Developers are not the only people on a software development team. There are also people like project managers, business analysts, and UI and UX designers. But the scope of the project will determine who should be on a team. Some members of small and medium-sized projects often have to do a lot of things that should be done by different positions in large projects with a lot of work.
In small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the quality assurance process (PQA) is usually run by QC (Quality Control) managers or team leaders. However, in larger corporations, quality assurance specialists are hired to plan processes or standards for all project teams.
In the end, it doesn’t matter who does this job; quality assurance is still done the same way and is an important part of software development. This blog post from Designveloper will give you more information about what this term means and how it works.
Definition of Quality Assurance (QA)
Quality assurance (QA) is a process-driven activity that involves suggesting and carrying out procedures or standards based on available management models (like ISO 9000 or CMMI) or Agile frameworks (e.g. Lean and Scrum development). It uses a set of techniques and tools to look at the production process and make any changes that are needed to meet the quality requirements of the project and keep mistakes from happening. Because of this, QA is a preventive way to improve process quality.
Recommended reading: Agile vs Kanban vs Waterfall: Definition, Purpose, Disadvantages, and Perform
But a lot of people still get quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC), which are both parts of quality management, mixed up. Quality control (QC) is actually a process that is focused on the product. Both manual and automatic testing will be done on the finished product to make sure it meets engineering specifications before it is released. After testing, any flaws that are found will be fixed. So QC is also known as a way to make changes to improve the quality of a product.
Today, many companies make the mistake of putting the person in charge of quality assurance in charge of quality control, even though the skills needed for QA and QC are different. So, in order to avoid poor performance, product owners should know what each job entails. In particular, a QA engineer will plan the best ways to develop software for a project. This includes the Testing phase, where QC engineers will test products using different tools and the standards that are already in place. The first group will test how well the second group follows the process. If changes are needed, the results will be sent to the Project Manager. In the meantime, QC employees show the QC Lead or Manager the test results.
Recommended reading: UX Design Process: What You Need To Know
Process of Quality Assurance
To learn more about QA, we need to take a look at how it works. A quality assurance specialist will usually use the PDCA cycle or Deming wheel, which were both made by Edward W. Deming, to make sure quality. The process has four steps that happen over and over again:
Step 1: Plan
The first step in the quality assurance process is planning. Which is setting clear objectives and defining the scope of the project. With a well structured plan, there’s no confuse of the roles of all team members. According to the World Quality Report 2021, organizations are increasingly integrating quality assurance into their software delivery processes.
First off, analyze the requirements and create an effective plan. This implies knowing what the end product will accomplish as well as an estimation of the possible risks. Take Selenium or something similar, for instance: when learning how to write Selenium tests, a software development team would use it to speed up their testing process.
Then, write out the testing strategy. This involves choosing what types of tests will be employed, i.e. functional, performance, security … A Capgemini World Quality Report underlines the significance of agile and DevOps practices for improving quality of software solutions.
Then, allocate resources/time within the plan. Make sure that the team has what they need: tools and technology. Take for example cloud based QMS systems which can enable real time quality monitoring and control.
By following these steps, organizations can create a robust quality assurance plan that minimizes risks and ensures the delivery of high-quality products.
Step 2: Do
Once the requirements are analyzed, the next step in the quality assurance process is to do the testing. This involves several key activities:
- Design the Tests: The requirements are used to create detailed test cases. It should include these test cases which are supposed to test all possible scenario to cover as much as possible.
- Execute Tests: If you design your test cases, then just run your tests as per these test cases. Here, we have manual and automated testing to catch any defect or issue.
- Report Defects: Describe any defects that were found during testing. This information includes details about the defect, the procedure required to create it and the effect it has on the system.
- Re-Test and Regression Testing: Once the defects are fixed, retest the areas in which they occurred to verify that they were fixed. Regression testing checks to make sure that newly added code hasn’t messed with any existing features.
In case you want more information, you can go through the testsigma’s comprehensive guide of QA process.
Step 3: Check
In the quality assurance process, the “Check” phase is crucial for ensuring that the product meets the established standards and requirements. Product review and verification is this step in which massive scrutiny of the product takes place and any flaws and defects are noticed and need to be shored up.
According to the latest report from Gartner, 88% of service leaders believe their current quality assurance processes are ineffective and rarely match up to customer expectations. It is an indication that a vigorous ‘Check’ phase is necessary in the QA process.
For example, in a case of a software development company, they use automated testing tools like Selenium or Katalon to perform the regression tests and that new code changes don’t break any bug. This is a practical run through the “Check” phase.
Through close checking of the product, a company can make sure that the product is cleanly out without defects and days it to release, which eventually increases consumer satisfaction and reduces the cost of resolving product issues after release.
Step 4: Act or Adjust
In the quality assurance process, acting or adjusting is crucial to ensure continuous improvement. In this step, corrective actions taken as a result of the test findings of earlier testing stages.
New stats and info turn up the stats that 88% of service leaders think that their current QA processes do not work. It emphasizes a need for ongoing evaluation and adjustment. For instance, AI-powered testing is now being more integrated into the QA processes, making it easier and more efficient as well as more accurate.
