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Many software releases
extend longer than
expected and while
sometimes project
slippage is unavoidable,
there are some clear cut
best practice
fundamentals that you
can employ to reduce the
chance of slippage. We
conducted a webinar this
month on this topic, if
you wish to see the
entire webinar, see it
here:
:: Recorded
Webinar in Flash format:
http://smartbear.com/docs/8Best.html
:: Recorded
Webinar in Windows Media
format: http://psfiles.pragmaticsw.com/demos/webinar_SPTC.wmv
Best Practice 1
- Identify what causes
slippages
The major contributors
to slippage are:
-
Poorly defined
requirements
resulting in poor
estimates
-
Too many defects
discovered during
the QA phase
-
Lack of best
practice techniques
for managing all
phases of the
software lifecycle
Best Practice 2
- Create great
requirements
Great requirements has
these elements:
-
Succinct yet
descriptive
narrative
-
Explicit list of
business rules
-
A prototype
Below is an example of a
good requirement:
Best Practice 3
- Provide Better
Estimates
To define better
estimates you must:
-
Start with a good
requirement
-
Decompose the
requirements into
tasks
-
Build in buffers
based on past
experiences
-
Identify tasks for
testing,
documentation, and
other tasks that are
often forgotten
Best Practice 4
- Implement solid
Testing Techniques
A few simple best
practices will
dramatically increase
quality:
-
Create test cases
directly from the
requirement (linking
them) to ensure good
test coverage and
traceability
-
Create both positive
and negative test
cases
-
Automate as many of
the regression tests
as possible -- this
allows you to run
them more often and
without tying up
testing resources
Best Practice 5
- Follow Testing Best
Practices
View this document for a
full list of best
practices:
http://www.softwareplanner.com/TestBestPractices.pdf.
Best Practice 6
- Perform Peer Code
Reviews
Providing peer code
reviews can reduce the
cost of defects
exponentially. It
is less costly to fix
defects during coding,
more expensive to fix
them during the quality
assurance phase, and
even more expensive once
the software is in
production. Below
is an example of cost
savings of performing
code reviews (this was
based on an actual
customer testimonial):
We use Code
Collaborator (http://www.CodeCollaborator.com)
to perform code reviews.
Best Practice 7
- Implement Best
Practices for Defect
Management
When managing defects,
teams tend to re-work
defects over and over
again causing project
delays and unnecessary
effort. To reduce
re-work, use these best
practices:
-
Most times defects
require re-work
because the
developer cannot
reproduce the issue
and it takes several
iterations with the
quality assurance
team to document how
to reproduce it. To
eliminate this, use
a tool like
Jing (http://www.jingproject.com)
to record the screen
actions. By
attaching the screen
actions as a movie
to the defect, it
makes reproducing
the issue quick and
easy for the
developer, as they
can see exactly what
you did to cause the
issue.
-
When creating
defects, it is good
to use your test
management tool to
automatically create
the defect from the
failed test case.
A few tools allow
this, Software
Planner (http://www.softwareplanner.com)
has this feature.
By having it
automatically
created, it saves
time in typing up
the defect and
creates a link
between the failed
test cases and the
defect it generated.
-
When fixing defects,
keep a discussion
thread inside the
defect that shows
who worked on the
issue and what they
did. This will
save time later if
the issue
re-appears, allowing
you to minimize
rework.
-
Keep track of rework
analytics (how many
times defects are
reworked, etc).
By understanding
this, you can
measure your team on
reducing rework
counts.
Best Practice 8
- Analyze key metrics
during your software
development
When developing software
for a new release, track
these indicators:
-
Burn down
statistics
- This shows
day-by-day how
quickly you are
progressing to reach
your target release
date
-
Slipping
Tasks -
This shows who is
causing delays and
slippage
-
Test Case
Trending -
This shows how fast
you are getting
through your test
effort and how many
test cases pass and
fail
-
Defect
Trending -
This shows how fast
you are getting
defects fixed
-
Defect
Statistics
- This shows how
many defects you
have by status,
severity and
priority
-
Variances
- This shows how
close you came to
your estimates.
Use the variances to
buffer your
estimates for your
next project.
Summary
By employing best
practices, you can
reduce software project
slippage. If you
wish to learn more about
this and other topics,
see our past webinars at
http://www.softwareplanner.com/webinars.
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