Quality Issues Information Technology Management

Final Report

Instructions:

Identify five companies listed on NYSE or NASDAQ that carry a value of $5.00 or more per-share value. Review each company’s Web site, promotional site, or even an open source piece of software and make note of any defect or QA issue that you find.

Note: that if you download a product it may cause system conflicts and neither I nor the school is responsible for any application conflicts. Use the Robert Morris University computer labs if you choose to download open source application.

Document and log the following:

Part 1

What was the issue – Due week 3
The steps you take to replicate the issue and any images or errors to illustrate your support? – Due week 3
Document the issue, “bug” or defect for the report. – Due week 3
Part 2

Send the bugs/issue found to the company as an issue. – Due week 5
Document the response(s) and the processes each organization took. – Due week 5
Part 3

Final documentation if the issue/bug was fixed or an estimated time to be fixed by the company. Final review and thoughts of each of the 5 bugs found and ending results. – Due week 7.
At least three of the five companies you identified with issues ought to communicate back to you. If not find identify few other companies until you have a total of three responses back.

Document the approach each organization’s help desk took to fix the problem. Create a report log of your findings as if you were to present it to the organization’s CIO, Project Manager or Director of Quality Assurance.

Note – Be sure to be persistent!

This helps to assure communication back. Make sure you keep all communications and document the process. Was the defect address, fixed? If not did you receive an estimated time for it to be fixed? If so check up with them.

Include in your report:

Give an overview of each company and its industry, as well as the development environment of the Web site (i.e. java, .Net, ActiveX, RIA etc.). Browser/Smart Phone emulator that was used and tested against. Remember you may want to test an application or website on multiple sites: IE, Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera etc…
Document the Web site’s defect(s) in a clear and concise manner, including: steps to reproduce; the page the defect is found on; the area of the page affected by the defect; the time and date the defect was found; comments and suggestions for a remedy; and a screen shot, if possible.
Detail the responses you received from the organization. Did they give you a ticket number or service request? How many different people did you talk to? Did their responses vary – were they thorough? Were you contacted by phone or e-mail?
Explore the Web site’s accessibility and usability based on the corporation’s maturity, the trends seen in the company’s respective industry and its stock price.
Specify any QA process or procedure used by the company. If you’re not sure, do some digging and ask a corporate representative.
Make a recommendation to improve the company’s Web site, its QA process and procedure. Be creative and detail-oriented throughout your analysis. Come up with metrics – charts, graphs, matrixes – anything you think would help a CIO understand why a change should be made.
Proper documentation, a works cited or reference page, and APA style are required.
All five companies must have defects to report. Your completed report requires a minimum of three corporate contact interactions from your reporting (if you can manage to do more, then great!). Please list all five companies you tried to contact, even if you didn’t received a response from some of them.

You may want to use a WebCrawler, a Smart Phone / Tablet emulator or other QA testing tool to assist with your research. Please let me know if you need any assistance with these tools – many of which are free on the Web. Remember to review the Free Web Testing Tools – Fall 2014.ppt

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns that you may have about this project. We will work together to make sure you understand what you need to do.

You will be graded on how much detail and overall effort you put it in for each of the three due weeks. Remember – there’s no such thing as too much detail when it comes to Quality Assurance!