Quality Assurance
What is involved in Quality Assurance?
Quality Assurance is making sure that your business is consistent. To the customer that means that it doesn't matter which person is doing the job, the same quality of work will be done. In reference to computers it means that your system has had all of its internal components (hardware, software and networking material) catalogued and inventoried so that if there were a problem with anything on your computer system you would be able to remedy it with absolutely no loss to the system. In essence you could replace the damaged computer with an identical clone.
So what do you have to do to your computer system if you wish to be in this state? Think of it as a reference manual or an inventory of your system. In it are detailed the equipment, mechanisms and methods that make your company operate as it is today. What kind of information is it?
It is the physical list of computers, the programs on each computer, the connection information for each computer (networking components) and the connection ID and passwords for all the various programs that you are using. If there are automated scripts that run at specified times, these would also be recorded.
What kinds of interruptions are there? What would happen if a fire, tornado, flood or some other occurrence were to ruin your building. Such that it was not possible to go in and retrieve anything. Or the ceiling crashing on your computing room. How would you recover in such a circumstance? What kind of information would you want to have recorded to help you re-establish yourself?
You need information for the insurance company and to help you reorder your equipment...
- What exact equipment did you have?
- What exact software did you have?
- What was your maintenance agreement with any of your suppliers?
Once you have your equipment and possibly a new place of residence for your company...
- Where are your backups?
- Did you maintain off-site backups for such a situation?
- How current are they?
- How were your computers configured?
- What version of which OS and software was on which server?
- What was the order of your servers?
- What were the settings for your hardware?
- What were the settings for your software programs?
- What were the settings for your desktop configurations for your staff (all the same or different depending on what area they were in)?
Now that you have your building and your equipment all up and functioning, it's time to get the staff back inside...
How do you process ...
- an order
- a request
- an exchange
- a refund
- a cheque deposit
- an accounts receivable payment
- an accounts receivable overpayment
- a new client account
- a delinquent client account
- ... the list goes on ...
What it is
So, Quality Assurance is about being sure that no matter what happens, tornado to termination, your company is not going to skip a beat when change occurs.
The reality is that all too often the mechanisms that make a company operate are generally stored in the minds of the people that were in charge of the implementation or are just 'known' by the staff after having worked there long enough. But what happens if that key employee decides to quit or retire or moves on to another department? Who will handle the knowledge transfer that needs to take place before the change happens, not after? If you are properly documented, this will not be an issue because you can refer to a set of procedures or documents that will guide the way.
Quality assurance refers to having a consistent methodology in how you do things. This may range from something as simple as a consistent naming mechanism for files or the way a new account is dealt with. It has to do with the way expenses are handled, the way an upgrade is handled, to the method of dealing with employees.
Quality assurance is what helps you when a bid or tender comes through and due diligence has to happen. It shows the level of attention that is being given within the company, not just to the goings-on of the company.
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