Consider the following scenario for a video game development company: EA Games i
ID: 387796 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the following scenario for a video game development company:
EA Games is a video game development company. The creation of their video games require ideation, design and development before it is launched to public. This is called Post Production, which is also the most challenging part for EA Games. Due to an inefficient process and lack of communication between the developer, testers and Project managers, the “post-production” phase takes longer than usual to complete.
Post-production begins when the game is considered "feature complete" and all of the code has been written and art has been completed. This is when an alpha version of the game is created and is supplied to the game's test department to bang away at and find bugs and major flaws in the game that need to be changed whether by the artists or programmers. Every single bug regardless of how major or minor is documented and attempted to be fixed. There are 3 types of Bugs (in the order of severity)
Type A bug:This one is the most critical and has to be fixed immediately. When this is discovered, everyone in the team i.e. artists, programmers, or AI programmers are emailed. The entire testing process is halted until someone claims ownership of the bug and provides direction on whether to continue testing or to wait for a fix. Once the fix has been completed the new changes are released back to the testers and they must restart their testing.
Type B or C bug:the testing team documents the bug in a central location. Once all testing has been completed this document is sent to development and they determine which items to fix and when to re-release. Once the game is re-released, the testing cycle starts all over again, however, this is still within the 4-week timeline. If a major “A” bug is found, the testers have to report an A bug again and wait (See steps in A. above)
Typically, the test department is given 4 weeks to complete the testing. However, issues arrive when the test department finds a mission critical bug and cannot proceed with testing until the bug has been resolved. At such time, the testing team must completely redo all their testing because such a large change could potentially impact the entire game.
Once all the bugs have been fixed and tested a final version of the game is made by the testers and sent to the console maker to get tested and approved for release on the system in question.
Presently, management has no way to properly plan for the testing phase and they are unable to effectively track how many bugs were reported, by who, and the priority. Having this information would be helpful for planning purposes and would provide visibility into the current process.
Complete the following:
Business Process. Discuss theproblems and inefficiencies the testing process creates for the company.
Diagram the existing Post-Production Process. Using a diagramming tool (Visio, Lucidchart, PowerPoint) model the existing process.
Metrics. Identify 3 metrics that could be put in place to measure the impact of the existing process on operational efficiency.
Process Improvements.Discuss the changes that could be made to make the process more efficient and explain how an information system could support those changes.
Diagram the new Process.Diagram the new, improved process.
Explanation / Answer
Business process:- Whenever there is a problem detacted in the program, the testing team emails the "Bug decticted" to the concerned team. It seems there is no SLA for the artists, programmers to fix the bug and revert back to the testing to "restart" the process at the earliest.
There has to a business process, where the artist, programmers team and testing team have common responsiblities shared between the two teams. The new game development team must have a set of team with artists, programmers, teating member and console makers as part of the team, all reporting in to one supervisor/ manager.
2. POST - PRODUCTION PROCESS:
<==
===>>>
METRICS :- A) SLA for artists / programmers to develop a game.
B) SLA for the test team to re-start the testing within SLA in coordination with the artists/ programmers team.
C) Developing a new game would be the shared responsibility of all the three teams reporting to one manager / management.
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT :- The has to an daily update on " the progress report" and " the work to do today" format. This must be common and shared document with all teams. each member working on one game development would need to update the "report card" on a daily basis, so that all members and the management is aware on the progress of the game development. This system would involve all the team members and increase the exchange of thoughts for the smooth development of the games.
A morning "gate meeting" or any convenient time must be fixed, at regular interval (daily or alternate day) for all members to attend and update the other members about the progress of their work. The manager / management is thus involved and under his supervision, the work flow management is done as per the SLA.
THE NEW PROCESS:-
BUG DETECTED
<==== (BACK TO TEAM 1)
TESTING TEAM ==> (IF "OK" CONSOLE MAKER ==> (IF OK) APPROVAL FOR RELEASE ==> ARTIST/ DEVELOPER NOT OK, BACK TO ARTIST.SOLVES THE BUG & RESENDS TO TEST TEAM
<==
===>>>
TEST TEAM RESTARTS THE TEST.