Audit & Advisory Services
Advisory Services
We help you mature your quality
At QA Consultants, our projects can range from a few hours (for on-demand needs) to multi-year sourcing arrangements. However, most of these engagements start with one or more advisory services.
Advisory services at QA Consultants are those that have a fixed duration and confirmed end date. Our services often have a deliverable that improves processes and teams. These are traditionally consulting engagements that include time from our executive leadership and senior professional services teams.
Most advisory services are delivered under time and materials engagement models. This allows QA Consultants to be efficient and able to reduce the time needed. Most of these projects relate to some degree of assessment. When material, data, and resources are readily available, these projects can move smoothly and under budget.
Advisory services include:
- QA maturity assessments
- Tools evaluation and implementation
- GDPR data privacy audits
- Investment assurance
- QA process consulting
- Metrics management
- Security policy implementation, validation, and enforcement
Advisory services engagement examples:
- TCOE implementation analysis
- Pro-forma creation for a joint venture converting QA to a revenue generator
- Automation proof of concept creations for non-standard applications
- QA maturity assessment
Specialized Audit
We reduce risk
In addition to our testing services, we have four areas of expertise that can increase security, provide compliance, and reduce risk.
Application Security Assessment
Our penetration and vulnerability assessment focuses on identifying and exploiting threats with clear documentation of risk and remediation. Vulnerability assessment is a vital aspect of a strong security program. In fact, a vulnerability management system, including testing and remediation, is often recognized by industry standards and regulatory bodies as a crucial stipulation for security and compulsory for compliance. Be proactive and safeguard your business.
Assessment Process Framework
Executive Interviews
• Executive Success/Failure Criteria
• Digital Transformation Readiness
• Measurable KPIs
- KPIs
2. Maturity of Development/QA/QE Methodology
- KPIs
3. Skillset Requirements (Current and Future needs)
4. Quality Engineering Culture Readiness
5. Framework Maturity
- Automation
- Performance
- Security
- Accessibility
6. Tool Maturity
7. Digital Readiness Gaps
2. QAOps Readiness (gaps and remediation recommendations)
- Skills/Culture Transition
- Agile readiness
- Framework Readiness
- Tool Readiness
- KPIs
3. Quality Engineering Culture Transition Gaps
4. Framework & Supporting Tools current state gaps
- Automation
- Performance
- Security
- Accessibility
2. QAOps Readiness
- Skills/Culture Transition
- Agile readiness
- Framework Readiness
- Tool Readiness
3. Quality Engineering Culture Transition Plan
4. Framework & Supporting Tools Establishment/Implementation
- Automation
- Performance
- Security
- Accessibility
5. QE Digital Transition Plan
ADA/Section 508/AODA/Accessibility Compliance Audit
A WCAG 2.0 compliance audit details where a site will fail compliance with recommendations on remediation approaches. By becoming A and AA compliant you can satisfy requirements, retain and or gain customers, plus maintain social responsibility. We can start a conversation and ensure your business is compliant.
Investment Assurance due diligence audit
As a specifically designed solution both pre-and post-investment, QA Consultants supports the VC and PE community in understanding the technical quality of the company’s development process. Pre-investment, a due diligence assessment is useful in understanding software quality from ideation to wireframes to MVP and working product as well as the organizational approach to quality. Post-investment, QA Consultants supports a third party, independent quality inspections and audit for a single investment or best as leveraged across a portfolio. This approach allows the investor to bulk purchase hours to be disseminated across a portfolio and includes direct feedback quality progress.
All services are available on individual and volume-based engagements (Ex: Design and dev companies)
GDPR Audit
As with our security assessment, QA Consultants will review all data privacy-related risk areas, confirm GDPR fine risks, and implement policies on remediation and compliance. The GDPR affects any Canadian-based company that offers goods or services to EU residents. Let’s talk about it before it becomes an issue.
QAC GDPR – 12 Steps for NA Companies
QA & Testing Assessment
Executive Summary
The QA & Testing Assessment (commonly called DPA) consists of an assessment to identify the current needs, pain-points and maturity level of the QA and testing organization, including processes, people, and tools. The main goal behind this strategic service is to evaluate the readiness of the IT organization, including processes, people and tools, to deliver an end-to-end enterprise quality management strategy based on business drivers, best practices and usage patterns.
The methodology applied consists of:
- A systematic diagnostic of the people, process, and tools in order to identify key strengths, weaknesses, and risks in the QA organization
- A gap analysis to provide insights on how the AS-IS perception compares with the industry best practices and blueprints
- A final report to provide recommended next steps in order to increase the maturity level of QA discipline
What do I get out of it?
An enterprise roadmap designed to optimize the customer business outcomes by improving the application of process and technology both now and as part of your long-range strategic plans. This is achieved through a comprehensive set of IT measurements reflecting the “as-is” state of affair in quality management, testing management and control, application management, requirement management and configuration management, followed by recommendations to move you to the desired end state as defined by your business drivers.
| Executive Alignment on Criteria and Criticality | Traditional Stakeholder Assessment | QAC Stakeholder Assessment | Analysis and Reporting and Post-Assessment Recommendation | Post-Assessment Roadmap Execution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QA Disciplines (Manual/Functional, Automation, Performance, Mobile, Compatibility, etc.) |  |
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QA/QE Playbook
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| QA Documentation | |
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QA/QE Playbook | |
| Security Vulnerability and Training | |
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QE Security Playbook
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| QA Metrics | |
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QA/QE Playbook
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| QA/Test Management Tools Analysis/Recommendations | |
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QA/QE Playbook
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| Test Data and Environment Management | |
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QA/QE Playbook
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| Executive Alignment on Criteria and Criticality | Traditional Stakeholder Assessment | QAC Stakeholder Assessment | Analysis and Reporting and Post-Assessment Recommendation | Post-Assessment Roadmap Execution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance (Cost of Quality) | |
Current and Future Analysis of Development and Testing Costs
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| Social Impact | |
QA/QE Playbook for Diversity within QA Organization | ||
| Culture of QA/QE | |
QA/QE Playbook for Cultural Change within QA Organization
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| Tool Enablers to Organizational Change | |
QA/QE Playbook for Cultural Change within QA Organization
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| Human Capital and Skills Assessment | |
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| QAOps and Organizational KPI’s | |
QA/QE Playbook
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What can I expect?
Once we have mutually signed the SOW with the letter of understanding explaining the work that will be performed, the engagement follows a set path to completion:
- IT processes and methodologies analysis – review of IT processes and methodologies to identify current strengths, weaknesses, and risks, as well as current capabilities and required resources
- Response package – a set of questionnaires is sent to the sponsor for distribution within the organization as applicable (used to create a joint POV)
- Checkpoint – conference call or in-person meetings with the sponsor to review the results of the “response package”
- Deliverables – in a follow-up meeting with the sponsor and primary stakeholders, QA Consultants will present findings and recommendations and establish an on-going dialogue to prioritize joint projects
Business Drivers
- Improves service efficiency
- Reduce cost and risks
- Improve service availability and time to deliver services
Top Objectives
- Align demand and resource supply based on critical business needs
- Improve time to deliver high-quality applications and technology services with fewer post-implementation defects
- Leverage best practices to institute scalable processes across IT
- Modernize time-consuming processes through automation
- Reduce the dependency on tribal knowledge
- Reduce the number of outages and MTTR on critical outages
- Improve Service Availability