Quality Assurance — Still Key to Quality Products/Services

By Maureen McShane, Vertek

Over the last several years the introduction and demand for new communications technologies and services has accelerated exponentially. Communication providers have had to quickly diversify or expand their offerings to maintain market share.  Partnerships and acquisitions have replaced traditional sources of innovation in the race to bring new products/services to market. And the increased emphasis on cost containment and “doing more with less” has put even greater pressures on the carrier community to cut corners in order to reduce time-to-market.

Carriers employ many different software development and testing methodologies, but in the race to deploy new communications services, they will frequently diminish or completely ignore the role that end-to-end quality assurance plays in the product/service development process.  It is critical that carriers take the time to properly consider whether the performance of their systems, processes and tools are operationally sufficient.  How are they going to take an order for a new product/service, how are they going to track it, how are they going to help individual customers when they call in, bill the customer and introduce updates to a product/service?  The fact that the software or integration works is not sufficient if it takes 17 screens to submit a simple order and increases cycle time by 20 percent. That is not a good solution, even if the “requirements” have been met.

The existing back-office services, including billing, inventory control and order management, are probably adequate at this point to take an order for Product/Service A, but now there’s Product/Service B with different functionality, features and maybe even a new technology.  All those back office elements need to be properly assessed, updated, tested and validated so that they can handle the new variables in the sale and delivery of Product/Service B. Until this is done, Product/Service B is just a technology solution that works, but it’s not a product/service ready to be launched into the market.  Again, it is not just about software; it is about process too.

Business and functional requirements for quote-to-order processes such as pricing, options, bundling, provisioning, invoicing, refunding and credits must be created before development of the new product/service commences.  These requirements extend further to include what systems and processes must also be adjusted or created in order to deliver the product/service.  Well thought-out requirements are critical to a successful product/service in the market, and must continually be evaluated to optimize performance. When requirements are not well thought out or are ill-conceived, everything downstream is adversely affected, and chances are the finished product/service will not meet the needs of the marketplace or effectively support the business.

One cannot overemphasize the value of another aspect of quality assurance – user acceptance testing (UAT).  UAT tests backroom services, which in turn ensures that the business requirements are met.  Robust UAT makes it possible to analyze failures and implement potential corrective actions, followed in most cases by retesting – all before actual production work is impacted.

The root cause of a “no-go” for a communications service following the UAT test cycle often goes all the way back to the requirements and the quality and age of those requirements. UAT includes not only testing to ensure that the backroom services are ready to take on the new product/service, but also that quality documentation, written methods and procedures and training materials are in place for the product/service launch. Only then can release/launch readiness be confirmed.

Without user-acceptance testing of all the backroom systems and processes, the product/service could go out to a carrier’s client and the client might not be able to order the new product/service, choose the right options or take advantage of advertised limited-time offers or bundles. The resulting negative impact on the carrier in terms of reputation and brand can be enormous.

There is no question that communication providers are in a race to deploy new products/services in the marketplace before their competition.  But this is not the time to abandon core processes that have ensured the successful introduction of communications services and updates in the past.  While it might be tempting to reduce or eliminate quality-assurance activities because resources are already overloaded with normal production operations, carriers must consider the need to ensure they have all the backroom services modified, tested and in place to support every product/service introduction.  Stated another way, what costs more: allocating a moderate amount of time and expense for a couple weeks of quality assurance, or 20 or more potential customers that can’t place an order for the “hot new product or service” for four days?

Maureen McShane is the senior director of Consulting for Vertek Corp. She has over 20 years of industry experience in telecommunications. She has worked both domestically and internationally, designing network solutions and process models focused on the future of the telecom network.  Maureen is highly experienced in network operations, process modeling, project management, business operations, change management and software deployment.