During school days, most of the kids are forced to get their
progress report/Grading report or rank card signed by his/her parents. As far
as I know, this practice is still mandatory in Indian education system. I still
relish those moments, my parents all the time started with an appreciation but
never dis-remembered to highlight subjects, I need to improve upon. I am sure many Indians would have adored related
scenes in cinemas, as well.
Story behind this post - While I was thinking about
next blog topic, I saw a neighborhood boy getting appreciation from his parents
for great grades. Immediately I asked myself how good it would be if we have
report card for software product or components as well. Such rank cards will
assist all the stakeholders of a project! Very next day, I enquired about the same with
my friends. One person chattered about “Qualitative Analysis”. Let’s see what it is.
To quickly get a hold of Qualitative Analysis, I used W5H
(Different from W5HH principle) mechanism
WHAT is Qualitative analysis? - Collect
all essential parameters that are required to qualify the component or
product being tested. Ensure parameter list is crisp yet covering major aspects
of the product. Now define legends for the grade. Once the stakeholder agrees
upon parameters and grading scale, proceed with evaluation. That’s it; now
write down your observation in presentable format (most important step) and
post it to all stake holders. This analysis should help any stakeholder to get
a picture about the health of the product. A classic report shall look like
this
Parameters
|
Grades
|
Comments
|
|
Error handling
|
<you can use color codes to mark the status>
|
10
|
|
Internalization
|
RED
|
2
|
|
Accessibility
|
YELLOW
|
5
|
|
Security
|
3
|
Privacy information are logged in code
|
|
WHY should we do this?
– Qualitative analysis often turns as an alarm, it highlights the area to
dive deep and mend upon. At one point of time, when you have series of cumulative
analysis reports product team can recognize characteristics that needs more consideration. Benefits list goes on
WHERE can I embed? –
Instead of furnishing analysis as a separate entity, QA team can imbibe it as
part of test report. Hence all stakeholders will informed about product
progress and also appreciate the reputation of such analysis
WHO should perform Qualitative
analysis? - Obviously it is testers, who symbolize customers. I understand
in much software company, testers would not have such authority but still my
vote is for TESTERS ( In many Indian based MNCs still testers are not part of
test planning, for the product they are going to validate!!; sounds miraculous??
still true)
WHEN shall I start
this activity? – Whenever a test report is shared to stakeholders. I mean,
when one complete round/cycle of testing is done with the product.
HOW will analysis be
done technically and managerially? – In a project comprising multiple
teams, this tasks mandates cooperation from every individual. Each team can
share their corresponding results to Global QA team for furnishing. So ensure strategy
for analysis is laid out during project planning.
To end with, I recommend only one note to keep in mind while
preparing any artifact remember “Easy on the eye, Easy on the brain”; so keep it
simple. Do you perform similar analysis? If so please share your experience and
comments. As always your feed-backs are awaited.
