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How it works

This section provides guidance on how to develop and use quality strategies effectively, ensuring that the project teams are aligned and equipped to deliver high-quality products.

The quality strategy tool is designed to foster a structured and proactive approach to quality in software development projects. It ensures that every phase of your product development adheres to high-quality standards, leaving no detail unconsidered, thereby improving both the efficiency and outcomes of our projects.

Step-by-step guide​

1. Familiarize yourself with the Quality Strategy tool​

Head over to the Resources section to get started. You’ll find a complete guide to the quality strategy, including its goals, principles, and essential building blocks. This knowledge will empower you to effectively implement strategies throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and maximizing their impact.

2. Develop a product-level quality strategy​

Define a clear quality strategy for your product or project to ensure consistent quality from start to finish. This strategy, developed with the provided template, will guide your team in efficiently building and validating quality throughout the entire SDLC, leading to better software and faster delivery.

The purpose here is to capture and consolidate all the existing actions and processes your team or organization has in place to plan, assure (create & validate), and control (verify) the quality of the software products.

  • Use the template: use the Quality Strategy Template provided as a framework to structure your product’s quality strategy. This template will help ensure that all relevant actions, practices, approaches, tools, and responsibilities are considered and clearly defined.
  • Timely development: aim to create the quality strategies during the planning phase, ideally before the start of the architecture or implementation phases. This collaborative approach promotes a unified vision and facilitates consistent implementation of the quality strategy across different areas of the project.
  • Review and understanding: Ensure the quality strategy at the product level is well-understood and reviewed by all team members. This collaborative approach promotes a unified vision and facilitates consistent implementation of the quality strategy across different segments of the project.
  • Collaboration and insights: collaborate with other teams and projects to leverage knowledge and experience. Share insights and best practices to further improve your quality strategies.

3. Extend quality strategy to individual features​

Beyond a general product-level quality strategy, start developing targeted quality strategies for each important feature or new functionality. This approach allows for more specific quality control and rapid adjustment to meet distinct requirements or address challenges that arise during development.

  • Expand to main functionalities: develop detailed quality strategies for each major functionality planned in your product.

  • Review and iterate: ensure each strategy is thoroughly reviewed and agreed upon by all team members involved in the project. This collaborative review helps in identifying any areas overlooked earlier in the cycle.

4. Develop system-level test strategies​

Consider developing system-level test strategies to guide the work of test engineers during final product validation.

  • System-level test strategy template: utilize the system-level test strategy template to organize and guide the testing efforts of your test engineers. This template provides a structured approach to validate the final product comprehensively.

  • Integration and execution: the system-level strategies should align with and support the individual feature-level strategies. They are typically executed in parallel to the feature development to ensure timely identification of issues.

5. Address gaps and prioritize continuous improvement​

With your project-level quality strategy in place, it's time to evaluate it and identify potential gaps. This is an opportunity to refine your quality strategy and enhance your software development process and the overall quality of your software products.

  • Identify uncovered areas: if there are areas in the template not currently covered by your teams, track these as continuous improvement tickets. Prioritize improving these areas, as enhancing quality directly translates to increased development speed. The faster you close these gaps, the quicker your team can deliver high-quality outputs.

  • Adapt and refine: establish a continuous improvement process that allows you to adapt and enhance your quality strategy and approach over time. Implement corrective actions, refine existing processes, and introduce new practices to address identified gaps.

Conclusion​

Implementing Quality Strategies using the provided templates ensures that your projects are set up for success from the start. By methodically addressing each part of the strategy and ensuring thorough team involvement, you can significantly enhance the quality and speed of your project deliveries.