Quality assurance

Jack Pickard & Dan Champion

Champion IS Limited

Session agenda

  1. Standards
  2. Testing
  3. Communication
  • Quality assurance depends on a sound foundation of agreed, realistic organisational standards against which work can be measured
  • For the web we're talking a wide range of standards, not just "web standards" as they are commonly known
  • Includes standards for software development, use of language, use of layout and headings, etc etc
  • Consistency and uniformity are important
  • Intelligent inconsistency is the ideal, because the same standards will not necessarily apply to all users and all applications
  • Testing should be undertaken continuosly
  • Communication of standards to team, editors, users and suppliers through training, guides and procurement requirements

Standards

Define quality and constraints in many areas:

  • Standards cover a range of disciplines
  • Important for all web teams, but critical for teams of more than 1!
  • Useful to break standards into topical areas such as those listed
  • This is my take - apply your own structure and knowledge to establish your own areas
  • Reserve the right to change *anything* that doesn't achieve the standard. But always communicate the reason for those changes.

Benefits of standards

  • Documented standards give everyone the same quality threshold, which can be upheld
  • Reduces risk the organisation will fail to meet legislative requirements, e.g. accessibility
  • Provides a framework for training and development of team and editors

Technical standards

  • Web standards key. See Zeldman et al
  • Technical platform puts constraints on internal and external developers, and on procurement possibilities (e.g. AF procurement at Clacks)
  • Data management standards - storage, transport, retention of data
  • Network standards - covers access, clever stuff like firewalls etc. Leave it to the techies, but be aware of the constraints

Presentational standards

  • Presentational standards ensure a consistent experience for users
  • Provide a style guide for your editors covering basics like layout, when to use lists, linking guidance (inline, or in a links block for example), use and hierarchy of headings etc
  • Use a professional graphic designer, ideally one who understands the web and issues like accessibility

Complexity requires support

4 alternative styles of ClacksWeb

  • There will be situations where your style choices require additional support
  • For example, offering alternative styles to users add a layer of complexity for your editors
  • In this case need to ensure that images have a transparent background. Means either straight-edged jpegs, or gifs. Not currently using PNG due to IE problems.
  • Editors may not understand these guidelines, so always offer support and exercise active QA

Development standards

  • Standards are absolutely essential, especially in teams of more than one
  • Beyond scope of today. In many cases this will be in IT's territory

Interface standards

  • Interface covers more than just form interfaces etc although form interfaces are a primary concern
  • Includes link placement, link language, use of inline forms, download links, images as anchors etc
  • Employ accessibility or usability professionals to establish standards or audit existing interfaces
  • Simplification will often help when you're struggling to nail an interface

Language standards

  • Employ professional copy-writers, at least to advise on language
  • Passive voice - say "You can download a copy of the report in the documents section" rather than "A copy of the report can be downloaded in the documents section"

And so to testing

Calvin's dad offers the benefit of his wisom on testing

Calvin & Hobbes © Universal Press Syndicate

  • Fortunately we *can* break our sites to test them
  • Jack is going to take us through some practical examples of a testing regime

Jack's stuff

Jack covers practical testing examples... 30 minutes?

Communicating standards

  • To be effective standards have to be communicated to the right people and adopted by them
  • Without agreed standards you might as well have no standards
  • Diverse audience for your standards, with diverse knowledge, abilities, experience and vested interests
  • We'll quickly consider training, guidelines and requirements - not exhaustive by any means
  • We'll also touch on handling resistance to standards

Training

  • Use your standards to assess training and development needs
  • It doesn't matter if you deliver training internally externally, but be sure that any external agency understands your standards
  • Generally speaking all staff want to do things right - editors, web monkeys, everyone - you'll find they buy into clearly articulated standards if they appreciate the reasons behind them

Guidelines

  • Guidelines are excellent reference material to enable editors, developers etc to self-serve
  • Best suited for softer subject matter such as writing style, language, style guide etc
  • They allow some freedom on the part of the reader
  • If the reader must employ a particular standard it's a requirement, not a guideline

Requirements

  • Requirements indicate absolute standards that must be adhered to
  • Non-negotiable - do it this way or don't do it at all
  • Most useful where compliance can be measured
  • Little freedom granted to the reader - perhaps around how the requirement is met, but not around the requirement itself

Example - Guidelines for contractors

Extract from Clackmannanshire guidelines for web contractors

Available from: Public Sector Forums shared resources

Summary

  • Effective quality assurance demands appropriate standards
  • Without standards to measure against it's not possible to know whether we're producing quality
  • While user testing is expensive, there are plenty of QA activities that can be done in-house, cheaply and easily
  • The most important element is the standard, not the test
  • Standards also provide other benefits, including a good measure of staff development and resource needs
  • Without effective communication to all relevant parties no amount of standards or testing will improve quality

Questions & discussion