To copy a testing process “is to invite disaster”

Sometimes, we hear about a company that creates high-quality software. The company has great testing and quality processes, so we think about copying their ideas to improve our process.

“If anyone were to study such a company without theory, i.e. without knowing what questions to ask,” they “would be tempted to copy the company”[1]. The company whose process you are tempted to copy may be successful due to good luck or coincidence[1].  Copying another company’s processes does not necessarily involve understanding the company you are tempted to copy or the organisation you work in. Deming warned that “to copy is to invite disaster”[1].

We should try to improve our test process, but not by copying. Before we decide how to improve our test process we need a “map or theory by which to understand the organisations that we work in“[2]. A lens that provides such a map can be found by considering these four factors:

• Appreciation of a system.
  • We need to understand the system we are working in. To do this, we should use systems thinking. Systems thinking enables you to see the whole of your system. One way systems thinking helps me is by helping me understand the interdependent processes in the system. If you have not used systems thinking you can start your systems thinking journey.
• Knowledge about variation.
  • Variation is all around us. For example, the number of incidents rises and falls, the performance of the application speeds and slows, the number of bugs changes, etc. Using control charts to understand these variations in data gives us insight, which helps me identify and share issues relating to quality.
• Theory of knowledge.
  • Theory predicts future outcomes that fit observations of the past without failure and builds knowledge through revision. [3] When I am testing I develop theories and test them, and this way I learn about the product, customers, the company and testing.
• Psychology.
  • We need to “understand people, interactions between people and circumstances”[4].  This helps me understand the team I work with and the other teams my work interacts with.

Deming called these four factors “A System of Profound Knowledge” because they give a deep understanding. You need not be an expert in all four factors to use the system. 

If we copy testing and quality processes from another company without fully understanding the company we work for, the processes we copy may not work for us and disaster may result.

If we use the System of Profound Knowledge, we can understand our company, its quality processes, and its testing processes and then work to improve them. 

References

[1] The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming (1994, p36)

[2] The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming (1994, p92)

[3] The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming (1994, p102)

[3] The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming (1994, p107)

Additional Resources

• The Deming System of Profound Knowledge by John Hunter
• DemingNext eLearning from the Deming Institute (with a two-week free trial)
• Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Donald J. Wheeler
• Deming’s Journey to Profound Knowledge by John Willis with Derek Lewis