Test Audit System for an International Testing Company
Business Problem:
A national testing service company required scheduled audits of its testing instruments. This involves reviewing each test to ensure that they meet established standards and guidelines. Two independent groups review the audits and provide separate ratings. For any part that does not have a satisfactory rating, an action plan must be developed which describes how the problem area will be brought into compliance.
The current process required files to manually be circulated and did not provide any control over who could edit which portions of the audit. In addition, the progress of the audit could not be monitored.
The company desired a workgroup collaboration solution that would initiate, control, facilitate, and monitor all aspects of the audit process.
Solution:
RESolutions Consulting developed a Lotus Notes Domino application for use by browser and Notes clients that allows audit information to be collected in a centralized location, signoffs to be made, draft reporting over the web, and automatic email reminders to be generated.
System functionality included:
- A centralized database for all audit activity
- Document locking based on the audit phase, role of the auditor and signoff status
- Draft reports that can be printed from the web
- Data export capability for enhanced report writing
- Event-driven automatic email notification
Return on Investment (ROI):
The following is a partial list of the ROI achieved by the international testing company:
- Tighter control and security over the audit process. All signoffs were managed electronically and test questions could not be accessed by those outside the audit team.
- Many of the users accessed the system from home and on a variety of platforms (e.g., MAC, PC, Sun). Special considerations were eliminated because the application supported browser and non-browser interfaces.
- The system was designed and implemented in less than 3 months at a cost of less than $75,000. This was significantly less time and money than originally budgeted.
