Transcript to the presentation

Quality Assurance and
Quality Control Skill Sets:
What I Look For
Rick Neighbarger, CMQ/OE, CSQA, CSQE
Nationwide Insurance
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Approach
 Definition of Terms
 Skills/Competencies that make QA/QC
practitioners successful
 Ways to acquire/maintain these skills
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What Exactly is Quality?
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
 Producer’s View of Quality
 Customer’s View of Quality
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What Exactly is Quality?
From CSQA Body of
Knowledge
 Producer’s View of Quality
• Doing the right thing
• Doing it the right way
• Doing it right the first
time
• Doing it on time without
exceeding cost
 Customer’s View of Quality
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What Exactly is Quality?
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
 Producer’s View of Quality
 Customer’s View of Quality
• Receiving the right product
for their use
• Being satisfied that their
needs have been met
• Meeting their expectations
• Being treated with integrity,
courtesy and respect
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
“Very few individuals can differentiate between
quality control and quality assurance. Most quality
assurance groups, in fact, practice quality control….”
“Quality means meeting requirements and meeting
customer needs, which means a defect-free product
from both the producer’s and the customer’s
viewpoint. Both quality control and quality assurance
are used to make quality happen.”
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
Question:
How do you hear the terms
“QA” and “QC” used or confused
around you?
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
Quality Control (QC):
 processes and methods used to
compare product quality to
requirements and applicable standards
 action taken when a nonconformance is
detected
 reviews and testing, focus on detection/
correction of defects before shipment of
products
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
Quality Assurance (QA):
 set of activities, including
facilitation, training, measurement
and analysis
 provides confidence that
processes are established and
continuously improved , to produce
products or services that conform
to requirements and are fit for use
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
Quality Assurance (QA):
 staff function; prevents problems by heading
them off
 promotes quality concepts, quality attitudes
and discipline for management and workers
 requires knowing how to make people
conscious of the personal and organizational
benefits of quality
 faces major impediments from results-oriented
management (perception of little need for a
function that emphasizes managing and
controlling processes)
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
Are these activities QA or QC?
QC
performance testing software
QA
conducting an internal audit of the performance test
process
QC
writing test plans
QA
training staff on the document review process

writing requirements documents
QC
conducting document reviews on project work products
QA
analyzing patterns of defects captured in
document reviews
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QA vs. QC Skills
What do I want a quality control
practitioner to be good at?
 breaking things! (to improve
product quality)
 attention to detail
 technical skills: relevant
platforms, apps, languages,
tools
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QA vs. QC Skills
What do I want a quality control
practitioner to be good at?
The discipline of testing
 test planning, design, execution
 risk analysis
 white box vs. black box testing
 agile test techniques (where
appropriate)
 exploratory testing
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QA vs. QC Skills
What do I want a quality assurance
practitioner to be good at?
 improving how we do things! (to improve
process quality)
 ambassadors, diplomats
 trainers
 patient and persistent
 knowledge of process maturity models
(CMMI, ISO 9001)
 in-depth experience in multiple roles in
SDLC and business
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How do I get these skills?
70/20/10 approach to adult learning
 70% experiential: hands-on
opportunities
 20% relational:
coaching/mentoring
 10% traditional: formal training
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
What: Traditional learning (10%)
 Certifications and certification prep courses
• QAI CSQA, CSTE; ASQ
 Vendor courses
• SQE, ESI, IIST
 Conferences
• SQE STAR, QAI/ASQ
International/Regional
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How:
 National/local organization
memberships/meetings
 Web page/mail list
 Peer references
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
What: relational learning (20%)
 Job shadowing
 Time with SMEs
 Formal coaching/mentoring
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How:
 Formal company program
 Approach manager or a
coworker who does it well
 Extracurricular coaching
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
What: Experiential Learning (70%)
 Project assignments
 Process improvement teams
(PITs)
 Committees
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How:
 Ask manager to help with
upcoming opportunities
 Join Process Improvement
Team (PIT)
 Participate in/organize
committees/initiatives
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Recap
 Quality assurance and quality
control are different practices
 Different skills are required for
each practice
 Several avenues available to
acquire/maintain these skills
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