MGMT7020 Chap.13 Technology Leadership, Testing and Contracting
Technology Leadership, Testing and Contracting
Testing, buying and leading
Week 10 covers technology leadership, test management, and technology selection and contracting.
This chapter explains test levels and the V-model, which pairs each design level with the test that checks it.
Suppliers and teams
It walks through selecting a supplier and choosing between fixed-price and time-and-materials contracts, and closes with leadership as network building, drawing on the readings on project networks and owner capabilities.
One theme across three topics
Testing, contracting and leadership share a theme: they are where accountability is tested in practice.
Exit criteria decide whether a system is ready, contract terms decide who bears which risk, and leadership decides whether problems surface early. In each case the owner, not the supplier or the test team, carries the final business decision.
Common errors on this topic
Students often describe testing as a single phase at the end, rather than a set of levels planned alongside design.
In contracting, a frequent slip is choosing a fixed price for uncertain work. In leadership questions, answers that describe personal qualities without any action on people, priorities or relationships tend to score poorly.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Unit, integration, system and acceptance testing
- 02
The V-model
- 03
Test plans and exit criteria
- 04
Technology selection steps
- 05
Fixed price versus time and materials
- 06
Relational capability with suppliers
- 07
Leadership as network building
Worked example · free
Set exit criteria for a go-live decision
- 1No open critical or high-severity defects, with workarounds agreed for any lower-severity ones.
- 1All user acceptance scenarios for billing, payments and notices passed by finance staff.
- 1A successful rehearsal of data migration and of rollback to the old system.
- 1The go-live decision sits with the project owner and steering committee, advised by the test manager.
Key terms
- User Acceptance Testing
- Testing in which the business confirms a system meets its needs before go-live.
- V-Model
- A testing model that pairs each design level with the test level that verifies it.
- Exit Criteria
- The conditions that must be met before a test phase is declared finished.
- Fixed-Price Contract
- A contract in which the supplier delivers agreed scope for an agreed price, bearing cost risk.
Technology Leadership, Testing and Contracting FAQ
What is the V-model in testing?
It pairs each design level with the test that checks it: unit tests with components, integration tests with detailed design, system tests with system design and acceptance tests with requirements. Tests are planned when the matching design is written.
When should a buyer choose time and materials over a fixed price?
When requirements are uncertain or likely to evolve. A fixed price on unclear work tends to be padded or disputed, while time and materials keeps flexibility, with the buyer carrying cost risk.
Can an organisation outsource accountability for results?
No. Zwikael and Meredith warn that contracts usually cover outputs only, so the buying organisation keeps accountability for the benefits the technology was bought to deliver.
What should a test plan contain?
Scope, approach, environments, test data, roles and exit criteria, the conditions under which testing is finished, such as no open critical defects. Defects are logged, prioritised, fixed and retested against those criteria.
How should technology suppliers be selected?
Define the need from the business case, package the work sensibly, invite proposals against published criteria, verify claims through demonstrations on your own scenarios and reference checks, then negotiate a contract type that fits the uncertainty.
What is relational capability in contracting?
The ability to build working relationships with suppliers alongside the formal contract. Winch and Leiringer note that owners choose a mix of formal control and trust within procurement rules, and good relationships surface problems earlier than contract reporting does.
Why is late testing costly?
Defects found late have already been built into designs and code that depend on them, so they take longer to fix. Dvir and Lechler cite a finding that 43% of defects in research and development projects were not found until after testing.
Exam move
Draw the V-model from memory, then practise choosing a contract type for three different requirement situations and justifying each in two sentences. Prepare one example of a go-live decision and say who should make it and on what evidence.
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