Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
12.5. 3
Mass Servicing of Software Test Projects
It might seem antithetical to assume that any software test project can be thought
to be similar to any manufacturing activity. They are worlds apart in every aspect.
And yet due to some developments in business trends, it could be a reality!
At the service provider's end there are many software test projects going on and
coming in all the time. At a big software services provider, more than 20 software test
projects might come in each day. That means more than 600 projects per year. In such
a scenario it is possible for the service provider to consolidate, disassemble, and aggre-
gate parts of these projects to manage them better. This kind of scenario is required to
test our hypothesis of converting projects and apply the mass servicing concept.
The service provider starts by dissecting these projects. Like in manufacturing,
he creates an inventory of these project parts. He aggregates similar parts from
many projects and puts them into one basket and sends it to the appropriate pro-
cessing department. This inventory goes through the inventory stages of queued,
work-in-process, and finished. The finished parts are then assembled to create fin-
ished projects. The service provider then delivers these projects to customers. In
essence the projects here do not conform to the dictum “one of a kind” but more
closely resemble “many of one kind.”
The service provider is using almost the same techniques that a mass manufac-
turer uses (e.g., pegging, sequencing, disassembling, aggregation, reducing idle and
setup time). At his facilities, projects are treated like orders for which processing
lines can be set up and project parts can be processed in a mass services manner.
12.5.4
Rework Aspects
In the new setup, will rework increase compared to the existing way of getting work
done? Because people working on project parts will not have much of an idea about
other parts of the project or the big picture of the project, it is likely that rework
may increase as the possibility of error will increase. The better part of this scheme
of things is that resources are no longer reporting only to project managers but also
to CoE managers. This kind of matrix structure is good, as all to-be-delivered parts
are checked from project aspects as well as from technical aspects. So, the chances
of doing things wrong will in fact be less.
12.. Conclusion
Commoditizing test projects can be a great idea. In fact, it can be a revolution.
Software vendors can make software that can facilitate test projects to be executed
this way. Currently offshore service providers are consolidating test projects. If they
can remodel and offer their services this way, they can indeed provide a great value
to their customers.
