Strategic alignment of Development and Testing

1. Strategic alignment of Development and Testing Jasbir Dhaliwal and Colin Onita University of Memphis

2. Presentation Outline • Initial Motivation • Levels of Alignment • Development Tester Alignment (DTA) Framework • Research Model for DTA implementation • Conclusion

3. The Need • Need for accurate, valid, real time IT applications that support the business function and provide unique competitive advantage. • Often, IT applications are not successful because of inadequacies resulting from a poorly executed development process • Lack of proper testing and effective collaborative mechanisms between the development and testing functions

4. Alignment Issues • A review of the testing literature reveals that relations between the development and testing functions are somewhat dysfunctional (Cohen at al 2004; Pettichord 2000) • Most research in the area of systems testing deals with technical issues related to code testing (Hevner and Mills 1993, Vagoun and Hevner 2997), and other technical aspects • Alignment models and measurements have been studied in other related contexts (Henderson and Venkatraman 1993; Reich and Benbasat 2000; Sabherwal et al 2003) but never within corporate IT units and specifically between the development and testing functions

5. Business Strategy Level 1 IS Strategy Level 2 Development Strategy Testing Strategy Levels of Alignment

6. Developer Tester Alignment • In many organizations, there is a gap, at both strategic and functional levels, between development and testing groups as well as between individual testers and developers. • No integrated framework that focuses on • aligning development and testing at all stages of system building • tying development strategies and capabilities to testing strategies and capabilities within the corporate IT • The DTA model focuses on the fit between the development and testing functions and how they operate collaboratively to support each other to achieve the goals of the corporate IT unit

7. Alignment model for testing and development (adapted from Henderson and Venkatraman 1993) Development Strategy Testing Strategy Scope of Development Governance of Development Scope of Testing Governance of Testing Strategic Alignment Development Competencies Testing Competencies Strategy-Execution Alignment3 Strategy-Execution Alignment • . DevelopmentProcesses Development Skills TestingProcesses Testing Skills Capabilities Alignment Development Architecture Testing architecture Development Capabilities Testing Capabilities

8. Organizational Context Time of Development Quality of Output Testing Competencies DTA Cost of Development Developer/Tester Dynamics Strategic alignment Capabilities alignmentStrategy-execution alignment - DevelopmentStrategy-execution alignment - Testing Methodologies Model for Development and Testing Alignment

9. DTA Antecedents

10. DTA Antecedents • Testing competencies – the experience and testing know-how available to the testers; specific characteristics of both the individual testers and of the overall testing function as exemplified by documentation, best practices, tools, etc. • Developer/tester dynamics – aspects of the relationship between developers and testers – communication, trust, credibility, power distance, personal relationships, shared domain knowledge, understanding – that promote a harmonious and cooperative interaction between the development and testing functions. • Methodologies – ways in which development and testing are being done.

11. Impacts of DTA • Time • Cost • Quality

12. Directional Hypotheses

13. Conclusion • A model for aligning the development and testing functions. • Strategic alignment concepts can be usefully applied within the context of the corporate IT unit. • A research model for investigating • The effects of such alignment in relation to decreasing the cost and the time needed to build new IT systems, as well as increasing the quality of the developed system. • Key antecedent variables for developer-tester alignment

14. Thank You!