation therapy machine malfunctioned due to software bug and delivered lethal radiation doses to patients in which 3 people dead and 3 critically injuring.

  • * China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to software bug on April 26, 1994, killing 264 live.

  • * In May of 1996, a software bug caused the bank accounts of 823 customers of a major US bank to be credited with 920 million US dollars.

  • * In April of 1999, a software bug caused the crash of a $1.2 billion military satellite launch, the costliest disaster in history.

  • * Starbucks was forced to shut about 60 percent of stores in the US and Canada due to software failure in its POS system. At one point store served coffee for free as they not capable to process the transaction.

  • * Some of the Amazon’s third party retailers saw their product price is decreased to 1p due to a software malfunction. They were left with serious losses.

  • * Nissan cars have to recollect over 1 million cars from the market due to software failure in the airbag sensory detectors. There have been reported two accidents due to this software failure.

  • * Vulnerability in Window 10. This bug enables users to escape from security sandboxes throughout a flaw in the win32k system.

  • * In April 2015, Bloomberg terminal in London stopped due to software glitch affected more than 300,000 traders on financial markets. It forced the government to delay a 3bn pound debt sale.

  • * In 2015 fighter plane F-35 fell sufferer to a software bug, making it incapable to detect targets perfectly.

• Software can also be unsuccessful by not fulfilling environmental constraints that fall outside the software specification. For example: if the software code takes too much memory, executes too slowly, or if the software product works on one operating system but not a different, so all these are considered failures. Software testing is classified according to the method in which testers execute the first two phases of the software testing process. The objective of the first phase, modelling the software’s environment, determines whether the tester is doing unit, integration, and system testing. Unit testing tests individual software components or a collection of software components. Software testers define the input domain for the units in question and ignore the rest of the software system. Unit testing occasionally requires the development of throwaway driver code and stubs and is frequently performed in a debugger. Integration testing, tests several components that have every received prior and separate unit testing. In general, the focus is on the subset of the domain that represents communication between the software components. System testing, tests a collection of components that constitutes a deliverable product. Usually, the whole domain must be measured to satisfy the criteria for a system test.

  The second phase of software testing is test selection which determines what type of testing is being done. There are two major types: functional testing requires the selection of test scenarios lacking regard to source code structure. Thus, test selection methods and test data competence criteria must be based on software attributes of the software specification or operational environment and not on attributes of the software code or data structures. Functional testing also called specification based testing, behavioral testing, and black-box testing. Structural testing requires that inputs be based exclusively on the structure of the source code or its data structures. Software testing is the practice of evaluating a system or its component(s) through the aim to locate whether it satisfies the specified software requirements or not. In other words, testing is executing a system in order to recognize any gaps, errors, or missing software requirements in contrary to the actual requirements. It depends on the process and the associated stakeholders of the project(s). In the Information Technology (IT) industry, large companies have a software team with responsibilities to assess the developed software in context of the specified requirements. Furthermore, software developers also perform testing which is called unit testing.

• An early commence to software testing reduces the cost and time to modify and develop error free software product that is delivered to the customer. However in software development life cycle (SDLC), software testing can be underway from the requirements gathering and specification phase and sustained till the deployment of the software product. It also depends on the software development model that is being used. For example: in the waterfall model, formal testing is conducted in the software testing phase but in the incremental model, testing is performed at the finish of every iteration or increment and the entire application is tested at the finish.

        Software testing is done in diverse forms at every phase of SDLC:

• * During the requirement gathering and specification phase, the analysis and verification of requirements are also considered as testing.

• * Reviewing the design in the design phase with the purpose to advance the design is also considered as testing.

• * Testing performed by a developer on achievement of the software code is also considered as testing. 

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What is quality

The word quality has many meanings, but basically, it refers to the set of inherent properties of an object that allows satisfying stated or implied needs. ... It is a consumer's mind-set who accepts a specific good or service and acknowledges its ability to meet his or her needs.

Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy given needs. In other words, its degree of excellence. ... The ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as: “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.”  

Quality is critical to satisfying your customers and retaining their loyalty so they continue to buy from you in the future. Quality products make an important contribution to long-term revenue and profitability. They also enable you to charge and maintain higher prices.

Quality  can be defined in various ways, depending on the perspective of the user. Quality is 

• Conformance of applicable specifications and standards 
• Fitness for use 
• Satisfaction of customer wants, need and expectations at the competitive cost. 

Conformance : Quality of conformance refers to the extent to which the product complies with the specifications, standards, and workmanship criteria imposed upon its manufacturer of developer. 

