From Waterfall to Unified Process: A QA Department View

When Chemical Abstracts Service adopted the Unified Process (UP) for software development at the same time it changed to J2EE technology, the QA Department had to find its way into this new environment. The problem? No one seemed to know how QA should function in the UP world. After much soul searching, a new role for QA has emerged-one of information integrator. QA has learned to produce its own view of the project information, from vision documents and architecture assumptions to use cases and user interface specifications. Michael Buening shares examples of the concise, flexible, and functional test plans they devised to embrace the iterative nature of UP, balance the fuzzy nature of new products, and avoid throw-away work. Find out how the focus on new test plans has armed QA with a proactive tool to stay relevant in uncertain times.