Research paper on frequent shopper program

Quality assurance plan

There is a need to ensure that the frequent shopper program meets the requirements of the system. The main intention of the system should be met. There are procedures that should be followed to ensure that the program has met the reasons it was developed. Quality is an important aspect of software development. One way in which software quality assurance can be met in the frequent shopper program is to test if the user requirements are met. The card should capture all the purchases and all the points should be captured. The card process should not take much time so that the card holders take long to be cleared in the line. The time that the client takes while the card is being read should be negligible. If the client takes more time on the queue than without the card, then it is one way of chasing away clients. The whole process should be seamless without having the clients realizing any lag time (Musa, 1997).
Another quality assurance procedure that can be undertaken is the privacy of the client. The program should not dispose the financial status of the client. The program should only indicate the points and no information about what the client bought. This is a perfect way of hiding client details. Security and privacy is an important component in quality assessment. This should be looked into when assessing the quality assurance process of the frequent shopper program.
Another way of assessing the quality of the program is to check on the initial requirements and check if these requirements were met. There should be concern if the initial requirements have been followed. There is the requirements specification document. This should be checked against the requirements specifications confirm if the new document follows these initial requirements.
Another way in which quality can be evaluated is to carry out a survey on how the shoppers perceive the program. They are the best people to tell if the program goes according to their expectations. It is important to understand the perception of the shoppers so that quality assessment can be undertaken.
The quality assurance should also be undertaken to check on the complexity of the program. The program should not be too complicated for the users. The program should be simple for the Kudler clerks who will be the ones feeding the names and details of the shoppers. They should find it easy to navigate through the program. The complexity of the program should be moderate. This is a test of how the program has followed quality requirements.

Testing procedures

It is important to understand the testing procedures of the program. Testing is done to eradicate any bug that may be present in the program. It is important to understand that bugs deprive the program of its optimal functionality. One way in which this can be done is during the process of developing the system. The testing will be adopted according to the stages in which the program has been undertaken. There are various stages of developing the program. These stages can be the phases where testing can be done. Since this is a web-based program, there is a need to test after implementation. There is need to have a pilot test where the program is done with few customers. During this period, all the issues are noted and corrected. This will be customers who are notified that there is a program that is being carried out. They will be aware of the delays and any technical problems they may be facing. Pilot testing is important for ironing out issues that are found in the program.
Another way to test the program is to be done is to have the technical staff test the different scenarios. It is important to understand the different scenarios that the program will be subjected. One of the scenarios is a case where the shopper has requested to redeem points at the same time. The program will be tested to see how the program will solve this issue. It should have the solutions to these problems. Another scenario is when a shopper has been given a registration ID which is already in existence. The shopper program should be able to come out of the problem by notifying the system that there is a duplicate ID in the system. The database should be able to give these triggers. In case a shopper moves out of the location and then comes back to the shop after, say, a year, there should be a way in which this is tested. These are the scenarios with which the frequent shopper program should be tested.
Testing should be undertaken before rolling out the frequent shopper program to newer territories. There should be a way in which the program is tested in larger settings. If there are not branches of the company, Kudler, there should be ways in which the network is introduced. There should be seamless upgrades (Beizer, 1984).
The program will also be tested to check how new technologies are introduced to the system. If there are new technologies, then the old technologies should be upgraded smoothly to the new technologies. There should be a smooth transitioning of the programs in the new technologies. With the development and trends that are seen in information technology, there will be new technologies. The testing will be done in such cases as upgrades and developments of additional programs. This will ensure that any upgrading will be undertaken in a smooth way.

Implementation

The program will be implemented systematically. One step is to have the network of Kudler prepared to accommodate the system. All the computers which will be connected to the program will be connected to the server which has the database. The connection and communication path of all these computers will be tested. The database will then be configured to store the details of the shoppers. The database should be in a position to be connected and served from all the computers in the network. After this has been done, the pilot testing will be done to look at the performance of the program. There will be training of the users on how to use the system. This is the staff working on the computers of Kudler. The program will be deployed incrementally. First deployment will be to capture the details of the shoppers. Then secondly will be to issue the cards. Lastly, the points will be awarded against the purchases they make. The implementation is not as complicated as when it would be a big system. The system is all about having a database record and award points to shoppers (Al-Mudimigh, Zairi, & Al-Mashari, 2001).

References

Beizer, B. (1984). Software system testing and quality assurance. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co..
Al-Mudimigh, A., Zairi, M., & Al-Mashari, M. (2001). ERP software implementation: an integrative framework. European Journal of Information Systems, 10(4), 216-226.
Musa, J. D. (1997, May). Software-reliability-engineered testing practice (tutorial). In Proceedings of the 19th international conference on Software engineering (pp. 628-629). ACM.