Fitness for use : All human institutions (industrial companies, schools, hospitals etc.) are engaged in providing products or services to human beings. 

Customer satisfaction at the competitive price : Product or service quality is the producer’s ability to satisfy customers needs while still being able to realize a profit. This definition focuses on satisfying the customer at the competitive price.

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Team Management

Team management is the ability of an individual or an organization to administer and coordinate a group of individuals to perform a task. Team management involves teamwork, communication, objective setting and performance appraisals. Moreover, team management is the capability to identify problems and resolve conflicts within a team. Team managers are responsible for the day-to-day activities and guidance of their team members

Elements of a healthy and successful team:

Cohesive leadership means that team leaders are acting together as a unit and making decisions as a leadership team instead of each branching off into their own work and operating individually. 

An effective communication will allow messages to be transferred accurately without delay to the intended recipient, this will speed up decision making processes and the operations of the team.

It is essential that the team leader sets a common goal the entire team is willing to pursue. The key to a successful team is the alignment of objectives within the team.

In a successful team, a team leader will first evaluate the mission of the team to understand what is needed to accomplish the task. Then, they will identify the strengths and weaknesses of their team members and assign roles accordingly. Individuals in a team can take on different roles that have their own unique responsibilities.

Problems in team management :

1. Absence of trust

2. Fear of conflict

3. Lack of commitment

4. Avoidance of accountability

5. Inattention to results

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Diversity Management

Diversity brings in diverse different talents together working towards a common goal using different sets of skills that increases their retention and productivity. Diversity within a organisation helps in building a stronger brand and makes the organisation more interesting and desirable employer.

Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued. Definition of diversity management according to Military Leadership and Diversity Commission (MLDC) Definition of Diversity Management: The creation of an equitable and inclusive environment that enhances the contribution of all members to fulfill the organization's mission; where differences are recognized, understood ………

Here are some real and immediate benefits to diversity in the workplace:

• A Variety of Perspectives. Put a variety of world views into one room, and you'll come out the other side with better ideas. ...
• Increased Creativity. ...
• Increased Productivity. ...
• Reduced Fear, Improved Performance. ...
• Boost Your Brand's Reputation. ...
• Global Impact.

Diversity, including diversity of gender, religion, and ethnicity, has been shown to improve retention and reduce the costs associated with employee turnover. In a diverse workplace, employees are more likely remain loyal when they feel respected and valued for their unique contribution.

It is self-initiated by organizations with a workforce from different ethnicities, religions, nationalities, and demographics. There is no legislation to coerce or government incentives to encourage organizations to implement diversity management programs and policies.

It allows each employee, regardless of his/her race, religion, ethnicity, or origin to bring their talents and skills to the organization.

When the senior management fails to show commitment to implementing the diversity strategies, the diversity plan becomes severely limited. Hiring individuals with diverse skills and knowledge can help companies to deliver better quality services to a global client base.

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Leadership styles for Project Manager

Leadership Styles for Project Manager

“Effective leadership excites people to exceptional performance”.

Project leadership is about creating the culture and working environment within the project that contributes to its success and performance. Successful project managers are managers who practice both strong management skills and effective leadership skills. Project managers have mastered implementing project management methodologies, leveraging advancement in technologies as applied in useful project management and team collaboration tools and techniques.The performance of a project manager and the effectiveness of a leader are both measured in terms of the performance of the followers. Effective leaders have the ability to apply the appropriate skill at the appropriate time and in the appropriate place. Leader must help the team find the path to their goals and help them in that process

Autocratic Leadership makes decisions without input and having all powers, authority and responsibility. This leadership style is seldom warranted, unless the Project Manager clearly knows more about the subject matter and has immature and inexperienced team members. That is seldom the case, and if it is true the Project Manager has made poor selections for team members. A Project Manager who uses an autocratic style outside a ‘life or death emergency’ project should re‐examine her/his overall methodology and motivation.

Authoritative leadership is a visionary and motivates people by making clear concept of work by which to achieve vision. Authoritative leaders inspire an entrepreneurial spirit and a vibrant enthusiasm for the mission.

Affiliative leadership is a very common management style used by project managers and has a positive impact on the project team. Such type of leaders create emotional bonds that bring a feeling of bonding and belonging to the organisation. It works best in times of stress.

Democratic leadership builds consensus through participation.The democratic leadership style is most effective when the leader needs the team to buy into or have ownership of a decision or goal. Democratic leadership encourages the team members to actively participate in the decision-making process.

Coaching leadership works best when the leader wants to help teammates build lasting personal strengths that make them more successful overall. Coaching leadership is least effective when teammates are unwilling to learn, or if the leader lacks proficiency.

