Cost reductions and the quest for more efficiency are more evident in today’s business world. It also follows that our testing processes will ultimately be affected. When test techniques and methods for structured testing are introduced, this results in improvements in the production of more consistent and predictable results. Introducing a risk based approach to testing makes it easier for the business to determine to what extent testing is necessary and most efficient. The resulting Go/No- Go decision process may not be sufficient for all companies so other creative methods need to be investigated. Many management theories speak about “Lean” as being one of the solutions. One of the key steps in using “Lean” is the identification of which steps add value to the customer and which do not. This track will give you information to start using “Lean” within testing and more specifically within test management. The presenter will also look at Lean Six Sigma as being one of the more popular theories that introduces the concept of “Lean” in combination with obtaining higher quality products. This subject will also be explained in combination with testing and test management. This track will focus on applying Lean Six Sigma techniques to test management processes using practical examples from customer cases. The audience can take home a practical “Lean Test Management” overview which they can apply in their own companies. This track is especially of interest to business managers, IT managers, QA managers and test managers that are involved in improving the quality of test management processes.

1. How To Apply Lean Test Management
Bob van de Burgt
Professional Testing®
Ban Waste,Gain Efficiency
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2. I will show you differently!
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3. - Lean Manufacturing
- Lean Six Sigma
- Roadmap to
Lean Test Management
- Conclusions
Agenda
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4. What is Lean Manufacturing?
• Lean manufacturing is a company process improvement
method. It is developed from a logistics viewpoint.
• Lean manufacturing concentrates on banning waste to
become quicker and more efficient. Every process that
does not add value for the customer is eliminated.
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5. History Timeline Lean Manufacturing
Image source = © 2005 Strategos, inc
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6. Lean Manufacturing – the 7 wastes
• Overproduction
• Waiting
• Transporting
• Inappropriate processing
• Unnecessary inventory
• Unnecessary / excess motion
• Defects
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7. What is (Lean) Six Sigma
• Lean Six Sigma is a quality management method that offers a
framework to manage quality. By many it is seen as a sequence of
Total Quality Management (TQM) with a high use of Statistical
Process Control (SPC) as underlying method. Processes can be
controled when you know how each process goes and to know that
you have to measure: to measure is to know! Measuring is the basis
of Six Sigma.
• The aim is to work smarter and get a higher quality.
• Sigma (∂) is the standard deviation from the average. A statistical
term that measures how far a given process deviates from
perfection.
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8. History of Six Sigma
• Six Sigma is founded at Motorola in the mid 80’s as a solution for
problems with product quality and customer satisfaction. Six
Sigma got its big popularity when it was used on a broad scale at
General Electric and gained billions over a period of multiple
years.
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9. Defects with sigma level 2
-3 σ -2 σ -1 σ 3 σ2 σ1 σ0=target
σσ
MAX
2 σ = 69,1%
defects
defects
30,9 % defects
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10. Defects with sigma level 4
-3 σ -2 σ -2 σ 3 σ2 σ2 σ0=target
σσ
MAX
defects
defects
4 σ = 99,4%
0,6 % defects
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11. 4 key elements
• Delight the customer
• Improve processes
• Teamwork
• Data and facts
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12. • DMAIC:
– Define
– Measure
– Analyze
– Improve
– Control
– Between every step is a tollgate
Roadmap to Lean Test Management
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13. • Purpose:
To agree on what the
project is.
• Example tools:
– SIPOC
– Value Stream Map
Define - Theory
Define
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14. Define – Example SIPOC
* Critical-To-Quality indicators (CTQ)
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15. Define – Example Value Stream Map
ETC
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16. Takt time
• Definition Takt Time:
The desired time between units of production output,
synchronized to customer demand.
• The concept carries backward through
a process stream. Ideally, every step
synchronizes with the final output.
Takt Time is fundamental
to Lean Manufacturing.
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17. Takt time – a bomber an hour
Image source = © 2005 Strategos, inc
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18. Measure - Theory
• Purpose:
Evaluate the existing measurement
system, observe the process,
gather data, and map the process
in more depth.
• Example tool:
– Pareto chart
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19. Measure – Example Pareto Chart
Pareto chart for long waiting hours during test execution
Failures in test environment 65
Failures in test data 20
Failures in test cases 8
Not fully capable resources 5
Rest 2
100
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20. • Purpose:
Use collected data to confirm
the source of delays, waste,
and poor quality.
• Example tools:
– 5 Why’s
– Ishikawa diagram
Analyze - Theory
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21. Analyze - Example 5 Why’s
Problem Statement:
During test execution there
are long waiting hours.
1. Why are there
long waiting hours
during test
execution?
1. Because often
there are failures in
the test
environment
2. Why are there
failures in the test
environment?
2. Because we
often seem to have
the wrong version
of the test object.
3. Why do we often
have the wrong
version?
3. Because
someone installed
the wrong version.
4. Why does
someone install the
wrong version?
4. Because we don’t
have proper version
control.5. Why don’t we
have proper
version control?
5. Because we
never got around
to it, but it seems
time to do it now. 21

22. Analyze - Example Ishikawa Diagram
Long waiting hours during test execution
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23. • Purpose:
To make changes in a process
that eliminate defects, waste,
cost, etc., which are linked to
the customer need identified in
the Define phase.
• Example tool:
– Pick chart
Improve - Theory
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24. Improve – Example Pick Chart
Implement Possible
Challenge Kill
Easy to
implement
Hard to
implement
Large
result
Small
result
1
7
4
8
2
3
6
9
5
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25. Control - Theory
• Purpose:
To make sure that any gains
a team makes last.
• Example tool:
– Control chart
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26. Control – Example Control Chart
Gain Sigma level
30,85% 1
69,15% 2
93,32% 3
99,38% 4
99,977% 5
99,99966% 6
Average
Upper limit
Lower limit
Triggers for
actions
Unpredictable
proces
Improved
proces
Controlled
proces
T3T1 T2
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27. Conclusions
• Test Management can benefit from Lean and
Six Sigma
• Improvement from within your company
• Useful addition to “standard” Test Process
Improvement models
• Better integration of test process with other
processes
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