Quality Assurance and Quality Control Skill Sets: What I Look For Rick Neighbarger, CMQ/OE, CSQA, CSQE Nationwide Insurance

Approach Definition of Terms Skills/Competencies that make QA/QC practitioners successful Ways to acquire/maintain these skills

What Exactly is Quality? From CSQA Body of Knowledge Producer’s View of Quality Customer’s View of Quality

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

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

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.”

Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control Question: How do you hear the terms “QA” and “QC” used or confused around you?

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

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

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)

Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control Are these activities QA or QC?  performance testing software conducting an internal audit of the performance test process QA QC writing test plans QA training staff on the document review process  writing requirements documents QC conducting document reviews on project work products analyzing patterns of defects captured in document reviews QA

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

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

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

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

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

Skills Attainment & Maintenance How: National/local organization memberships/meetings Web page/mail list Peer references 17

Skills Attainment & Maintenance What: relational learning (20%) Job shadowing Time with SMEs Formal coaching/mentoring

Skills Attainment & Maintenance How: Formal company program Approach manager or a coworker who does it well Extracurricular coaching 19

Skills Attainment & Maintenance What: Experiential Learning (70%) Project assignments Process improvement teams (PITs) Committees

Skills Attainment & Maintenance How: Ask manager to help with upcoming opportunities Join Process Improvement Team (PIT) Participate in/organize committees/initiatives 21

Recap Quality assurance and quality control are different practices Different skills are required for each practice Several avenues available to acquire/maintain these skills