Last month I wrote an article in the Computable about the added value of evaluations over testing. I translated the article and posted it on this blog. A colleague of mine mailed me about it and about the use of the V-Model, Agile development and other things related to evaluations. He came up with the idea of a W-Model. At first I liked the idea with a W-Model. And I got some inspiration for this post. But after some research I found many different interpretations of the W-Model.

One of the different models I found was one of Valerio. Valerio is a Dutch company that has its own testing methodology, like TMap®. The testing method of Valerio is SmarTEST . I like the name! The W-Model in SmartTEST looks like this.

Tip: For a better look check out the website of SmartTEST (in Dutch).

The idea is to use increments to test the development. Design, Coding, Unit and Unit Integrations Tests are to be done in several increments to finalize. After this System Testing and Acceptance Testing is the safety net to check the result. But this model doesn’t support my idea of evaluations.

Another model is one by Andreas Spillner. A German professor at the Hochschule Bremen. He published his W-Model on Stickyminds.com. And this one looks like:

This looks more like it! Start the testing after requirements, but still not my idea.

Finally I found a W-Model by Paul Gerrard. It is based on the W-Model by Paul Herzlich from 1993. This W-Model focuses on the products by development and tests the product, like evaluations.

If I look all these different W-Models, the one I like the most is the W-Model by Herzlich/Gerrard. But to shed my light over it. Every different product generated in the development life cycle should be checked. This can be done by evaluations, analysis, checking, testing or control. So when I think about a W-Model it looks like this:

In this you evaluate the requirements, functional and technical design. The code is checked by a static analysis (tool). After development, system and acceptance tests and operations and management defects can be fixed during debugging and changing. This is how I see the W-Model. When going further to the next stage Quality Gates can be used. All the evaluations, static analysis and changing en debugging is on ongoing process.

1. admin Says:
   September 16th, 2009 at 06:39

   Good post

2. Ewald Roodenrijs Says:
   September 16th, 2009 at 06:59

   Ad addition: http://www.clarotesting.com/page11.htm

3. Marc Valkier Says:
   September 16th, 2009 at 08:17

   When you look in the web for more information on the “multiple V-model” you will probably find some similar models. Maybe that will provide even more inspiration…
   Good luck!

4. rob Henzen Says:
   October 19th, 2010 at 14:27

   A minor detail perhaps, but the Dutch company you’re referring to is “Valori”, not “Valerio”.

5. vipin Says:
   January 11th, 2011 at 11:38

   gr8 stuff
   thanks for sharing your knowledge
   http://soft-engineering.blogspot.com

6. Preethi Says:
   November 23rd, 2011 at 09:00

   Good post

7. Ewald Roodenrijs Says:
   January 19th, 2012 at 05:50

   Preethi,

   Thanks.

   -Ewald

8. Trackbacks Says:
   February 5th, 2012 at 21:35
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