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I'm not anywhere close to being an expert on professional QA and testing but I do work with it as part of managing a IT system at work. To be honest, we are not very mature when it comes to using an actual framework or methodology and our tool support is quite lacking too. This has been painfully obvious in course of us upgrading to the newest version of the IT system.

I'm afraid tool support has more or less been decided. Oracle Primavera has been used so for managing projects - and from my perspective - issues. Quality Center has been used so far functional testing of the new version of the IT system. Service Manager has been chosen as the new ticket system for support of the IT system. I'll be working in that landscape in the future, not really sure what tool will be used.

What I'm looking for is more in terms of a framework or methodology. We have in-house developments and vendor-developed enhancements that needs tracking and QA. We do automated testing, regression testing of our databases before releases and functional/user acceptance testing. Any ideas?

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  • Just to be clear. When I say framework, I mean in the sense of a methodology and not an actual software framework/API.
    – Mark Gray
    Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 9:41
  • What I'm hearing is that you have a lot of tools, you have a regular schedule and some idea of different types of testing that are presumably giving you enough usable info about whether you can release now for you to continue spending money on them. Does that sound accurate? When you say you want a methodology, what benefits do you hope to gain? What might be different? (Note: I don't believe it's ever worthwhile to try to "pick a methodology off a shelf", you need to tailor it to your context. But currently all we know about that is the above. It'd help to know a bit more about your goals.
    – testerab
    Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 18:02
  • That's more or less the situation: We have all the tools and some ad hoc processes for testing but we do it poorly. I'd like to improve our processes for QA and testing, especially around our releases. I know that off-the-shelf methodologies may not fit all situations but I was hoping for something to at least start off from.
    – Mark Gray
    Commented Jul 23, 2012 at 12:04

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At my former work we were using the gate process.
In practice that meant you have:

  • fixed inputs for the testing (the software, documentation, tools).

And at the end of testing you provide:

  • fixed output (test report supported by entries in bug the tracking system).

The test process was described by a document called test plan which included: Time estimate, Testing scope, Test types to be performed ... etc. The test report was one of the input for the go meeting where was decided if the monthly update will be released to customers or postponed.
The test report was quite straightforward. Aside of description of testing environment and the testing inputs, contained a list of tests performed (regression, functional, performance, integration) along with the result: passed/failed. When test failed it had to be cooperated by an incident number.

This is just my practical experience from the point of view of everyday testing. It's not a complete methodology, but it might help. Esp if you google something more about the Gate process.

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