Getting Quality Assurance Right!

Last week I shared a list of topics that I wanted to discuss this year. Quality Assurance is the first one that comes to mind and I will focus on that today.

Success in quality assurance or software testing (I think this phrase narrows down the focus of product quality or software quality significantly and I try not to use it – I will talk about this in the weeks to come) does not have to be elusive or even expensive. It takes a few simple steps to ensure that you do it right. Here goes:

• Have a Strategy – Make sure it covers the “what”, “how”, “where”, “when” and “who”
• Pick the right tools – These should meet your needs, not vice versa. You are the “Boss”!
• To automate or not to automate – in QA that is the question.
• Execution, Execution, Execution – the best strategy and tools won’t help you if you don’t follow through and do the job right.
• Reuse if you want to reduce – this is a key to keeping your costs low.
  

You can find more on these topics on the Tripod Technologies, Web site. I will also discuss these points in greater detail over the coming weeks.

Stay tuned…

Happy New Year!

I am excited about 2011.

Software product companies have renewed their investment in product development and technology enabled businesses are looking at these products and new technologies to help their business grow and succeed. The lessons of the last few years are still fresh in the minds of all companies and their focus on efficiency and getting the maximum out of their investment still reigns supreme. As an outsourced software development vendor, we help these companies achieve efficiency in software development, testing and management.

In the coming weeks and months I will discuss ways in which we accomplish this. Some of the topics I would like to discuss are:
• Quality Assurance
• Cloud Computing
• Software Reuse
• Agile development processes
• Software Management

Visit the Tripod Technologies Web site and go to the 'Free Resources' section to see more on these topics.

I would like to hear your ideas and welcome your comments. So, feel free to participate and include others in this discussion.

Stay tuned …

Dog days of summer

The dog days of summer are here. The heat wave is finally setting in on the east coast, as we try to make the most of the last few weeks before school starts with quick family vacations, time off at the shore or other leisure activity. There is one thing however that is a little different this year - no, I am not talking about the unseasonably cool and wet summer.

In the midst of what is usually a quiet time for business, there are indications of increased activity. The DJIA has been on the uptick for the last six weeks (one can argue the given where it was in Feb '09, it had only one way to go) and the July unemployment report was encouraging, giving hope to businesses that the end may be in sight. One key metric, as one company executive put it to me is "the downturn has lasted so long that the quarterly results compared to the same quarter last year are starting to look better".

Does this mean that all the pent up demand for business services (and specifically IT services, which are usually the first to face the axe) will get companies to start investing again. Will we go from "maintainging lights-on" to "business transformational investments"? Is the anecdotal evidence of increased spending in financial services and insurance industry the beginning of a real recovery, or is it a red herring.

The coming weeks and months will tell. Meanwhile we are keeping our brains nimble, tools ready and fingers crossed.... all while trying to stay cool in the sweltering 101 degree heat.

Stay tuned....

Don't just Survive... Thrive!

These are trying times for all businesses. Uncertainty in the equity markets and the tight credit market is putting a great financial strain on individuals and businesses. As consumer spending decreases businesses are seeking ways to reduce costs and tighten their budgets. The natural reaction is to get into a survival mode thinking "how can I ride this out?" Most companies that manage to ‘survive’ downturns arrive at the other end at or below the competitive position they were at prior to the downturn. However a few emerge significantly stronger than were they were before - how can you be a part of this group?

The companies that ‘thrive’ are the ones that look at the downturn as an opportunity to re-evaluate every aspect of their business processes and identify its contribution to the business’ success. They eliminate the ones that don’t work, fix the ones that are broken and strengthen the ones that work.

One such area that begs review is a company’s use of technology as a business enabler. Here are a few steps that you as a small and medium business can take to evaluate how your use of technology can determine if you just ‘survive’ or ‘thrive’:

• Reduce the cost of commodity services like email, intranet, hosting, storage etc. If you host your own email servers, intranet, business productivity applications etc., evaluate alternatives such as Software-as-a-Service to minimize capital expenditure and maintenance costs.


• Identify business processes that can be re-engineered and automated to use technology to replace expensive manual processes. You can save money and apply your valuable people resources to tasks that grow your business.


• Look at ways to minimize costs associated with new information technology investments, rather than completely eliminating them or putting them off indefinitely. If you think these investments will help your business be competitive, putting them off or eliminating them, gets you prepared to ‘survive’ rather than ‘thrive’.


• Consider Open source software and technologies like Cloud Computing to as alternatives to proprietary software or hardware. These eliminate expensive licensing costs and heavy capital expenditure.


• Consider outsourcing non-core technology functions including maintenance of business critical systems. Answer the question – ‘Am I in the business of software development & maintenance or Am I in the business of providing a unique product/service to my customers?’ If you answer ‘no’ to the first question and ‘yes’ to the second, you should consider outsourcing.

These are just a few steps you can take today to reduce your costs, conserve cash and to invest in your business so that you can emerge strong from this downturn.

Learn more about how Tripod can help your small/medium business thrive and

Stay Tuned…

Lets Get Started...

I had managed to put off the urge to blog for quite some time now and frankly had started running out of excuses on why I should not be blogging. The launch of the redesigned Tripod Technologies web site (check it out at http://www.tripodtech.net/) took care of that. So here we go.....

I hope to use this blog to keep the Tripod team, our clients and the community at large abreast of what is happening at Tripod and share our thoughts on the news and events that matter to us and impact us most in our professional lives. I hope that we will be able to have an active discussion on these topics and I look forward to your comments to my posts.

Stay tuned...