Open the Doors of Business by Closing the Doors on Defects

based on the quality of your beta release? Future opportunities evaporate when defects are allowed to slip through the exit point.

The only way to reopen the doors of business is to block the defects at or before the exit point. Here are a few methods your team can adopt to help ensure your organization's future success.

Follow System Testing Practices
System testing is an effective filtering mechanism that should be employed prior to delivery. Since system testing is user-level testing, most of the defects that users would see, will be uncovered here. Functionality of the product and the user interface under normal and abnormal conditions, load conditions, and stress conditions, are tested.

Provide Adequate Training to Testers
Train your testers on the concepts and technology involved in developing the product. They should interact with the customer and also function as end users. Motivate them to look at the product and test it the way a user would. Recognize the testers who discover critical defects such as application or system crashes, failure of abnormal user scenarios, performance degradation, or other usability issues.

Create a Neutral Atmosphere
Encourage testers to report any deviations from the specification that are discovered. Advise them not to worry about development issues and schedule pressures. Create an atmosphere where testers can look at the product independently and report the defects. This unbiased and focused testing is essential to uncover most of the defects that are invisible to normal eyes.

Create Backward and Forward Awareness
System testers are sandwiched between developers who think that their job is done when the product is given over for testing and the delivery folks who are trying to snatch the product from the tester's hands to meet their commitments. It is the responsibility of management to facilitate testers by creating proper awareness regarding the importance of blocking the defects at the exit point.

Involve Testers at the Beginning of the Development Lifecycle
In many organizations system testers are not considered as part of the team, they are added as additional ingredients at the time of testing, or the product is given to the testing team once it is ready for testing. In many cases, the products are tested by those who don't have enough prior knowledge of the product or how it was developed. Since the system testing lifecycle starts after the requirement specification is finalized, with test planning and designing, it is essential for the test team to be involved in the early stages of development lifecycle. Early association gives higher levels of confidence to team members.

Empower and Involve Your Testers
Create awareness among testers that their role is important towards opening up more avenues of business. Give them the freedom to report defects as they arise. Involve them in the process of deciding on releases in case of open defects. Listen to testers to decide whether it is an acceptable behavior or not. Encourage testers to suggest improvements to the product under test, which can be incorporated in future releases. The product is closely observed by testers during the lifecycle, so they are in a position to offer constructive suggestions.

Tighten Your Release Process
There is a great deal of pressure to release the product at the end of system testing. Testers play a vital role in ensuring the closure of reported defects and in analyzing the impact of the open defects. Release has to be recommended based on the type of release being made (commercial, beta, evaluation, etc.) and the impact of the open defects on overall quality, considering the user community.

Embrace the testing staff and