Executive Summary
Business catastrophes like major system outages,
botched software deployments can be tied to the lack
of effective software testing. The expanded complexity
and distribution of today’s systems brings a
higher likelihood of far-reaching and serious errors
– errors that tarnish reputations and impact
revenue. This has added a lot of stress on ensuring
quality of the applications, and the user's confidence
in them. Thus testing from being an unfocused, unskilled
and low priority process, has now become a strategic
phase of the application development cycle, bringing
a tremendous value-add to the business.
A growing trend among software companies is to focus
on developing software, while outsourcing its validation.
That is because outsourcing testing offers tangible
business benefits. Outsourcing testing offers a scalable
means for obtaining resources, expertise, and automated
tools that meet the cyclical demands of testing. Taking
it one step further is the concept of Offshore Outsourcing.
Outsourcing testing offshore offers the above benefits,
among them faster time to market, lower costs, access
to high-level testing talent without hiring hassles,
and more time to focus on core competencies.
This write-up is based on real experiences on projects
at many different client engagements across a wide
range of industries and company sizes. The paper outlines
a simple process to address the typical offshore issues
to help ensure success for your project.
QA Engagement Process for Offshore
Outsourcing:
Similar to an on-site project, the key to the effective
use of the offsite team is to begin the engagement
with a kickoff session to familiarize the project
manager and the primary offsite resources on the project
team with the defined high level processes. Spending
a few hours together initially going over the high
points of the processes and procedures, roles and
responsibilities, and communications expectations
for the engagement will establish the ground rules
and the foundation to commence the engagement.
The engagement process highlights
the following best practices:
A summary of high level Outsourcing Engagement process
flow with offshore touch-points is as follows:
On many projects it will be necessary to conduct
custom training specific to the application and to
outline the unique operating processes, procedures
and standards.
Reporting and Metrics
In order to measure performance of QA Outsourcing
it is essential to establish a baseline and collect
accurate metrics to compare against this baseline.
Existing QA performance data should be reviewed and
compared to determine performance of in-house and
Outsourced QA Testing.
Conclusion
Testing is recognized as a specialized functional
area within the development lifecycle that is critical
to business success. By virtue of its high skill focus,
non-limiting attributes and independent nature, it
lends itself as a prime candidate for offshore outsourcing.
Delivering successful offshore outsourcing projects
starts with taking a step back and establishing the
rules of engagement with the offshore team.
RFID solution in Reverse Logistics
RFID-based solutions have proven to help businesses
reduce costs, fine-tune inventory management, fortify
theft detection, and achieve new velocity with real-time
visibility into business processes across the supply
chain. The improvement seen in productivity and operational
efficiency dwarfs the gains seen during the Internet
era. But given the complexity of implementing this
technology, companies that don't move quickly will
wind up at a severe competitive disadvantage.
The following case study illustrates how the implementation
of a RFID solution in Reverse Logistics Division at
the retailer helped increase inventory visibility
while streamlining operations.
Business Problem
Job Out is the process used for the removal of out
of season or other discontinued merchandise from stores
through lot based sales to recover residual value.
Generally products of similar class are grouped into
lots for return by store. Currently, all Job Out products
are tracked and sold by the pallet level or larger
in the reverse supply chain. Product is palletized
at each store and labeled by Lot#, Store# and Pallet#.
Once it arrives at the DC it becomes available for
sale and is posted by Store#, class of contents (women’s
shoes, luggage, men’s casual, etc.) and pallet
count. Certain store and class combinations have more
residual value and sell more quickly. Since product
is returned after selling season whole lots tend to
remain in DC until just prior to the selling season
the following year. This storage period may be 2 –
6 months.
The current tracking and management system for the
on-hand inventory is completely manual and was time
consuming. It required several resources to locate
and track the inventory and movement.
RFID Business Goals
The retailer is renowned in the retail industry for
its adoption of technologies that track sales, manage
inventory and other such critical functions. Also,
over the last decade, the company has worked to integrate
all these systems across the enterprise to leverage
global economies of scale.
Yet, the retailer believed that it needed to go further
to ensure higher visibility in to other parts of the
company and further streamline its reverse logistics
operations. While it boasts some of the most innovative
technologies in the retail industry, the company looked
to Scintel for help implementing and managing its
ambitious IT and emerging technology initiatives.
Scintel in collaboration with Stratix Corporation
and Symbol Technologies Inc. (Motorola Inc.) helped
the retailer optimize operational performance at the
DC
RFID Goals:
1) On-hand inventory location tracking
2) Shipping order accuracy
3) Employee accountability (includes time/date)
4) Possible space management at the DC and workflow
improvements
5) Scalable to all DCs
RFID Solution
High-level description of the solution:
2 fixed RFID Portals for in/outbound pallets
3-6 handheld RFID terminals
RFID tags (Pre-encoded EPC)
RFID Printer
Windows Server
Handheld application software – Job Out Inventory
Management
SQL database
The solution comprised of installing passive RFID
tags at each discreet points to identify pallet bin
locations. The tags were suspended above the product
placed on the floor or on placards. The placards are
the free standing signs with heavy base. The sequence
of events comprised of the following:
Conclusion:
Competitors and suppliers who are just beginning
to look at this technology have a huge task in front
of them if they want to be fast followers behind the
leaders. RFID is not a simple plug-and-play technology.
A supplier can't simply slap a smart label—one
with an RFID tag embedded in it. Retailers are going
to have to figure out sensible solutions for hundreds
of products. And suppliers may have to follow different
compliance requirements for different retailers. Solutions
might include using a specific type of tag, placing
the tag in a precise location on the case and arranging
the cases in a special configuration on a pallet.
It is equally important to understand the Change
Management aspects of implementing a RFID solution.
We believe the changes wrought by RFID systems will
affect virtually everyone in the company—from
the forklift operator to the head of logistics—but
perhaps none more than those in the IT department.
The whole point of using RFID is to enable companies
to gather real-time data automatically. The challenge
will be to figure out ways to filter, use and share
that data.
Many questions remain about how RFID technology will
be deployed, such as what information will be shared
between the Retailer and its many suppliers, and how
companies will track goods with both bar codes and
RFID tags during the transition period. But the Retailers
are moving to deploy it at the pallet and case level,
even before all the answers are known, because the
technology has the capability to improve efficiency,
cut costs and boost sales.
For Further Details visit us at WWW.scintel.com
or mail us at info@scintel.com
