Consider the following scenario for a video game development company: EA Games i

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 featuresw 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 games 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.

1.Discuss the problems and inefficiencies the testing process creates for the
company.

2.Discuss the changes that could be made to make the process more
efficient and explain how an information system could support those changes.

Explanation / Answer

1

TESTING PROCESS IS A CRUCIAL PART IN GAME DEVELOPMENT. AS IT GIVES OVERVIEW OF THE PROBLEM AND MODIFICATION THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IN ORDER TO MAKE A GAME MORE EFFECTIVE, ENJOYABLE, ERROR FREE AND PRODUCTIVE. BUT THE PROBLEM ARISES WHEN THE TEST DEPARTMENT FINDS A CRITICAL BUG AND CANNOT PROCEED FURTHER UNTIL IT HAS BEEN FIXED. THIS CHANGE COULD POTENTIALLY IMPACT THE ENTIRE GAME AND THE TESTING TEAM HAS TO COMPLETELY REDO ALL THEIR TESTING WHICH RESULTS IN EXTENSION IN THE RELEASE DATE AND ADDS TO THE PRODUCTION COST.

2

IN ORDER TO MAKE THE PROCESS MORE EFFICIENT AND PRODUCTIVE I WOULD LIKE EA GAMES TO CHANGE

AN INFORMATION SYSTEM IS A SYSTEMATIC AND AN ORGANISED WAY THAT WILL DEFINITELY HELP EA SPORTS TO ORGANIZE AND ANALYZE THE DATA IN A BETTER WAY. IT WILL MAKE THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS MORE EFFECTIVE AND WILL PROVES TO BE A BOON FOR THE COMPANY. THUS, REDUCING THE COST AND SAVING TIME .

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