Re: quality assurance question

From Al Macintyre - I also work in ERP & am interested in this topic but 
usually too busy to pursue my interest, and often we are so busy with some 
project that can get rushed, the process of aceleration sacrifices the very 
quality assurance criteria that would prevent many frustrations ... it is 
like we are in a shorter & shorter demand cycle that spells its own doom.

While software quality assurance has not been on the radar screens of 
management for eons, it may be returning, thanks to web sites more interested 
in showing off glitzy graphics, that bog down access, than in clearly 
communicating corporate interests.  Several sites have guidance in that 
regard such as
http://www.j2mediagroup.com/
http://www.gadwall.com/articles/2000/0724b.html

I believe the ISO 9000 people have a sub-group on quality software assurance 
such that it is possible to obtain an ISO 9000 rating on one's existing 
computer infrastructure & on the techniques used to add to it.  Many ERP 
sites are already involved in getting ISO 9000 ratings for portions of their 
operations, so this might be a starting point for upper management.  

http://www.sysmod.com/internet.htm
This place has a wealth of links to software quality assurance resources.

I have also seen http://www.ieee.org documents on what belongs in any 
technical documentation.

One might ask one's auditors if there is any goals that we should seek to 
adhere to with software quality minimum standards.

Traditional DP organizations always used to have some formal practices 
recommendations but the trend in programmer user groups seems to be towards 
nuts & bolts getting proficient in techniques.  I suspect in response to 
programmer market demand.  I attended a few seminars on project management at 
http://www.common.org that seemed to be out of touch with my reality, but one 
major exception connecting us with our glorious past is 
http://homestead.coolboard.com/boardshow.cfm/msgboard=990983089434419
which is a forum to discuss the chapters of Ed Yourdon's next book
http://www.yourdon.com/index.htm

The AS/400 network @ http://www.as400network.com has style manuals by 
language & many packages have programmer standards write-ups stating how to 
achieve consistency of internals for both users & programmer staff.  It is 
extremely unfortunate that turn over of SSA policies has led to BPCS 
programmers largely ignoring the standards in their OWN documentation.  If 
your ERP has no such documentation, you need to build management approva to 
build such a programming consistency document and work towards everyone on 
the team playing to the same band music.

I cut my programming teeth on design documents, flow charts & such spelled 
out as needed by such leaders as http://www.acm.org but that was in an age 
when

1) punched card programming took months to complete projects that today take 
days.

2) software development needed a team of specialists sharing a map of where 
we're going.

3) details needed to be worked out & documented where we could find them 
because when many months working on one area of total project easy to forget 
details of another area before get to it.

Today reality is one person all details in head a handful of days per cluster 
of programs, so no need for that person to jot down fancy diagrams as a 
stepping stone of software development.  Rather, where diagrams & check lists 
are needed today ... what the heck does this menu option DO & what are user 
choices, in area of clear documentation for the new user of any software, as 
our personnel turns over & people get assigned to different responsibilities.

Good testing requires a mind set by someone who has a special set of 
attributes:

familiar with the application (types of input that should be disallowed);

human likely behavior (key stuff in wrong fields & take wrong options);

& computer infrastructure (what is the significance of this error message?)

Software is available to capture keystrokes at a PC for purpose of automating 
testing ... the keystrokes go into a script which can be edited.  UPI sells 
one of the variants of this http://www.unbeatenpathintl.com/services.html ... 
as with any tool, there needs to be training in its proper usage.

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
MIS Manager Green Screen Programmer & Computer Janitor of BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 
running on AS/400 V4R3 http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of 
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical 
sub-assemblies

>  From:    robertslaw@hotmail.com (Lawrence Roberts)
>  
>  Does anyone know where I can pick up some literature on quality assurance 
>  procedures for AS/400 projects?
>  
>  I’ve been “crisis” managing ERP projects for the past five years with 
>  basically the same result each time: the cycle completes on or close to 
>  deadline, but the number of breakdowns the staff must overcome to reach 
that 
> 
>  point leaves very little to be enjoyed.
>  
>  The problems that occurred during programming, quality control and 
software 
>  implementation could have been reduced considerably had we followed a 
strong 
> 
>  quality assurance program designed specifically for these type projects.  
I 
>  heard there were a few books out there but I cannot seem to find one

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