This article provides tips for conducting estimations in the context of quality assurance activities during different project phases. It highlights the level of support needed from QA analysts, potential risks, and the importance of effective communication with the customer.
The information was designed for internal usage, it shouldn’t be shared with the customer.
You can download the Excel file here.
Estimation Risks
The potential risks that can arise during QA activities include:
Lack of customer support during UAT testing, which can lead to problems with customer acceptance and reported bugs during the UAT phase.
Customer misunderstanding of UAT expectations, especially if they have little experience with IT projects and software testing.
Inadequate communication with the customer about UAT preparation and testing-related issues, potentially leading to the customer not being ready for UAT.
It seems like the consequences of not having enough QA support during UAT testing can lead to delays, misunderstandings, and a higher involvement of customer support, which could affect the project timeline and the relationship with the customer. Additionally, more bugs may be found by the customer later, potentially leading to disappointment and project delays.
QA Activities
QA Activities | Project Phase | full support | medium support | low support | Potential risk / comments |
stand-up meetings | Foundation and Setup | x | x (partly) | x (partly) | QA Analyst has not enough knowledge about the project |
UAT intro with the customer | Foundation and Setup | x | x | Customer is not clear about UAT expectations, especially when he has little experience with IT projects | |
SA, CE discussions - scope and solutions | Foundation and Setup | x | QA Analyst is missing some information about the project, more time will be needed during Feature Sprints | ||
Integration and data testing | Foundation and Setup | x | x | x | Data issues would be find later, probably by the customer, this really should be on every project |
document integration and data testing | Foundation and Setup | x | documentation will not be available for later discussions with the customer | ||
X-Ray preparation | Foundation and Setup | x | X-Ray is a test management tool, without using it sharing QA documentation and results with the customer will be harder. Later it can lead to harder communication with the customer about what was tested and with what results. | ||
test plan and test strategy preparation | Foundation and Setup | x | x |
| can lead to testing just particular functionalities without having the bigger picture |
stand-up meetings | Feature Sprint | x | x (partly) | x (partly) | QA Analyst has not enough knowledge about the project |
SA, CE discussions - user stories and AC discussions | Feature Sprint | x | QA Analyst is missing some information about the features, some useful tests could be missing because of this | ||
create test cases | Feature Sprint | x | x (no X-Ray) | high level - not to be shared with the customer, positive scenarios orientation | missing test documentation can be an issue for later communication with the customer and later for our Support team |
X-Ray usage | Feature Sprint | x | X-Ray is a test management tool, without using it sharing QA documentation and results with the customer will be harder. Later it can lead to harder communication with the customer about what was tested and with what results. | ||
testing according to test cases - positive cases | Feature Sprint | x | x | x | with QA Analyst this is a must - without QA Analyst, all testing will be done by the customer, with QA Analyst we can expect bugs from the customer will be more business or data specific |
testing according to test cases - negative cases, exceptions | Feature Sprint | x | x (partly) | more bugs will be found by the customer later, also functional once - it can easily lead to disappointed customer and project delay | |
report bugs as sub-tasks | Feature Sprint | x | x | x | this is a must - without QA Analyst it will be done just by the customer |
Pfx project team communication | Feature Sprint | x | x | x | this is a must - without QA Analyst, the communication is fully up to CE, SA, PM |
communication with the customer about UAT preparation and testing related issues | Feature Sprint | x | x | there will be no QA support for the customer, of course PM can give the customer documentation prepared by QA team, but there will be no one in the team to discuss QA related things with the customer | |
investigate bugs from customer | Feature Sprint | x | everything reported by the customer will be handled directly by CE or SA | ||
sw demo for the customer (prepare and deliver) | Feature Sprint | x | demo for the customer will be just from technical point of view - done by CE | ||
regression testing | Feature Sprint | x | x | x | this is a must - without QA Analyst it will be done by the customer |
smoke testing before customer testing | Feature Sprint | x | x | customer can discover the application is not ready for testing because it was not properly deployed - it is pretty rare, but the damage of our relationship with the customer can be even higher | |
SPOC | Feature Sprint | x |
|
| customer will have to communicate directly with SA, CE, it can leads to delays and misunderstandings because the customer will communicate with several different people |
stand-up meetings | UAT | x | x | x (partly) | QA Analyst has not enough knowledge about the current status of the project and what the customer is solving now |
SPOC | UAT | x | customer will have to communicate directly with SA, CE, it can leads to delays and misunderstandings because the customer will communicate with several different people | ||
Customer support (UAT testing) | UAT | x | If the customer is not experienced enough with IT projects and software testing, this could be a serious problem for us. Missing support can lead to problems with acceptance from the customer, reported bugs during last days of UAT, … . I need to remind if we find during UAT that the customer is not ready for UAT phase, it's too late to add QA Analyst to the project and "save" the project timeline. | ||
Smoke testing | UAT | x | x | customer can discover the application is not ready for testing because it was not properly deployed - it is pretty rare, but the damage of our relationship with the customer can be even higher | |
bug investigation and retesting | UAT | x | x | x | what the customer is reporting can be often hard to understand for our CEs, so it is very useful when QA Analyst can help with investigation of what the problem is and help our team to speed things up |
expected ratio for all project phases | 50% CE full support | 35-40% CE medium support | 25% CE low support |
example of hours a day for Feature Sprints | 4 full support | 3 medium support | 2 low support |