When teams discover issues, they need to react immediately to solve them. For instance, if we find that a software bug exists, we will fix it as soon as possible to save the product from this bug. It provides reasonable control of quality and customer satisfaction without exerting pressure on the individual workers.
In addition to that, tracking progress and making informative decisions requires regular QA reports. These reports are a good over view of test efforts, outcomes and where the improvement can be found. Teams can learn to apply these reports to customize their strategies in a way to meet quality benchmarks.
Reviewing the process, acting or adjusting provides quick turn around on issues and continuous improvement with respect to maintaining high quality standards.
Recommended reading: 10 Best Practices in Software Project Management in 2022
Quality Assurance Methods
Some important tools and methods are often used in the QA process to make sure it works well:
1. Defining processes
Quality assurance (QA) is a systematic approach to ensuring that products and services meet specific requirements and standards. We start with defining clear quality objectives. These objectives guide the entire QA process and help assure that all steps follow the direction of the organization’s goals.
First step of QA is planning. At this stage, they define the metrics, set up quality standards and put together their QA strategy. These include defining clear quality benchmarks, regulatory compliance roles and customer expectations. Say a software development company sets a benchmark for their final product to have zero critical bugs.
In the next phase, organizations perform development such that quality standards and procedures are established. That means setting up standardized processes for product design, production, or delivery of service. For example, a car manufacturer could then set quality checkpoints at each stage of production to assure that each component adhered to certain established specifications.
The execution consists of inspection, audit and test at different stages of product or service delivery. Systematic checks are done to check product integrity, functionality and conforms to specifications by qualified QA personnel. Take for instance, a pharmaceutical company that tests processes very thoroughly to make sure that drugs are safe and effective.
Evaluation of process performance and collecting relevant data necessitates continuous monitoring. The phase includes analyzing some key metrics which indicate product quality, and trends. For example, a food processing company may measure the temperature and humidity of storage room to keep food from going bad.
If your organization does this, then it can guarantee that the products and services remain qualified constantly and that will raise your customer satisfaction and make your operational system more efficient.
2. Quality audit
A quality audit is an organized investigation of a company’s quality management system (QMS). It assures that the organization meets known standards and delineates points for improvement.
The latest report from Gartner revealed that 88 percent of service leaders believe their present QA processes aren’t effective. It shows that there should exist robust quality audits for bridging the gap between the actual service delivered and the customer expectation.
A leading software company, for instance, put in a good practice of performing regular quality audits, then they saw the defects came to be reduced by 30% within 6 months. Conducting thorough quality audits pays off in tangible benefits as shown in this example.
Organizations can do this by performing regular quality audits and developing processes that help them to ensure compliance, improves processes and delivers better quality products as well as services.
3. Tool/methodology selection
Getting the right tools is just as important. For building software, different projects will need different tools. Here are some of the most important ones for setting up the QA process well:
1. Cost of Quality (CQQ)
This term has nothing to do with how much a company should spend to make a good product. CQQ, on the other hand, is a method that talks about what they lost when they didn’t make good software. So, there are four types of costs for quality:
- External failure costs: occur when the software is delivered to customers. In this case, companies have to pay extra to deal with complaints and negative feedback.
- Internal failure costs are related to flaws discovered before the software delivery.
- Appraisal costs (or Inspection costs) arise when companies spend money on testing or auditing quality to ensure that products follow processes and standards.
- Prevention costs are associated with prevention activities that stop defects from appearing again.
Recommended reading: Software Development Costs: A Detailed Guide to Estimate Your Project
2. Control Charts
QA engineers often use control charts to see how a process is changing. They can then check how stable the process is by comparing the current results to data from the past. Also, it gives you a way to predict possible ranges of results and figure out if a project needs to make basic changes or avoid certain problems.
3. Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a very popular quality improvement tool that uses main performance metrics to discover the strengths and weaknesses of processes. It then compares current procedures with those of competitors or with historic data before QA experts suggest proper actions for bettering the quality.
4. Cost-Benefit Analysis
Simply put, this method uses the cost-benefit ratio to figure out whether or not a project is possible. If a company spends more than it makes, the money and time it puts into its employees will be wasted.
5. Cause and Effect Diagrams
This method, which is also called the “Fishbone” or “Ishikawa” diagram, requires people to come up with ideas in order to list all of the possible problems’ causes.
6. Design of Experiments
This method helps technicians see the connections between the things they put in and the things they want to get out, or which things have a big effect on the things they get out. So, the right steps will be taken to improve the end products.
Recommended reading: 18 Software Project Management Methodologies for Software Development
Conclusion
In conclusion, quality assurance is a critical component of successful software development. Companies like us at Designveloper understand that by integrating the latest trends and technologies like AI and machine learning, they can provide their clients with top tier services. With a proven track record in delivering high quality projects from over 50 projects done since 2013, Designveloper continues to aim for excellence. Embracing innovative approaches and maintaining a customer-centric focus, we continue to set the standard for quality assurance in the industry.
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