This is maybe the more complex section because it is about the customization of the product, including program tricky and tips on how to accomplish the users' requests. 

 

When you have to organize and structure the functionality of the Tool you need to know very well how is structured the organization and which is the "burocracy".

 

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Management Philosophy

 

Understand which is the real opinion of the management about testing is very important. The approach, talking with some guru of testing, depends a lot from culture and geography aspects.

North-European and Anglo-Saxon people are more disposed to accept test as integrant part of the software life cycle; opposite view for manager of mediterranean area, such as Italy and Spain, that don't consider the test as so useful. But this is not a standard rule.

 

I suggest to read some article about this argument written by the Professor of the Pittsburg University, Mr. John Scarpino:

 

- Quality process first; quality testing second

- How poor management skills jeopardize software quality

- The struggle to create quality software

 

Note: To read these articles you need to subscript to SearchSoftwareQuality

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Well let's going on...

 

The first advice I would like to give is to take off the hand from the keyboard and activate your brain. Write on paper what is must be developed, which are the users' requirements, reports and so on. This is very easy to understand but it is very important to avoid loosing of time, money and resources.

 

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Scope of a Project

 

What is, for You, the perimeter of a Quality Center Project? In some organization a business aspect could constist of several arguments, applications. It is necessary understand how to collect data: create a project for each application or only one project that join all applications?

 

It is not an easy question and the answer is not unique. It depends on the approach and orgnization, that could be more or less complex.

 

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Indispensable Tools

 

I would like now, once you understand how to achieve the functional requirements, to speak about useful tools to customize Quality Center.

 

First you MUST download .chm file of the Quality Center OTA and SaApi. Without these files I couldn't know how to interact with Quality Center objects. Others important files are those about the QC Project DB Structure. All these documents can be dowloaded from the documentation part of the Project.

Very important is the net. You must be able to navigate, you can find lots of materials, arguments, code, etc.

Under the Friendly and Avised Web Site you can find a little list of useful sites.