During a directors’ project status meeting, one project manager states “we haven’t met the schedule because the release is still in testing.” The directors think “what are those testers doing and why are they holding up the schedule?” when the data, if it was tracked, would show that the Quality Control (QC) team has received 18 builds and the team cannot complete a test cycle because of severe defects that require fixes.

One tool to track this data is a QC work plan. This work plan shows QC tasks, dependencies and resources, is flexible enough to use for different types and sizes of projects, may be used for various audiences, and documents historical data. Along with the benefits of the work plan, there are challenges and costs associated with it.

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About the Author

Shannon K. Brown has over thirteen years of experience in the quality discipline within a variety of industries including pharmaceutical, engineering, start-ups, and hospitality. Sonya Oetting has over seven years of experience in the quality field including engineering, e-commerce, retail, and hospitality industries.