During an assessment, we look at the opportunities to improve the client’s testing from a number of different angles. The most important angles are the ones that align with what “success” looks like to the key stakeholders in testing and quality for the organization being assessed.

Do they want to increase quality? Reduce risk? Contain costs? Accelerate schedule? Increase expertise? Do they want to look for potential improvements mostly within the test team or in the interfaces between the test team and the rest of the organization? Prior to starting the assessment process, these success factors are identified:

Once we have identified the success factors, we begin the assessment process:

► One-on-one interviews with key stakeholders and participants in the testing process and the quality of the system
► Analyzing data and documents

Regular discussions with the key assessment point-of-contact(s)/sponsor(s) to ensure proper alignment of the assessment with the client’s goals, to deal with any evolving sense of the assessment as threatening or intrusive (or any other problems that might come up), and to achieve the best results possible.

The typical deliverable of an assessment is a report consisting of:

► An executive summary section
► Sections describing specific recommendations and the estimated benefits
► A section giving cautions and advice on implementing the recommendations
► The source spreadsheet where the benefits of the recommendation are estimated

The report is written with an eye to the success factors important to each client, identified as described above.