Supportive leadership involves building trust, inspiration, and helping colleagues overcome the challenges they encounter. If you're approachable and empathetic, then you're probably a supportive leader. You show concern for employees, and you treat them with dignity and respect. Your employees, in turn, feel valued and cared for. In times of change, they trust you to help them manage uncertainty

Bureaucratic Leadership runs projects “by the book”, ensuring the team follows procedures exactly and regulatory requirements must be met. Usually, though, this style is the refuge of insecure project managers who fear accountability for variations from the standards. Projects may benefit from variation from published standards, if those variations can be justified. A consistently bureaucratic leadership style may indicate poor ability to manage risk or apply the Intel value of Informed Risk‐Taking.

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Importance of Project Management Life Cycle Phases

A project plan, also known as the project management plan, is the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled, and closed. Project Management involves to create a set of plans to guide a team through the implementation and closure phases of the project. The plans created during this phase will help the project team manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk and related issues. Project Managemet Phases, or stages, are very important for project managers. By thinking in terms of phases, you can ensure that the deliverables produced at the end of each phase meet their purpose, and that project team members (or sub-teams) are properly prepared for the next phase.

Project Life cycle provides a structure for project delivery. It improves communication between team members. It enables progress to be tracked across the organisation. It provides for the progressive evolution of the project.

Project Management Life Cycle is a series of essential activities for accomplishing project objectives or targets. The Project Management Life cycle process is divided into five main parts: 

1. Initiation phase, 
2. Planning phase, 
3. Execution phase and 
4. Monitoring and Controlling and 
5. Closing phase

Initiation phase defines those processes that are required to start a new project.This phase mainly composed of two main activities (i) Develop a Project Charter and (ii) Identify Stakeholders

The Project Charter defines the main elements of project and project has several stakeholders, and not all of them will be involved in every detail of the project. Project stakeholders include your customer, the end-users of the product, the company and its leaders, and the team working directly on the project.

Project Planning phase covers about 50% of the whole process. Planning phase determines the scope of the project as well as the objective of the project. The important aspects of planning process are : (i) Planning phase should not be executed before your initial planning is finished (ii) Until the execution process does not start, you should not stop revising plans

The Project Execution Phase is usually the longest phase in the project management life cycle and consumes the most energy and resources. ... These processes help you to manage time, cost, quality, change, risks and issues. They also help you to manage procurement, customer acceptance and communications. 

The execution phase involves carrying out the details of your project charter in order to deliver your products or services to your clients or internal stakeholders.

After execution phase, to check the project is on right track, monitoring and controlling phase becomes active. During this phase various changes and reviews to enhance the project performance is done. Monitoring and control processes continually track, review, adjust and report on the project's performance. It's important to find out how a project's performing and whether it's on time, as well as implement approved changes. This ensures the project remains on track, on budget and on time

Closing phase is the process that performs a controlled shut down of the project at the end. In a project, there are three closure activities that are going on

1. Closure of the product- Getting the customer to accept the final deliverables, if the project is external.
2. Closure of the project- This include formally closing of administrative procedures, updating project documents and archiving those databases & documents..
3. Closure of the resource behind the project- The financial closure of the project, resources assigned to the project should be returned

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Project Management

Project Management

A project is a series of tasks that need to be completed in order to reach a specific outcome. A project can also be defined as a set of inputs and outputs required to achieve a particular goal. 

OR it can be defined as:

A project consists of a concrete and organized effort motivated by a perceived opportunity when facing a problem, a need, a desire or a source of discomfort (e.g., lack of proper ventilation in a building). 

Each project will have agreed and unique objectives as well as its own project plan, budget, timescale, deliverables, and tasks. A project may also involve people from different teams within an organization who are brought together to accomplish a specific goal.

The success of any project depends on how well four key aspects are aligned with the contextual dynamics affecting the project, these are referred to as the four P's

• Plan: The planning and forecasting activities.
• Process: The overall approach to all activities and project governance.
• People: Including dynamics of how they collaborate and communicate.
• Power: Lines of authority, decision-makers, and policies for implementation.

Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve goals and meet success criteria at a specified time. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. Key components of project management are : (a) Time, (b) Cost, (c) Scope, and (d) Quality.

Traditionally, project management includes a number of elements: four to five project management process groups, and a control system. Regardless of the methodology or terminology used, the same basic project management processes or stages of development will be used. Major process groups generally include:

• Initiation
• Planning
• Production or execution
• Monitoring and controlling
• Closing

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