A day in the life of a Business Quality Assurance Manager for a Level 5 software services organization

A day in the life of a Business Quality Assurance Manager for a Level 5 software services organization
Nikhil Gupta
Quality Assurance Manager
Wipro Technologies

Introduction:

The quality of a product is “assured” when there is a measurable confidence that the product is defect-free. In the case of software, this is measured in terms of post delivery defects and rework. There are a number of standard practices that can catch and prevent potential defects- like reviews, root-cause-analysis, and use of tools to generate and evaluate code for errors.

My job as a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Manager in a CMMi Level 5 organization requires the projects to be executed with less than (currently) 0.15 defects/KLOC (Kilo lines of code). Each Key Process Area (KPA) is like a ball with the SQA team simultaneously juggling 22 such balls, much like a circus artist. This paper looks at the day-to-day activities required, data to be analyzed and metrics to be monitored to ensure that the numbers are met and all balls remain in the air.

Today, over and above the role of policing, the SQA team supports the delivery team by influencing business parameters. The term Business Quality Assurance (BQA) is coined to fit the role that the industry demands of the present SQA. For example, productivity improvement is a constant drive for a CMMi level 5 organizations, and the SQA team involves the projects in initiatives like Six Sigma, Lean and Agile to explore ways to reduce defects, eliminate waste and handle requirement changes efficiently. Similarly, the SQA team monitors Return on Investment (RoI) by monitoring parameters like % of onshore employees, management of rookies, and line balancing. The SQA also looks at improving management for large programs, integration of acquisitions, and managing virtual teams.

This paper talks about how the role of SQA (Software Quality Assurance) is morphing into that of a BQA (Business Quality Assurance), to provide the real “Business Value of IT”.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will learn the following:

How the SQA role is now being converted to a BQA (Business Quality Assurance role.
How to provide Business value of IT

Biography:

Nikhil Gupta has about 16 years of industry experience, having worked as Software Quality Assurance Manager, Quality Consultant & Project Manager for various Software programs. He has been involved in multiple lean projects and driven process improvement activities in requirement collection, design, implementation, testing, test automation, sustenance phases. His experience includes a 2 year stint in the US/UK working on providing process consulting to clients. His professional certifications and accreditations include Certified Quality Black Belt in Six Sigma, PMP, PRINCE2 (Practitioner), ITIL (Foundation), RUP & COBIT. He has presented papers in various national and international forums including “Managing your Test Organization in the outsourcing scenario” for Swiss Testing Day in Zurich , Switzerland and “ Test Process Maturity Assessment using Software Test Diagnostic Model (STDM)” for PSQT West 2007 in Las Vegas , US.