It is impossible to ensure an effective and efficient testing process in no time. It takes months, and even years of planning and hard work to create a well-functioning organization that will be able to do the testing work.

When taking any attempt to improve the established testing process from its very beginning one should take into account the following factors.

Testing cannot be an isolated process

Software testing can only be effective if it is integrated into software development life cycle. This means that attempts to improve the process itself will not be of much use, since the improvement of the testing process should be carried out as part of larger and more comprehensive work.

An effective testing process can be developed only in stages

There are several functional stages or levels of any development process. These levels can be represented by models of development, which include:

• the CMM (Capability Maturity Model) developed by the Software Engineering Institute SEI;
• the TMM (Test Maturity Model) developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology;
• and the TPI (Test Process Improvement) model.

The transition from one level of the development model to another one should be streamlined. No organization can move from the lower level of development to the top at once by adapting only a few procedures or tools. The progress should be carried out gradually, over all the levels, and without any omissions.

Quality assurance company wants you to verify software products under development in order to make sure they will meet customer requirements. It is easier to win confidence of the target public than you might imagine.

Successful improvement of the process affects people who are involved in it

The organization of a particular process is far from an academic or technical event. It requires staff to make certain adjustments to their work duties and forces management to reconsider their views on what can be expected from subordinates.

To ensure that any initiative related to the improvement of the process is successful, all the company’s services, from the top management to the executors involved in running the tests within the testing laboratory, should contribute to its implementation. Once the process is determined, personnel who need to use it must undergo special training in order to achieve the necessary level of consistency and productivity.