Quality Assurance

The timely availability of accurate patient and administrative data has become increasingly critical to the operations of most health care providers. At iNTERFACEWARE, we are acutely aware that customers rely on us to provide reliable integration software that is well conceived, well monitored and supported, and of-course, as error free as possible. Given that many of our vendor customers are medical device manufacturers who are themselves regulated by the FDA and other agencies, we are both contractually and morally obligated to maintain the very highest levels of quality assurance. iNTERFACEWARE is proud of the fact that a number of vendors have audited and approved our QA processes.

The following is a high level summary of the processes and procedures we implement and follow. For more information in this regard, please contact support@interfaceware.com.

Design and Development

• All existing product functionality for Iguana and Chameleon is documented in functional specification documentation within our internal wiki.
• New functionality and current development work is documented and reviewed as a part of our development process. The documentation includes both functional specifications and R&D reports.
• The documentation is integrated with our internal systems, including ticketing and source control systems, giving us a detailed and traceable picture of the design and implementation of features. Audit trails (including dates, authors, and modifications) are all part of this integrated system.

Build System

• We use a continuous integration system for development. Builds are run automatically and at a minimum, twice daily for every platform we support. Unit tests are run as a part of every build.
• Build results are recorded in a detailed report and automatically distributed to all developers.
• Test failures are monitored for each build and are evaluated or corrected immediately.
• Failures, details of cause, prioritization, and fixes are documented and tracked using our internal ticketing and project management system.

QA Testing

• Our development process includes monitoring, maintaining, and enhancing the tests for each development change.
• Each change to our products is reviewed and tested.
• Failures, details of cause, prioritization, and fixes are documented and tracked using our internal ticketing and project management system.

Version and Release Management

• All source code and tests are kept in CVS, which is automatically backed up each night.
• Releases and associated tests are stamped with version tags, making it possible to rebuild, retest, and re-inspect every released product. This also insures testing and installation of correct elements. Released product versions are maintained on an internal server.
• Code freeze and regression testing is done prior to each release.
• Review and sign off of outstanding tickets is done before each release.
• Releases are performed following a detailed release procedure.

Traceability Analysis

• The traceability of product design specifications, testing, documentation, and support is achieved through our integrated internal systems and processes.
• Support issues are received via email and are archived. The emails can be retrieved via our archive search engine.
• Support issues are tracked using tickets that are linked to the emails and customer profiles in our Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).
• Where appropriate, support tickets may spawn an associated internal ticket for a fix and/or revised documentation related to the support issue.
• In the internal ticket, the following activities are documented:
• target release
• group leader review of issue
• developer fix
• CVS code changes associated with the ticket
• QA verification and test plan cross reference
• change log field that determines whether the technical writer will include this ticket in the release change log or not
• Each release of our products is shipped with a change log outlining the changes for each release.
• Functional specifications and test plans are maintained in the same system and are updated and cross referenced.

Development and Testing Platforms

• Development and testing platforms are built and refreshed with automated scripts to create consistent and identical platforms for development and testing.
• Test environments are set up and maintained for every platform we support.