Background
As one of the world's largest retailers, the Kroger Co. is committed to improving productivity and reducing costs by promoting Quality Assurance (QA) best-practices across the enterprise, by raising QA awareness throughout the project lifecycle, by increasing the level of QA staffing on projects, and by engaging QA earlier in the project lifecycle. Traditionally, QA and testing activities at Kroger have competed for budget dollars that are also available for development, project management, and support activities. By developing a more progressive QA approach, Kroger has challenged the status quo and embarked on a quest to establish a quality-driven IT culture that will enable even greater success in the highly competive retailing market.
Business Challange
- Had limited QA/Testing staff that is only able to fully engage in a fraction of the highest-priority IT projects
- QA is often not involved in projects until late in the project lifecycle
Ascendum Solution
Ascendum's QA team worked closely with Kroger's QA management to support a comprehensive approach to QA best-practices and awareness targeted at multiple levels of the organization. Ascendum's QA professionals also:
- Recommended appropriate and cost-effective tactical activities to provide immediate, positive results while remaining mindful of the overall QA strategy and real-world budget limitations
- Provided senior QA planning resources to build cost and resource estimates for QA activities into project plans from their inception, and to expand existing QA staff capacity
- Assisted Kroger QA management in building ROI models to justify increased investment in QA activities
- Educated project teams and business units on the imperative of QA, in order to help speed the adoption of the enterprise QA initiatives
Results
- QA staff has greater-than-ever ability to engage more fully on more projects and at the critical early stages in those projects' life cycles
- Overall QA practices have been broadly enhanced through standards-based QA artifacts and procedures, disciplined processes, and improved software quality metrics
- General QA awareness across the enterprise, particularly in project-sponsoring business units, has significantly improved, further reinforcing the QA strategy
