Quality
Quality Related Goals and Activities by Phase
Quality reflects how well the system serves its business purpose. A high-quality ERP works correctly, provides reliable data, and operates efficiently. This is accomplished by combining proactive Quality Assurance, which prevents defects, and reactive Quality Control, which detects defects.
Explore & Commit
Goals
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Define high-level quality and success criteria.
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Identify major quality-related business risks.
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Evaluate vendor product quality and reliability.
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Assess partner's quality management methodology.
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Establish the high-level Quality Management Plan.
Activities
The foundation for quality is set by defining what a successful outcome looks like. The organization establishes high-level benchmarks and success metrics from a business perspective. Risks related to data quality and process alignment are identified.
The quality of the ERP software is assessed, focusing on the vendor’s maturity and stability. The implementation partner’s quality approach is also examined, particularly their testing strategies and defect management processes.
The Phase ends by recording the project’s formal approach to quality. This includes drafting the initial Quality Management Plan and setting up “quality gates,” which are milestones requiring formal review and sign-off.
Plan and Activate
Goals
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Develop the detailed, comprehensive Test Strategy.
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Plan all testing cycles, resources, and schedules.
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Establish the defect management process and tools.
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Define and prepare test environments.
Activities
The high-level Quality Plan is turned into a detailed, actionable Test Strategy. This document describes the scope, schedule, resources, and success criteria for every testing activity.
The team creates specific plans for each cycle, including functional, integration, UAT, performance, and security testing. Necessary testing resources and environments are arranged and set up.
The tools and procedures for managing defects are defined. The defect tracking tool, such as Jira, is configured, and the process for logging, prioritizing, assigning, and resolving defects is formalized.
Design and Build
Goals
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Ensure quality is built into the solution design.
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Conduct formal design and code reviews.
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Perform unit and developer-level testing.
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Develop detailed test cases and scripts.
Activities
Quality shifts to a proactive approach that emphasizes building it right the first time. Quality assurance activities are conducted to prevent defects before they happen.
A process for peer or expert review of solution designs and custom code is established to ensure compliance with standards. Developer unit testing must be required for all configurations and customizations.
The QA team and business analysts start writing detailed, step-by-step test scripts for the Validate phase. These scripts must link back to the documented business requirements.
Validate
Goals
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Execute all formal quality control test cycles.
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Identify, manage, and resolve all defects.
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Conduct rigorous integration, performance, and security tests.
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Achieve formal business sign-off on quality (UAT).
Activities
This is the main Phase for Quality Control. The fully built system undergoes extensive testing to ensure it meets its business purpose.
The project team carries out end-to-end scenarios during System and Integration Testing. Specialized testing, such as performance and security tests, checks non-functional quality. Business users then perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) in a production-like environment.
A strict defect management process ensures all issues are tracked. Regular triage meetings prioritize and handle the timely resolution of bugs, followed by regression testing. The Phase concludes with formal UAT sign-off from business process owners.
Launch
Goals
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Confirm final production readiness (Go/No-Go review).
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Execute final regression testing.
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Validate the quality of the production deployment.
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Execute production smoke tests.
Activities
Quality activities focus on final checks immediately before and after go-live. The team does a final quality gate review. They present the status of testing and defect resolution to leadership to support the final Go/No-Go decision.
A final set of critical regression tests is performed after the last code changes are moved to the production-ready environment.
After deployment, smoke tests are carried out in the live environment to confirm that core functions and integrations work correctly. The final validation of migrated production data is also conducted to ensure accuracy.
Stabilize
Goals
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Monitor production system quality and stability.
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Resolve outstanding or new production defects
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Assess user satisfaction with system quality.
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Conduct a post-implementation quality review.
Activities
The focus shifts to monitoring the system’s quality in its live operational state. The support team tracks system stability, data integrity, and performance metrics. They monitor system logs to proactively identify and address quality issues.
The long-term support process helps manage the resolution of any remaining low-priority defects or new issues found by users.
User feedback on the system’s usability and reliability is collected through surveys. A post-implementation review focused on the quality management process is held to identify lessons learned for future projects.
Grow
Goals
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Ensure quality of all system enhancements.
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Continuously improve quality management processes.
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Maintain high levels of data integrity.
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Refine and automate testing processes.
Activities
Quality management evolves into an ongoing operational discipline. All future enhancements, patches, and upgrades undergo strict quality control.
A standard process is put in place where regression tests are run for every system change to prevent unintended side effects. The organization looks for ways to improve the efficiency and coverage of testing, including expanding the use of automated testing tools.
Data quality tools and reports are used to actively monitor the integrity of the ERP data. Ongoing user feedback serves as a key input for prioritizing enhancements that improve usability and overall quality.
