Chapter 1. Assessing Capabilities, Staff Competency, and User Satisfaction

It has been said, “If you do not know where you are going, all roads lead there.” Traditionally, many IT organizations annually develop a list of improvements to incorporate into their operations without establishing a goal. Using this approach, the IT organization can declare “victory” any time it wants.

This chapter will help you understand the importance of following a well-defined process for becoming a world-class software testing organization. This chapter will help you define your strengths and deficiencies, your staff competencies and deficiencies, and areas of user dissatisfaction.

The objective of this chapter is threefold: to define a world-class software testing model, to provide a self-assessment process for your software testing organization to measure yourself against the world-class model, and to provide some planning considerations for moving to a world-class level.

The Three-Step Process to Becoming a World-Class Testing Organization

The roadmap to become a world-class software testing organization is a simple three-step process, as follows:

  1. Define or adopt a world-class software testing model.

  2. Determine your organization’s current level of software testing capabilities, competencies, and user satisfaction.

  3. Develop and implement a plan to upgrade from your current capabilities, competencies, and user satisfaction to those in the world-class software testing model.

This three-step process requires ...

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