This afternoon I listened to the first two podcasts from a new site named QA Podcast. I will be forwarding their site to a few co-workers who often end up being hung out to dry in the QA cycle of their projects. Some of the basic rules of thumb cited in the podcasts can easily be cited to encourage a deeper commitment to QA in any organization. Two of the most useful numbers I found were that a QA cycle should cover 25% of a development cycle and that 1 to 1.5 % of code includes a bug. These stats should help bring the stat driven employees to the table.
Many times the amount of time to adequately QA a system is downgraded to a less important role. Having lived through full development cycles from beginning to end I can honestly say that QA is one of the three most critical parts of any product cycle. I find that the three most important parts are developing the products main competencies, finalizing design specification, and QA. I'm not saying that actually building a product isn't important, but, for most businesses the building process is already their core competency and doesn't need extra attention.
P.S. The upcoming episode I'm most looking forward to is "Testing Without Requirement Specifications".
I can across a well designed pitch for Google AdSence this afternoon. Not only does it put a human touch to the program it also incorporates shots of your site into the pitch. Overall the Google Adsence program has helped many small writers earn income from their content. This method of pitching the program is a much friendlier and interactive way to invite new members then a simple text based explanation. A link to the ad is provided below.
http://services.google.com/demo/adsense/start?