Chief Quality Officer

In an earlier article I talked about the importance of getting to know what your marketing people are telling customers, so you have a better grasp of requirements from a customer’s perspective.
Now, you can sit down with the sales and marketing people and ask them what they tell customers (which is a good idea), but […]

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‘Been reading some good stuff lately on requirements gathering. Some of these tips, tactics and techniques you already know, but I’ll bet there’s plenty that are all “aha” for you. So if you’re interested in creative ways to give your requirements gathering process a boost, check out these great articles …

Ten Requirement Gathering […]

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Scenario: “Go find the requirements for this project you’ve never seen before. Oh yeah, they’ve never been formally laid out. No handholding!”
What do you do when you’re asked to gather requirements and you have no guidance? Since it happens a lot (more often in small companies than large ones), you gotta do […]

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Scenario: “You’re our new QA manager. We have no QA process. Sink or Swim!”
If you’ve just been hired to start/run a QA department, there are a billion things to do. But there are a few things you should put at the top of your list (and perhaps even cover these before you […]

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You: “I’ve got a kick-*** test plan!”
Management: “Prove it.”
Engineering: “Prove it.”
Customers: “Prove it.”
A test plan ain’t a test plan until you can prove it does the job. And that’s where a traceability matrix comes into play. It’s the magical bridge that links what everybody says the product has to have/do/be and what you, my little […]

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The CQO. It’s what you are - like it or not - whether you asked for it or not.
Just like the Chief Operating Officer keeps the company chugging along, just like the CEO (presumably) sets the company’s course, you directly impact, create and manage quality every day - whether you’re a senior manager or an […]

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I’ve got some bad news for you. Despite the “Quality Assurance” in your job title, you simply cannot assure quality. It can’t be done - at least not by you.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m sure you’re exceptionally good at what you do, and I don’t doubt your skills when it comes to testing […]

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