What I Look For
Rick Neighbarger, CMQ/OE, CSQA, CSQE
Nationwide Insurance
1

Approach
 Definition of Terms
 Skills/Competencies that make QA/QC practitioners successful
 Ways to acquire/maintain these skills
2

What Exactly is Quality?
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
 Producer’s View of Quality
 Customer’s View of Quality
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What Exactly is Quality?
From CSQA Body of
Knowledge
 Producer’s View of Quality
• Doing the right thing
• Doing it the right way
• Doing it right the first time
• Doing it on time without exceeding cost
 Customer’s View of Quality
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What Exactly is Quality?
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
 Producer’s View of Quality
 Customer’s View of Quality
• Receiving the right product for their use
• Being satisfied that their needs have been met
• Meeting their expectations
• Being treated with integrity, courtesy and respect
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
“Very few individuals can differentiate between quality control and quality assurance. Most quality assurance groups, in fact, practice quality control ….”
“Quality means meeting requirements and meeting customer needs, which means a defect-free product from both the producer’s and the customer’s viewpoint. Both quality control and quality assurance are used to make quality happen.”
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
Question:
How do you hear the terms
“QA” and “QC” used or confused around you?
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
Quality Control (QC):
 processes and methods used to compare product quality to requirements and applicable standards
 action taken when a nonconformance is detected
 reviews and testing, focus on detection/ correction of defects before shipment of products
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
Quality Assurance (QA):
 set of activities, including facilitation, training, measurement and analysis
 provides confidence that processes are established and continuously improved , to produce products or services that conform to requirements and are fit for use
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
From CSQA Body of Knowledge
Quality Assurance (QA):
 staff function; prevents problems by heading them off
 promotes quality concepts, quality attitudes and discipline for management and workers
 requires knowing how to make people conscious of the personal and organizational benefits of quality
 faces major impediments from results-oriented management (perception of little need for a function that emphasizes managing and controlling processes)
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Quality Assurance vs.
Quality Control
Are these activities QA or QC?
QC performance testing software
QA
QC
QA
 conducting an internal audit of the performance test process writing test plans training staff on the document review process writing requirements documents
QC conducting document reviews on project work products
QA analyzing patterns of defects captured in document reviews
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QA vs. QC Skills
What do I want a quality control practitioner to be good at?
 breaking things! (to improve product quality)
 attention to detail
 technical skills: relevant platforms, apps, languages, tools
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QA vs. QC Skills
What do I want a quality control practitioner to be good at?
The discipline of testing
 test planning, design, execution
 risk analysis
 white box vs. black box testing
 agile test techniques (where appropriate)
 exploratory testing
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QA vs. QC Skills
What do I want a quality assurance practitioner to be good at?
 improving how we do things! (to improve process quality)
 ambassadors, diplomats
 trainers
 patient and persistent
 knowledge of process maturity models
(CMMI, ISO 9001)
 in-depth experience in multiple roles in
SDLC and business
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How do I get these skills?
70/20/10 approach to adult learning
 70% experiential: hands-on opportunities
 20% relational: coaching/mentoring
 10% traditional: formal training
15

Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
What: Traditional learning (10%)

Certifications and certification prep courses
• QAI CSQA, CSTE; ASQ
 Vendor courses
• SQE, ESI, IIST
 Conferences
• SQE STAR, QAI/ASQ
International/Regional
16

Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How:
 National/local organization memberships/meetings
 Web page/mail list
 Peer references
17

Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
What: relational learning (20%)
 Job shadowing
 Time with SMEs
 Formal coaching/mentoring
18

Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How:
 Formal company program
 Approach manager or a coworker who does it well
 Extracurricular coaching
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Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
What: Experiential Learning (70%)
 Project assignments
 Process improvement teams
(PITs)
 Committees
20

Skills Attainment &
Maintenance
How:
 Ask manager to help with upcoming opportunities
 Join Process Improvement
Team (PIT)
 Participate in/organize committees/initiatives
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Recap
 Quality assurance and quality control are different practices
 Different skills are required for each practice
 Several avenues available to acquire/maintain these skills
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